Six Januarys ago, I ate at Le Kliff, an open-air seaside restaurant outside of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
About 20 of us were there; I brought my whole company down for our annual strategic planning retreat.
As we concluded a long and convivial meal, our waiter handed me the bill and said:
"I hope you had a marvelous evening here at Le Kliff, and that you will join us again soon. However, not in the summer.
Because, as you can see, we have no walls. In summer, we must close, due to high temperatures.
Our owner, Hector, that is him there, by the bar, does not pay us for these summer months, because of course we are not open.
But, for every 5-star review on TripAdvisor that mentions my name, Javier, he gives me 200 pesos and that is how I pay for things during the summer.
So if you had an excellent evening, would you please consider writing such a review? Here is a business card that shows the link to our page on TripAdvisor, and my name is written there, it is Javier."
Considering I wrote a book about feedback called Hug Your Haters (makes a great keynote speech too!) Javier was barking up the
perfect tree. I think he got about 14 reviews that same night.
Contrast this with the nameless, faceless emails and texts
that are typically fired out automatically. Which are you more likely to embrace?
Note: I don't at all think you need to tie
financial rewards to make this work. If Javier would have said, "my boss carefully reads every review from our diners, and he does so immediately, so if you would please consider writing an honest review before your next meal in the morning, we would really appreciate it" it likely would have yielded strong participation.
What do you think? Can you try this in your business?
