4 ms·

Apparently it turned into a social media fracas: http://rlstollar.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/applebees-overnight-social-media-meltdown-a-photo-essay/ http://rlsto

Apparently it turned into a social media fracas: http://rlstollar.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/applebees-overnight-social-media-meltdown-a-photo-essay/ http://rlstollar.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/applebees-overnigh...

rdtsc 14y ago
Wow. A PC train wreck indeed. It doesn't even matter what the original thing was about, this will be entered into the text books as a classic 'social media: what not to do' lesson. If anyone should be fired it is the persons making the decisions and handling this response. You can see them digging their own grave deeper deeper with every new statement.
berlinbrown 14y ago
This is exactly why Applebee's fired the waitress. She wasn't fired because the customer called the store. She was fired because she was the catalyst for all of this bad publicity.
- JDShu 14y ago
  What? I thought the bad publicity was caused by Applebee's firing her, not the other way round.
  - berlinbrown 14y ago
    As a general rule, restaurant managers at these chain stores have to respect the brand. According to Applebee's: "Employees must honor the privacy rights of APPLEBEE’s and its employees by seeking permission before writing about or displaying internal APPLEBEE'S happenings that might be " considered to be a breach of privacy and confidentiality..." She was fired for breaching the the customer's privacy. And you don't normally do that (putting information online) because this kind of shitstorm can happen. They are probably sending a message to other employees, don't pull this kind of stuff or you lose your job. Now look at the shitstorm we have to deal with.
    - codeka 14y ago
      If she hadn't been fired, this whole thing would have been one obscure post on reddit and an outraged customer - this kind of thing happens all the time. If there's any lesson for would-be entrepreneurs, it's about how to handle public opinion. At this stage it really doesn't matter who was right and who was wrong (it seems clear to me both parties played a part), but Applebee's handling of this whole mess has been a study of what not to do.
pm90 14y ago
I'm not sure how many of the restaurant's customers will actually boycott though. People are quite fickle and you'll see many claiming boycott just to get some attention. Besides, I'm not sure just how many of its customers even know about its facebook page, let alone this incident.

rdtsc 14y ago

Wow. A PC train wreck indeed. It doesn't even matter what the original thing was about, this will be entered into the text books as a classic 'social media: what not to do' lesson. If anyone should be fired it is the persons making the decisions and handling this response. You can see them digging their own grave deeper deeper with every new statement.

berlinbrown 14y ago

This is exactly why Applebee's fired the waitress. She wasn't fired because the customer called the store. She was fired because she was the catalyst for all of this bad publicity.

JDShu 14y ago
What? I thought the bad publicity was caused by Applebee's firing her, not the other way round.
- berlinbrown 14y ago
  As a general rule, restaurant managers at these chain stores have to respect the brand. According to Applebee's: "Employees must honor the privacy rights of APPLEBEE’s and its employees by seeking permission before writing about or displaying internal APPLEBEE'S happenings that might be " considered to be a breach of privacy and confidentiality..." She was fired for breaching the the customer's privacy. And you don't normally do that (putting information online) because this kind of shitstorm can happen. They are probably sending a message to other employees, don't pull this kind of stuff or you lose your job. Now look at the shitstorm we have to deal with.
  - codeka 14y ago
    If she hadn't been fired, this whole thing would have been one obscure post on reddit and an outraged customer - this kind of thing happens all the time. If there's any lesson for would-be entrepreneurs, it's about how to handle public opinion. At this stage it really doesn't matter who was right and who was wrong (it seems clear to me both parties played a part), but Applebee's handling of this whole mess has been a study of what not to do.

pm90 14y ago

I'm not sure how many of the restaurant's customers will actually boycott though. People are quite fickle and you'll see many claiming boycott just to get some attention. Besides, I'm not sure just how many of its customers even know about its facebook page, let alone this incident.