Anyone who knows me or has read more than one post here knows I love The Pit whole hog barbecue in Raleigh. I have been a fan since 2009 when I was so impressed that I even wrote up how The Pit was doing social media right. I became friends with Eric Harris who was a the manager there and also the brains and the energy behind their awesome Twitter presence.
Eric understood the power of the new social networks and how he could leverage them to help his business. He understood the most crucial aspect of Twitter and Foursquare – that he was talking to real live people. Eric never lost sight of the goals of every social media campaign – bring in more business, make existing customers more loyal and organically spread good will that reflects back on your business.
I ran into Eric a couple of weeks ago and he told me he was moving over to manage The Raleigh Times. I didn’t think to much of it until today.
Last night I tweeted at The Pit’s Twitter account asking if they could hold a table for me at lunch today. As usual I heard back from the account that it was taken care of. I assumed that Eric was still handling the social media for The Pit.
I didn’t really think anything else about it after that. I was confident that my favorite restaurant would have a table for me at lunch.
Then something happened this morning that was totally unexpected and caught me by surprise. At about 9am I received another reply from The Pit but this one had a very different feel to it. I immediately knew it wasn’t Eric. It must be whoever took over the day-to-day Twitter responsibility for The Pit.
So what was so shocking to me? What was so terrible that it caused me to sit down and write this post?
The response was lame.
The response wasn’t bad or mean or inappropriate. It was just lame.
Because I have always been a huge fan of The Pit’s social media prowess it killed me to see them slip down to the level of “not awesome”. The reason I think the response was lame is because it was written from the perspective of “how can we direct this potential customer so that he conforms to how we need things done” rather than “how can we help”. In addition, the link provided was wrong. It should have been a link to the reservation service through Open Table.
I think people who don’t have a passion for social media think it’s easy. Great social media is not easy. It’s hard work.
The reason I love The Pit is because Eric Harris and everyone there always made me feel like I was special. They have a passion for customer service which came through loud and clear through Twitter.
I still love The Pit. It is still my go-to restaurant when someone comes to visit from up north. It’s still the place I always suggest for a big party type of event.
I hope Eric takes some time to explain not just the tactics of Twitter to the new person, but the goals and strategy that made me their biggest fan.
Wow. Bummer to read this from their most notable fan. I hope they can pull it together, too…
I actually have no doubt that they will.
Full disclosure tight off the bat: The Pit is a client (we designed the new website), but we have nothing to do with their Twitter account.
That out of the way, I can both see where you’re going with the line of thinking and I also think it’s a bit of an over-reaction. You asked via a social media channel for a reservation and got it — quickly. That’s pretty cool. It shows a great grasp of one of the things that social media is all about: meeting your customers (brand evangelists) on their turf of choice. They also took the opportunity to celebrate their new website in a way that, to many, could be viewed as trying to help that customer and others see that there are even more ways to engage. That’s one of the other things that social media is all about: information and marketing thrgh relevance.
Now, Eric Harris does have a great grasp of social media. I’m looking forward to seeing how he continues to extend that presence of The Raleigh Times — another great downtown Raleigh establishment where social media is a perfect option to naturally extend the vibe at the venue. And I hope he helps along the new Twitter personality of The Pit. But, to me, I don’t know that the tweet in question signals a loss of social media mojo.
Thanks for starting the conversation!
@johnvlane
I agree John that the first response was what I have come to expect from The Pit, and as usual we had a fantastic lunch and experience while there. My frowny face is only really attached to the later response tweet.
I’ll admit that I choose the title for this post (and my tweet pointing at it) to maximize desires to click, I think the question is still valid. I think it’s also much bigger than just one restaurant. Can any brand slip when one person on a social media team leaves?
Thanks for the reply, Phil.
I guess it’s a matter of perception. It seems you read an implied “we don’t want to help you over Twitter anymore, go here to get your reservations.” I read an implied “you can also go here to get reservations as well” at the beginning… giving you more ways to get what you needed when you needed it. Honestly, I think that latter version matches more closely to what we all know The Pit to be. And that’s why I think this is a bit of mountain from molehill.
Now to your other point (and Tom’s, too) – I think having a plan in place and identifying the next internal social media evangelist prior to one leaving is extremely important. A post on things to keep in mind or how to set up that transition would be a good one.
Thanks again.
@johnvlane
Your scenario also raises the whole issue of social media succession. What happens when the rock star leaves?
Another slant: does Phil have unreasonable expectations for customer service? We’ve all seen posts about social media divas who think companies should hang on their every last tweet. Is it reasonable? And no, Phil, I’m not calling you a diva, yet.;-) Given your past experience your expectations are reasonable. Restaurants never treat all customers the same, at least the smart ones don’t. I used to manage restaurants in a long ago life so you’ve wandered into one of my areas. If they were smart, you’re in their database or wherever they capture VIP customer info. Taking a res via Twitter doesn’t require any more work than taking it over the phone, and even if it did, I still think someone has to wake up and realize that regular customers are precious assets, standard procedure can be put on hold for them, if warranted.
Do they still monitor or listen on the web? Please let us know if you hear of any follow up. This is a lesson well worth sharing with other restaurants and restaurant consultants.
I’ll admit that I have grown to have expectations in line with the level of service I have always experienced from The Pit. The same way I have different expectations from Nordstroms and Walmart – yet I happily shop at both retailers.
The problem is that Eric has set the bar so high, their only choice is to stay at the very top. Any slippage at all will mean that divas and pseudo divas will notice right away.
Which is more important for hospitality type busines, great social media or great food, service, atmosphere? I think the latter is what most important. However if you are going to use social network channels, you have to decide on the level of effort and quality that the company will devote. I think the other challenge that I see in your case study is having multiple people managing a corporate account. My guess is that your Day 2 not so awesome tweet was the next shift manager unaware of prior day’s conversation. Also does this new person know that @1918 = Buckley 12:15 reservation? Don’t expect everyone at The Pit or any other restaurant to be as awesome as Eric.
I disagree with your first premise. I bet you can think of some places where the reputation lasts long past the time when it should.
For example, I don’t care that Ed Mitchell is no longer the pitmaster, because I never went there for Ed. I went there because everyone I ever talked to there was helpful, happy and willing to go the extra mile. Honestly, it wouldn’t matter to me if The Pit started selling Mexican food – for me, it’s the people and the experience.
I agree completely with your last statement. Shift changes are a challenge and Eric is in a class all alone.
Thrilled that you addressed Ed Mitchell leaving The Pit. I wondered what effect that may have on you, if any. 🙂
So your second paragraph proves my point that you disagree with. The service and friendliness is what you like,not their social media activity. If The Pit did sell Mexican food you would have a brand promise problem for anyone that had not eaten there before. Remember that over 300+ people may enter that restaurant every night with a large portion of them being new customers. Service, food, atmosphere living up to customers expectations are what makes restaurants and other hospitality businesses.
I have to admit, when I read your post last night I did think it was a bit diva-ish. However, in your comments above, you did raise an point that I hadn’t thought about at first glance: Can any brand slip when one person on a social media team leaves?
This is something we talked about at my company a few months after I was hired. I had ramped up our presence, creating a noticeable buzz and a couple comments from key partners that had said they were impresseed with what we had done and excited to engage with us more down the road. Great for me, however the point was raised that they wanted to make sure this was sustained over time in case I was to leave or my position had changed. From Day 1, I had sought out other social media enthusiasts inside the company, and engaged them not only in my ideas for how we can increase our presence, but also encouraged them to share input and engage in these processes as well. Now, I wasn’t the only brand evangelist, and I had a team built from scratch that was eager to share their passion for our company, and our industry, as well.
Long an short, I guess it’s possible, but I think with solid planning and shared interest it can be avoided. I also think that The Pit could be an exception, given that the recent changes there are much bigger than Eric Harris.
Sorry for the long rambling comment, just wanted to share my experience and thoughts. Oh, and more importantly, I no longer consider this to be a diva post at all! 😉
Thanks for the thoughtful comment Tom. I realize that I am right on the diva edge here. I expect a lot from The Pit, mostly because they’ve trained me to expect to be treated like a big shot.
Like I explained to Brian above, the changes back at the grill play almost no part in this particular incident, but I see what you mean that sometimes a few small things can combine into a perfect storm.
I have no doubt at all that all of this will get handled by the super smart guys at Empire Eats. They run a bunch or great local places and that’s not an easy thing to do.
Over the past two days of following this blog post I can truly say, and I speak for myself as well as the whole of The Pit management team, that we have found this discussion most enlightening. We are in fact going through changes concerning our social media management and this has been a wonderful catalyst to elevate us to the next level.
As always we will be standing by to take reservations by Twitter if that is our guests preferred method of communication. However, we would also like to inform our guests of all available means by which they can interact with The Pit. Whether this be our Website, Facebook, Open Table, Telephone, or in person, we truly strive to interact with our guests as genuinely and effectively as possible.
I would once again like to take the opportunity to thank all involved for their insights into excellent social media usage. We are listening and appreciate the chance to grow.
Thanks for stopping by Eddie. I really appreciate you showing up.
I hope the conversation that got started was “how can we make sure that our level of awesomeness never slips”. If I can be of any help in any of those conversations let me know.
I get scolded by my friends for 2 things on a regular basis: 1. I always suggest The Pit as a meeting place. 2. I expect too much when I actually get there. The truth is, they’re right on both charges. I’ve been treated so well at your place, why would I consider eating anywhere else? Okay, maybe Raleigh Times but at least I’m keeping it in the family 😉
Phil, I hate to break it to you, but this is just a case of getting spoiled. You had a personal relationship with the individual who ran the Pit’s twitter account, and as a result you were treated like a VIP. That person then left and the new person, not familiar with your previous VIP status, did as any new person would do, direct you to preferred method for reservations.
I think the larger point here is that when a brand (or restaurant) has a social media person that is awesome and knows their customers, and that person happens to move on; it is important to train the new person to operate at a similar level or at least give them time to get up to speed.
I’m much more concerned that the Pit maintain it’s excellent reputation for food given the recent changeover in pitmasters. Looks like I’ll have to go down there soon and make sure!
@aburtch
You are dead right. The Pit has spoiled me.
But here’s a secret, they also spoiled Jeremy Smith, Wayne Sutton, Morgan Siem, Ryan Boyles and about a dozen others. Anyone who showed love for them was loved back. That’s exactly how the social media text book says you do it. The Pit did that in spades for a long time.
I’ll show you when we run over for lunch some day next week 🙂
I was going to offer a contrary opinion with a dash of snark, but changed my mind. Yay me!
Awww, I always look forward to contrary opinions. How about if I double-dawg dare you!
Seriously, great comments. That said, I certainly want to say you are so right. That Twitter response you got the next morning… lame. Incredibly lame. As if they had been brewing about it overnight and wanted to somehow redirect you into learning a lesson. And a broken/wrong link on top of it? Lame.
Great post, great conversation, and great look into ALL that The Pit is taking on in change right now. We Raleighites all have big hopes and expectations for them maintaining the standards they have created for both amazing food and amazing customer experience.
Thanks Ashley Sue, I knew there would be at least one person out there who would side with me 🙂
Read this post and convo last night while watching the Mavericks defeat the Heat. Since I was preoccupied with such an important game as that (just go with it, folks. It was important to me anyway), I didn’t want to take the time to add my two cents. Now, that I’ve digested the win (pun intended) and the convo here, these are my thoughts.
Phil, honey, I have the utmost respect for you and your social media prowess. I totally get where you were going with this post because for me social media, customer service, AND good food are one in the same. It’s kind of like a delicious Banana Split. It can’t be delicious if the chocolate and strawberry sauce are missing. Then, what is it – a Banana Almost Split? OK, probably not the best analogy but I know you feel me.
Today, the concept of marketing is no longer JUST the traditional. We all know that. AND you can no longer reach your customers by “what you’ve always done” because perhaps your customers aren’t there any more. Perhaps, they can best be reached by their Facebook inbox, a text message, or yes, even a Tweet. Businesses need to adapt their marketing efforts to reflect that. This approach is very similar to that of learners. When we teach we teach for the learner, those that are Auditory, Visual, or Kinesthetic. You have to reach your learners the way that works best for them; not best for you. Former teacher here, go with that too.
Bottom line, if there’s anything this post and corresponding convo has taught us, it’s that (a) reach your customers where they are to provide the BEST in customer service and satisfaction you can and (b) have a social media plan in place for when your “rockstars” leave the stage so that you can continue with the BEST in customer service so that it CAN reach the satisfaction level it should.
I applaud you, Phil, for bringing this issue to the forefront for the folks at The Pit. I also have no doubt they’ll learn from this as well, rectify any issues within their marketing communication systems, and be right back up there providing the best in customer service coupled with their delectable dishes.
There you go – my two cents. Lots of analogies too. Just call me an analogy-loving fool! 🙂
Thanks Lisa!
Hi Phil,
You have a really great looking site here. Congrats on the design.
I found you through a comment you left on another blog and just wanted to say. Good luck with all of your blogging goals!
Joseph