Food & Drink

First thing’s first let me put it out there and say that this post is in no way a criticism of Get Baked’s food. I’ve never eaten there and the reviews of the place are overwhelmingly positive. Also, from looking at photos of their grub, I’m drooling. This post is simply a comment on the restaurant’s marketing tactics alone.

If you’ve not already seen all the kerfuffle or you have no idea what the hell Get Baked is, it all went off on Tuesday night when Leeds restaurant, ‘Get Baked Presents: The Joint’, posted this incredibly angry and sweary Facebook post in light of a review by a blogger called Cous Cous Bang Bang.

It all kicked off after Cous Cous blogged about a visit to the takeaway turned restaurant. The food critic was less than impressed by Get Baked’s hipster vibes, obsession with weed, and apparently poor customer service, but it must be worth noting that he couldn’t find much fault with the food. “There’s little to find fault with in the food,” he said.

Nevertheless, the criticism didn’t sit well in Get Baked’s stomach and as a result, the owner, Rich, flew off the handle and went on a wild roaring rampage of revenge on social media. “Someone telling me my pancakes aren’t amazing when they don’t know what the fucking amazing pancakes are meant to taste like,” argued the Get Baked frontman. Because of course, the only time you can express a dislike for restaurant food is when there is a fly or an actual poo in it. “What do you mean it tastes like shit? How do you know what it’s meant to taste like?” That last bit wasn’t Rich. That was just me.

Then, Rich, (or whoever was in charge of Get Baked’s Twitter account) proceeded to respond to the food critic’s tweets as if he had no idea what he was on about.

@cousbang I’m sorry I’m genuinely not following you here…

— Get Baked (@GetBakedUK) February 24, 2015

The response to the restaurant’s Facebook post was, to be honest, widely positive. With most fans expressing either confusion over GB’s anger or amazement that anyone could be less than blown away by the place. Many were unsure as to why a successful restaurant would throw their toys out the pram over one food critic. After all, why would a restaurant with a seemingly bright future let one food blogger get to them so much?

While Get Baked’s food is apparently, for the most of it, ‘on point’, I really think businesses can learn a thing or two, good and bad from its marketing tactics.

Criticism: Use it, don’t lose it

When someone sets up a business, they’re setting themselves up for not only a potentially bright future, but also lots of criticism along the way. It’s all part and parcel of the job. Whether it’s Beyonce, Obama, or Jessica Ennis Hill, the most successful people in the world have their critics and I imagine they’re not really that arsed that there are a few people out there that don’t like what they do.

The best way to handle criticism is to either ignore it or act upon it. Obviously, if it’s really nasty, what else can you do other than watch every single Jimmy Kimmel’s Mean Tweets back to back, safe in the knowledge that you’re not alone?

Usually criticism should be considered a blessing. If no one was to openly criticise your business whenever they’re dissatisfied, you’d probably start to wonder where all your customers had disappeared to.

Completely losing it and having an angry rant in response to criticism may get people taking notice of you, but for all the wrong reasons.

Treat your customers with respect

Remember that without your customers, you’re nothing. Sometimes customers can be annoying little pains in the bum who you secretly wish death on. The key is in the word secretly. By handling these silly sausages in the right way you can turn a negative situation into a positive one, win them round and perhaps even get lots of nice happy PR for your company.

There’s that saying that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but I’d argue this isn’t true. There’s only no such thing as bad PR if no one has heard of you and you’ve got nothing to lose, or if you’re small enough for the negativity to get forgotten about. Luckily for Get Baked, I suspect this is the case for them and this whole mess probably won’t do them much harm if they turn things around.

Nevertheless, if you’re a good company that deserves to succeed, you can do without the bad PR.

Accept that you aren’t always right

I don’t like the saying ‘the customer is always right’ and I think that any customer who actually says this to a member of staff while complaining about something needs to take a long hard look at themselves. But nevertheless, I can’t think of many occasions when you should bluntly tell a customer that they’re wrong.

A few days ago a woman posted on Get Baked’s Facebook wall to say that her friend had been food poisoned and they were concerned that it happened at GB.

The food poisoning may not have been GB’s fault whatsoever, but the way that it responded to this woman was shocking and, if you ask me, a bit bullyish. I won’t post the whole thing, but here are the worst bits:

Wow.

I imagine that for restaurants that work hard to prevent customers from getting ill, hearing reports of food poisoning is incredibly worrying. It must be every restaurant’s worst nightmare, especially when the accusation is made public. But it’s 2015! We can’t expect disgruntled customers to write carefully worded letters or pick up the phone or even send an email any more. It’s all about social media and people love to complain on Facebook and Twitter because they know they’ll get an urgent response. They also know that the best businesses will use the opportunity to offer exceptional customer service. Well, most of them will, anyway.

Businesses need to bite their tongues and be nice. Would it have been so hard for Get Baked to reply with something along the lines of: “I’m really sorry to hear that your friend is ill and I’d like to look into this for you. I must say though that this is the first report of food poisoning that we’ve ever had and we always do our bit to ensure first class standards in our kitchen. We’ve even won awards for it. Can we give you a call for a chat?”

Be funny

For all its faults, Get Baked is often pretty funny on social media, (when it isn’t banging on about how many followers it has) and that’s just what businesses need.

Brands can benefit so much from being friendly, personable and showing a sense of humour online, and not only can they increase their following as a result, they can in turn boost sales. But, as more and more brands have started to engage in social media banter over recent years, the number of brands becoming shameless dicks (sorry) has grown too. It’s almost become cool to be rude to your customers, because after all, what does it matter when your thousands of followers are right behind you laughing at your jokes? “It’s just banter mate innit”. I especially hate it when brands adopt troll-like behaviour as if it’s the most clever marketing tactic ever.

Apologise

To hand it to Get Baked, you’ll rarely find a business publicly accepting they’re in the wrong. And that is exactly what Rich did today. It’s refreshing to see a business owner showing their human side rather than simply releasing a robotic and dull corporate brand response that has been crafted by their PR crisis team.

It’s unclear whether or not this whole thing was one big trollsome marketing tactic (after The Sun’s recent stunt, I’ll trust no brand) or simply evidence of a serious lack of self awareness. And if it is a tactic do drum up a bit of extra exposure, I guess they’re succeeding. But it is obvious that Get Baked has some work to do if it’s going to win the internet. Considering the food is apparently incredible, and many of the Facebook respondents don’t seem to mind burgers with a side of rage, I guess there’s no need to call in any marketing experts just yet.

It’s clear that Rich is an ambitious and creative guy with big dreams, and for that, I wish him all the best. But along with his big dreams comes a seemingly big ego and an unwillingness to listen to anyone but those who praise him. I don’t have any trips to Leeds planned any time soon, but if Get Baked does come to Manchester, I’d love to try it, but only if “Leeds’ own Walter White” (I’m not sure why either) stays true to his words and works on his ability to accept criticism.