March 22, 2012

Demand Management via Twitter - Social Media Soup Nazi

the Wall Street Journal reported on an practice that I had not thought about, but that might prove interesting:

"The morning after two groups of diners didn't show up at the restaurant Noma in Copenhagen last month, chef and co-owner René Redzepi took to Twitter. "And now a message from the Noma staff: to the people of two different no-show tables last night," he wrote, and sent a picture of staff members showing their middle fingers."


"Fickle diners are every restaurant's worst nightmare. A select group of high-end chefs and restaurants are fighting back—from charging people who don't cancel in time to using Twitter and other social media to call out no-shows."

The use of online shame to make customers who balk from their reservations is something I had not thought of before reading this article.  I'm not convinced it's a great idea, but it is an interesting way of using social media to impact the operations of a service.  In effect, using social media to call out customers who are misusing your service could be used a social cues as to what is appropriate at behavior for your business.  However, too much of it and your social media feeds will likely just be ignored of worse you will gain a reputation as a soup nazi...

 

March 2, 2012

Operations Management Role in Service Design: Choreography

Chris Voss,  an operations management professor from the London Business School has published several articles indicating that the role of operations management in service design and delivery is one similar to a choreographer.  This video reminded me of that concept: