Glen Duckett, who has been the landlord of The Eagle & Child in Ramsbottom, Lancashire, for six years, issued a strong response to a one out of five reviews titled ‘Overpriced food, non-interested staff and a ridiculous wait’ left by journalist Adam Cailler from Manchester on 2 September.
Duckett had initially responded to Cailler’s review on the site by stating the diner had been negative from the outset and asked him not to return. However, the pair continued their exchange over Twitter with Cailler later commenting in a statement to Manchester Evening News that Duckett’s response had been “littered with falsehoods” such as being unaware of who he had been dining with.
However, Duckett now hopes to lay the issue to rest having issued a company response to the criticism. He told The Morning Advertiser: "It's closed now. I wasn't in control of what was published. He instigated the issue because he published his review. I responded to that."
Duckett added: "Where somebody says something, that's exaggerated, untrue or is damning - and unfairly so - I will obviously defend my staff, team and the business.
"Equally when we don't get it right and somebody goes on TripAdvisor and says that we haven't got it right, and it's constructive and it's honest, I will respond and say 'I'm sorry we haven't got everything right for you, please get in touch with me' and I will try and put it right.
"Being personable if people haven't got things right is really important."
Duckett added that he prefers dissatisfied customers to come to him directly and in a manner that's constructive: "It has to be done in a way where there's trust and humility rather than going away and sitting behind a keyboard and writing derogatory things that are unnecessary and personal."
"Everybody knows you're not going to get everything right, and when somebody approaches something constructively and honestly I'm more likely to take their feedback. You can actually turn round situations where you get real loyalty out of customers because you've actually not got things right and dealt with it well."
The Eagle and Child also won the 2017 Partnership Pub of the Year at the Great British Pub Awards ceremony on 7 September before scooping the evening’s top prize.