The internet has empowered the consumer like nothing before … and this change is still in it’s infancy.

Going forward you cannot hide poor service behind a sexy brand, or bad practices behind clever marketing.

When you multiply bad service by the power of word of mouth via the Internet, ideas that seem good on paper (usually to non customer facing personnel), can often turn into disasters.

Imagine a restaurant that has a lovely menu and sensible prices, but charges extra for water, bread, vegetables, service etc. The Accountant may look at this as pure profit, as it is additional revenue from customers who are already there, but very soon the bogs will start saying things like:

Ø  Nice menu, but they try and squeeze you for any extra possible

Ø  Best to stay away

And overnight this great idea has turned into a business failure.