Pages

Friday 3 February 2012

Social media ducking & diving.


Another thought for the budding restaurateur…..before you turn your back on a day like this one in the hills of Scotland, fishing a Highland stream for wild brown trout to start a restaurant....

I know it sounds straight forward and in theory it is.  Find a room, cook some lovely food and serve it to a customer with a smile. Sadly it is shark infested custard these days on all fronts. And the latest challenge is social media.

When we started Howies all those years ago – 1990 there were barely computers let alone Websites, Trip Advisor, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. We were line free, straight backed and clear headed. Well most of the time.

Admittedly we sold up 5 years ago it was all there but not as ingrained in the publics consciousness as it is now so we are currently attempting to step up to the plate. Well we are a restaurant so plates are quite the thing for us in a more traditional way. This plate is altogether more challenging.

Anyway after many emails and explanations and general gibbering Trip Advisor I hope is now updating to explain our rather unique situation. Yes it is under new ownership -us. But it was us that started is. Then sold it. Then bought it back 5 years later. Confused? Yes me too.

The thing is it’s imperative to persevere as Trip Advisor is a tremendously powerful tool and looking at Howies reviews they are a mixed bag. Also they are before we took over, so I am trying to get all reviews prior to January 1st 2012 taken down.
So our challenge is to explain to those using Trip Advisor that we are now back in charge as of NOW and to disregard bad ones, old ones, ones prior to this year.
But that is hard.
Trip Advisor have been helpful but I expect they are inundated with similar requests on a daily basis.



In order to prove ownership the only thing they don’t required is our DNA string.
Now at least we are noted as being the owners and I hope in time the recent great reviews will overshadow and outdate the old bad ones.
As you can see from this wee widget - call me IT guru!! Things are looking up up up !

1 comment:

  1. Fishing in the Scottish highlands is really amazing and adventurous. It is a great opportunity to spend an exciting holiday and some quality time with your family.

    ReplyDelete