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As editor for Whine & Dine, I frequently interact with restaurant owners and managers. When confronted with a letter critical of their business, most jump at the opportunity to respond.
My counsel to them is that less is more. Say you’re sorry and pledge to do better. Playing point/counterpoint often makes the management look defensive and can be off-putting.
Or just plain entertaining.
Take Alex M., the owner of Cafe Luxor Hookah Bar & Grill on Washington Ave. While I haven’t received any letters -- raves or rants -- about Cafe Luxor, I have enjoyed Alex M.’s defense of his business on Yelp.
Take for example these rebuttals:
Dear Jennifer, you know very well that you have never been to our restaurant to be able to judge us for our service or food or to give proper feedback, you mentioned your self that you have NEVER been our customer that night, I remember you very well with your white Jeep and we were not yelling at you although you were using maximum profanity.
"There is no guaranteed formula for success but the only sure formula for failure is to try to please everyone so we have focused on the majority of our guest's needs rather than a few handful of guests requests and demands that would jeopardize the quality of our service and products."
"In addition we DO NOT have any sausage of any kind on our menu! we have "soosis" which is a special Persian/Armenian product which looks just like hotdog but it is specially spiced gourmet meat/hot dog without any byproducts in it and that is what come on our Pizzas, I guess I wanted us to be different and sometimes we get caught in the clash of cultures, LOL"
Alex M. is a repeat defender on the Yelp, where comments range from “STAY AWAY!!!” to “BE WARNED........EAT BEFORE YOU GET THERE!”
And if you’ve got an extra few minutes, be sure to check out the filtered comments.
Got a favorite Yelp thread? Share it in the comments.
You've forgot the mention the profiles of the clearly fake 5 star reviews on the filtered page, one of which reviewed 2 other Hookah bars, proclaiming them 1 star and slandering both of them... I wonder who did that?
Dear "Anonymous" I don't know if you have had a chance to visit Cafe Luxor and then the other Hookah bars in town, if you would have then you would clearly know why someone would "proclaim" them as 1 Star and our establishment as 5 Star, I HAVE NOT nor will I give my self a fake 5 stars on Yelp, that would be insane, my rating does not change with a couple of fake reviews so why waste the time and more importantly that would be dishonest!!! Yelp is already inaccurate with their ratings since they have no direct control on who makes what claim without any authentication and they have no control over their cookie cutter method filtering so one or a couple of fake ratings made by any business owner will not change anything!!! To ensure that I have one of the best fun spots in town I spend my time listening to my real-time (not pretend) guests, make improvements to our establishment, add new entertainment and improve the menu and respond to people like your self so I will have a voice just as you do, do you truly think there will be any time left for me to go through the trouble of setting up fake accounts and give my self fake reviews that would get filtered anyway??? Visit a few Hookah Bars in town and then come visit us and judge for your self if you relay want to have a valued voice! Hope to see you soon and be sure to ask for me and I will be glad to give you a tour of any part of the establishment as you wish and then request the same from other hookah bars and give us your opinion at that time ;)
I know that Alex M. tells his employees and their friends to make fake yelp accounts, sometimes forcing them to put good reviews on yelp so he can have his 5 star. I heard it from his own employees, plus I really dont know why people still go to this place it smells like sewer and the hookahs taste like charcoal, its funny how he mentioned other hookah bars; you should really pay them a visit and compare them to luxor (Suxor) and you will immediately notice the quality of food, hookah, AND SPECIALLY soft drinks.
Dear Syd,
Thank you for the article, I am pleased to see that you were interested in our establishment.
I have tried to create a new concept in the restaurant / entertainment , we are different than your average restaurant or even average bar or hookah lounge, we are (or very soon will be) 4 businesses in one…a one stop fun source if you will, we are certainly a HOOKAH lounge but we are the first and as of right now the only Hookah SPORTS lounge in Houston (which is a new concept), we will also be the first and only Hookah lounge that will be serving a full bar very soon (as soon as our liquor license comes in). In addition to that we are a restaurant serving international food including American food. Once the liquor license arrives we will also be a dance/night club inside while we remain a restaurant/Café and hookah lounge on the patio. We are currently the only HOOKAH SPORTS BAR that also has KARAOKE every Wednesdays and Belly, fire, sword and snake dancing every Thursday AND we are working on adding more entertainment services for every night of the week such as Live bands, “open mic” Nights for both new music talents and stand-up comedy talents, trivia night, etc.
We have many more plans in works for this place so there is something here for everyone very soon.
So having said all of that why should our handling of our customer reviews not be any different everyone else? We are not abusive with our prices and we do not give bad service, we only serve fresh high quality food products and we are serving the highest quality premium tobacco products but our prices are the same if not more competitive than the facilities that provide lower quality products BUT we are not here to be abused by a few hard to please people either, I am a firm believer of “Fanatical Customer service” however that does not mean we should allow anyone to abuse us or to take advantage of our customer service.
Most of the Yelp reviews so far has been from people who have not been to our facility and have never tried our food or other products but they are from ex-employees, competition, and several people that had parked illegally in our parking lot taking up our customers parking while enjoying themselves in another establishment and they were towed by our contracted tow company since they were not present in our restaurant after a parking lot audit.
Yelp is a great source for finding new establishments and businesses however it is unfortunate that Yelp also allows a one sided review “judgment” so some people have learned to abuse that and I guess that is only human nature of some handful of individuals. Anyone can say anything they want about a business for any reason they like on Yelp, they can be untruthful, they can be anyone claiming to be a guest of your establishment when they are not…I think you get the picture.
I am a very hands-on owner, I remember my customers and I am involved in most if not all of the incidents in my establishment so it is difficult to sit by and let anyone claim anything on our Yelp page, ALTHOUGH if it is a legitimate and truthful review I would do everything in my power to bring that guest back and make them happy if they are unhappy.
A lot of our positive reviews are being filtered by Yelp and after contacting them I found out that since we have FREE WiFi and we use the same internet access to log-on to our Yelp if our guests use our WiFi to leave their reviews it will be filtered since they are using the same IP address as our log-on IP, there is apparently nothing they can do about it since they have no control over individual case filtering, anyone can contact Yelp and verify this fact! I have promised FREE WiFi to my guests so I am not willing to sacrifice my promise due to a shortcoming by Yelp.
Having said all of that, MOST happy clients never make an effort to voice their happiness by taking an extra step unless an opportunity conveniently presents itself for example in a conversation with others ….but to go through the trouble to log-on to a website to leave a comment?? Well, that only happens rarely and once in a while.
We have been open for 3 months and our records show that we have served in access of 11,000 guests so far, our sales have been increasing every month in comparison to the previous month, Yelp shows 12 reviews and out of which 7 shows as a “1 star” and out of those only 3 of them are real time customers and were not people who claim to have been guest with hidden agendas, considering these real time numbers I would say we are doing excellent.
I urge everyone to come to Café Luxor, Hookah Bar & Grill and try us out and ask for me and give us valuable authentic feedback, this place is about people and our guests and we do take their feedback seriously and will implicate them if possible in our operation so they feel at home on their next visit.
tl;dr
OMG
In my search of the internet to see what people/our guests are saying about us, I have found that many people with their clear identities (non-anonymous) make local postings and give reviews in a site called "Foursquare"
https://foursquare.com/v/cafe-luxor/5036f8f5e4b05b4c79dce66a
I urge your readers to also visit this page to see what our true guests are really saying about us and our establishment.
Thank you
Jesus, Alex.
Try too hard much?
I've never been to Cafe Luxor, and have no opinion on it.
However, I'd never go after reading your responses because, quite frankly, you seem like a douche.
Well said Sean...
I agree.
say what you want...I've never be there and NOW I want to go try it just to see what all the fuss is about! hahaha For an establishment that's only been in business for 3 months, i would expect mixed reviews of some sort...takes a while to get regular customers when you're new.
To Alex M. - crangrats on the new business venture! It takes a lot of courage and determination to start a new business...and a lot of risks. Don't focus too much on Yelp...I read their comments but I've never actually NOT gone to a restaurant just because of the Yelp reviews.
Thank you Sheila for being so open minded, understanding and supportive and thank you for your feedback and advice, you are absolutely correct I should not focus too much on Yelp :)
When you do come in please ask for me so I will get to visit with you although I try to personally visit every table and get feedback from my guests sometimes in the middle of a rush I may miss a few tables here and there before they leave.
I would love to hear your feedback after you have tried us out, we are constantly trying to improve and this place is all about our customers, cheers and see you soon ;)
Dear Sean, I don't think I need to try hard, in 3 months of being open we are already one of the most successful Spots in town and have proudly served more than 11000 guest with 99.46% customer satisfaction rate, Cafe Luxor is a fun, customer service oriented place and serving the highest quality products at very reasonable prices, our guests love the place! I do not have any shortcomings to try to compensate for them by shutting my mouth when a handful of non-customers are being unreasonable. I am sorry you have decided not to try us out BUT while I understand that our place may not be for everyone, doesn't you deciding not to even try a new popular spot in town for your self just because you have judged the owner you have never met by a few comments he made towards a few unreasonable people put you more in that "douche category" than me??? Just something to think about
Alex, let's not pretend like a hookah bar is a new or difficult thing to run. Jesus, it's just hookah! And you have TVs with sports on them? OMG, NEW CONCEPT!!! Not really. You're just another bad sports bar with hookah available.
YOU, and you alone, will be your business's eventual downfall, as you tend to care way more about your Yelp reviews then running a business that pleases its customers. Spend your energy improving your business and less time on the internet responding to every Yelp review. It's petty and narcissistic.
Not to mention creepy & annoying. I live down the street but will not be trying it out now!
Dear Cry More Noob, It's just hookah??? and TVs??? :) I wish it was that simple, its not a new concept yet I am the only one doing it!!! The sports that you may watch at home for free or the Pay per view that you buy for $50 is not for commercial facilities, we spend thousands per month just to have simple UFC or football here since they charge us per occupancy and square-footage, music, special sport events ..etc require each individual licenses through their own individual licensing or we would be in violation of infringement and copyright laws and each incident penalized $110,000+ per violation, we had to obtain in access of 9 different permits and 11 different licenses and this is just the beginning... things are not always as simple as they look BUT if you still think its just hookah and a few TVs I urge you to start one up maybe I can come over to your place and learn how its done ;)
Eitherway thanks for the input and the good advice on the Yelp and I agree it should not take too much of my time and it doesn't but internet and review monitoring and control is a part of my job to see what people are saying about us, whenever a legitimate feedback or complaint arises I do take that into consideration for improvements. Cheers and hope to see you at our spot soon, it would be interesting to see how you feel about it after (if) you tried us out.
lol
Alex, you've just proved all the negative reviews correct.
Alex, it's called customer service not jerk service.
Dear Dani S., Thank you for your input but I do believe in Customer service in fact I am fanatic about it, However everything you see here is caused mostly by a few impostors who had never been our customers, they were in some cases competition giving false reviews and in some cases people who had never set foot in our restaurant but they had parked in our parking while they were at other bars while my customers did not have the convenience of the best parking spots so they got towed emptying the space for my customers, so they came and started giving false reviews on Yelp about us, believe me we have excellent Customer service and I as the owner make sure that I am at the location most of the time meeting with my guests and getting feedback for improvement, if you have never tried us out please do come by and try us out and see for your self and feel free to give us feedback, I think you will be impressed with the level of customer service you will receive.
Well put, Alex. I'll stop by some evening and say hi!
Man this is an amazing thread. Seriously--best one in months.
I don't knock anything that you are doing or how you handle your business. I think that it is great that you respond to every comment on here. It shows that you value your business and you are always looking for ways to either improve or remove. I am a former sports bar owner myself and I know the stress that it can come when having a business. I used to own a night club and bar both at the same time and majority of the people who worked there didn't really care about the opinions of their customers they just cared about the $. After 5 years we went down and I left. Never feel bad for speaking your opinion or protecting your bar's reputation. There are going to always be people who are going to hate and all that should do is push you even harder. BTW I heard about your bar from my friend and I am too excited to come this weekend with my girlfriend. I love me some Hookahs. Keep up the good work