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Please read this original blog post regarding my experience at The Melting Pot in Westwood, NJ, before reading this continuation of the story.
We start with tweets.
In which I share my unfortunate experience at @themeltingpot & the following twitter disappointment. http://t.co/TiJQHpi9fK
— Jamie Sanford (@jamiesanford) August 8, 2013
@jamiesanford Jamie, we do care about your experience & apologize for the lack of follow up. We certainly face negative feedback head on…
— The Melting Pot (@TheMeltingPot) August 8, 2013
@jamiesanford If you could email details of your experience and a phone # where we may reach you to guestcare@meltingpot.com, we’ll address!
— The Melting Pot (@TheMeltingPot) August 8, 2013
So, this was the exchange between myself and a member of the staff at The Melting Pot’s corporate headquarters. It was their corporate Twitter that I had originally connected with, and who had missed my first tweet where I expressed displeasure at our experience.
I did receive 2 phone calls from the GM of the local franchise after this email exchange. Before I spoke to her, I received this email from someone else at the corporate Melting Pot HQ.
So, it was definitely nice to hear back from the corporate types. Handling this sort of customer interaction myself, I do know that it’s hard to keep up with all of the tweets. (I highly recommend TweetDeck for not missing anything on Twitter.)
After this email, I spoke to the local GM, who also apologized for my experience. I reiterated points from my blog post, made it clear that I am a fan, but that this night was just not impressive. We had a nice chat, she was very apologetic, and told me that I will in the future have a booth guarantee, and that I will get some free chocolate on my next visit. This tweet followed:
@jamiesanford – Glad we were able to connect. We look forward to providing you with a dining experience that exceeds your expectations. 🙂
— Melting Pot Metro NY (@MPMetroNYWWD) August 15, 2013
That Twitter handle is unfortunate, since there are multiple Melting Pots in the New York metropolitan region, and this choice of NYWWD at the end is confusing. If I were handling this, I would probably go ahead and make Twitter accounts for each individual location, OR I would be more forthcoming in each physical location about the Twitter handle of the franchise. Since the corporate Twitter account reached out to me initially, I didn’t even check for a local Twitter account.
I’m glad that The Melting Pot responded quickly to the error of missing my original tweet. I’m not completely understanding what happened to my evening, but it seems that it was a perfect storm of things like unfortunate table placement and a server with second-day jitters. I’m sure I will go back to the Melting Pot, but I am not completely cured of being worried. Only time, and my next visit, will tell.
