Chef Glynn Purnell Versus TripAdvisor Reviewer

The customer is always right. Err…that is, unless you are Michelin-starred chef Glynn Purnell.

The owner of the fine dining establishment Purnell’s in Birmingham, U.K. is receiving all manner of lavish praise for hitting back against a customer who slagged him with a terrible one-star TripAdvisor review.

Social media has erupted with sympathetic sentiments supporting Purnell for his restaurant’s TripAdvisor response to the customer, which is essentially a temper tantrum similar to the woman who complained.

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It’s worth noting that the review, first published in December 2015, has since been removed from the site.

To give you a bit of background, here is the unedited review in full:

I have been to many Michlen star restaurants in my life and I have to say that Purnells has been the very worst for food and the cost of the food. £68.00 the 6 course tasting menu for tiny quenells of food on a plate with a sprinkling of leaves is just sinful in this day and St Austelle musselsconsisted of 2!!!! Mussels in a dish with about a tablespoon of Finely shreeded pickled cucumber!!!!!As 2 of the partu were not able to eat shell fish the only alternative was A sliver of Monkfish at an additional cost of £10 per is unbeliveable that if one has an allergy to a certain food that they should be asked to pay extra or do without that sliver of the course.Another member of the party had an allergy to fish The Scottish halibut! I asked for an alternative and was presented with approximately a serving spoon of Beetroots!!I Just unreal!! All of our party are good meat eaters and would have no problems with any normal cuts of meat. I asked the head waiter prior to taking the order about the Slow Cooked Daube of beef. I advised him that I would not like it. He went to great lengths to advise me that it was superb and I would enjoy it, I asked for an alternative like a vegetarain option instead but nothing could be offered as an option. It was indeed a daube!!! of cows Cheek. When I realized what was on my plate I had to excuise myself from the table due to feeling ill. he lemon meringue pie was the tin hat of the meal. 2 little pies were brought to the table and ceremoniales cut in half!!!! served with a quinell of ice cream. !! We were a party of 4. We had been given a voucher as a christmas gift for 2 and we invited another couple to join us for the evening. our voucher was for £150.00 and our bill was £371.70 which included discresionary ervice charge. As we were in company It was not suitable to challange all this at the time as it would have been an embarazzing situation for our guests. We also flew over from Ireland to go to Purnells. In hind sight we would have been better off to have thrown the voucher away. Opon our return to Ireland last evening I called Purnells to outline exactly what I have stated in this review. The Manager said he would bring the comments to the attention of his manager and the hef. In conclusion we feel that is just immoral to charge such prices for food whereby the actual content or amount of food served to a client would cost undet £7.00 at max. We dine out a lot and we have no problem paying for beautiful good food with flavours and we like tasteful food. We had really been looking forward to visiting Purnells but what a LET DOWN . Maybe the chef should watch Masterchef The Professionals for a few lessons to see how food should be served and give some decent portions of wonderful food not just the content of a decent starter over 6 courses. a starter for £68.00

And here’s the restaurant’s response:

“Michlen or Michelin” Message to the author – Thank you very much for ensuing your threat of going to social media following our telephone and email conversations. Having spoken to this “reviewer” over the telephone on Tuesday night, we were shocked to hear that her and her party had a bad experience. We were not made aware of any issues during their dining experience. We would like to address a few things about this report; • We DID NOT charge extra for the monkfish as she has claimed. We have a copy of the receipt and there is no record of this. • We were not informed prior to their visit that a member of the party was pregnant, so as a restaurant on a busy Saturday night we had to adjust and create a new menu for a guest that could have affected our service for the whole evening. • Had this guest stated she was not happy with the daube of beef we would have done something else or offered an alternative. It clearly seems this reviewer does not like the fact we want to rectify an issue she has brought up but is not willing to accept anything from us. • If all 4 diners were embarrassed and it was in fact the worst food, I am embarrassed for them not having enough courage to express themselves on the evening. These are 4 adults all upset by their dining experience who ate all 6 courses without once alerting us to the fact that they were not enjoying it. • Having dined in several Michelin star restaurants I am amazed this was her first review! I worry for all the other establishments she is going to! She is clearly self-conscious and defensive and happy to slander an establishment. • The 12.5% service charge that was and is added to the bills is discretionary and can always be removed. And why should you feel embarrassed to ask for it to be removed? If I am asked to pay for something that I feel I have not received I would refuse! The service charge was £41.30 (and has now been refunded). • The gentleman that paid the bill quietly organised it at the bar away from the table. This was a perfect opportunity for the service charge to be questioned, for him to let us know how very terrible the evening had been. There were no guests within earshot so there would have been no reason for any embarrassment. However, when asked how the meal was he responded positively. The gift voucher was not presented at the time of the payment, yet we kindly obliged to take it off the bill and collect the voucher at a later stage. This was arranged with the gentleman and was handled very discreetly as requested. There was no fuss what so ever. We wrote an email to acknowledge the feedback following the telephone call. We offered the party a complimentary meal and a full refund of the service charge. This was declined and the lady stated that she would use this site as a tool for being detrimental to our business and 30 members of staff. Not to mention a dedicated and passionate Chef/patron who has helped develop the culinary dining scene for the people of Birmingham. They are clearly not willing to compromise with us, which shows how social media has changed the way a restaurant has to operate and how guests’ can influence and affect the organisation. Should any person reading this report or any other establishment find it useful, please do not visit the restaurant. In regards to Masterchef, Glynn is well celebrated and well received in the public scene. Perhaps this reviewer would have more satisfaction from watching Man versus Food. We want guests to enjoy their experience here at Purnell’s, and if we don’t meet their expectations then we apologise. Food is subjective, we are not right or wrong, but this is our belief and ethos. Everyone has their own right and opinion and we fully understand that we may not be to everybody’s taste. When this is the case, feedback is welcomed and used constructively. When feedback is false and littered with lies it is not welcomed and as an independent restaurant we will fiercely dispute any attempts to blacken our name. This review is not based on fact and we have tried to contact the author to discuss and settle this and strangely she has not taken our calls.

What’s most interesting about the restaurant’s response is how they didn’t follow any of the assumed norms and best-practices for addressing negative online reviews.

Purnell’s is embroiled in a classic case of he-said-she-said, and while the restaurant insists that some of the woman’s statements were outright lies, no one really knows. Nor should the public really be made to care that much. Yet when the restaurant responds in the same angered manner as the customer, TripAdvisor readers are roped into this drama more than they need to.

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This is not to say that Purnell’s didn’t have a right to defend itself, but when they start pointing fingers at spelling errors and throwing back insults referencing television shows, you have to wonder if their egos simply got the better of them.

For reference, here are four conventional ways restaurants — and businesses in general — are advised to respond to negative reviews, as outlined by several experts.

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1. Don’t lose your cool

“Even if you do get negative feedback, you can turn it into a positive by engaging in a constructive way and showing that you’re a genuine business. You don’t want to fly off the handle and do something to make yourself look bad. Especially if you think the customer complaint is false, your instinct is to react in the heat of the moment. But you’ll regret it.” – Forbes

“If your reviewer perceives that you are being rude, condescending or disingenuous in any way, there’s a chance he or she could get angry and make the situation even worse. Keep in mind that this is a vocal customer who could well copy and paste your message all over the Web.” — Yelp Management

“Your objective is to have a successful business. Don’t sabotage yourself by turning current and prospective customers off with an emotional or defensive response to an online comment.” — Entrepreneur

2. Be brief

“You don’t want to reveal too much in your response to a negative comment. Social media is a public space, and airing dirty laundry isn’t going to help your business or your customers.” — American Express

“Social media engagement is important to your social presence, but not when it’s back and forth, he-said-she-said banter with a single online entity.” — Hootsuite

“The shorter your response is, the less likely it is that you will trigger additional negative feelings.” – Local Vox

Related: Is Yelp ruining mom and pop businesses?

3. Do your research and learn

“Talk to the people mentioned in the review, and ask for their take on the situation. Talk to the departments involved, and determine if there were extraordinary circumstances that could have explained the problem.” – Search Engine Journal

“The comments you receive on social media are a kind of consumer research. Keep a record of comments as you respond to them, and make a note of any suggestions, tips, questions or problems people mention. Your customers might be giving you some valuable information that you’d normally have to dig to receive. — American Express

4. Address publicly, then go private

“You never want to spark a back-and-forth argument online, especially with someone that is passionate about their point of view. A more effective approach is to drive the conversation offline and towards a personal phone call with a manager or executive in the company.” – Local Vox

“Sometimes, the best response is something simple, such as ‘We are very sorry for the inconvenience and frustration that you’ve been experiencing. Please contact me directly at [email address] and we’ll get this figured out.'” – Entrepreneur

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All of these suggestions for how businesses should handle negative reviews are, of course, voluntary. Should a business owner go rouge and slam every customer that leaves a bad review, all the power to them. But it’s at their own risk. To go against years of data, research and experience might prove more harmful than helpful.

As for how businesses can avoid negative online reviews in the first place, read our previous blog article here.