Yelp

Fidel Gastro had an interesting experience the other week. After commenting on a Foobooz post, Senor Gastro received a phone call from a restaurant employee urging him to contact the employee personally before making a comment in a public forum. While we admire the employee’s resourcefulness in acquiring a recently changed cell phone number, we wonder if that didn’t step over some invisible line. Sites like Yelp offer tools for business owners to respond to reviews and even offer tips on how to do so constructively. But a phone call just seems overly forward. And more than a little bit stalker-y.

We can certainly see the benefit of reaching out to a disgruntled customer after the fact to try and fix the situation or correct any misconceptions. But if you get yelled at by a bartender, can an email from a manager truly change an experience from one-star to a four-stars?

So we have some questions:

• Have you ever been contacted by a business owner over an online comment?
• Did the contact affect you positively or negatively?

Check out Fidel’s answer to the employee in question (linked below, and totally worth the read) and then let us know what you think in the comments.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Happy Hour [Fidel Gastro]