Oh my, has it been a day. Or week.
Something.
It’s Friday.
I’m exhausted.
I’m home.
I finally have a glass of wine in my hand. The puppies are playing on the porch and, even though I needed to get in a bike ride or run tonight, I’ve decided that it was okay to screw it. It’s not in the stars for me tonight. Wine & puppy time is way more important for my sanity. (Please note: I do understand that this is enabling unhealthy habits: drinking when stressed, missing workouts, etc. But I honestly, truly, really, really don’t care right now.)
It probably started with some work stuff that was stressful. Nothing appropriate to go into here and, while all for a good cause, it required / requires a certainly amount of adaptation that doesn’t realistically occur overnight. This type of change can put one on edge no matter how healthy the change may be — and being on edge makes things, again for some, possibly sensitive and easily agitated.
Then last night, I attended the cluster-fuck that was Taste of Twin Cities Originals. I know cluster fuck is super-strong, offensive language. Professionally, I should know better. But, honestly? If anything required the use of such a word, last night’s event did. If I worked for any of the organizers of said event, I’d be worried about my employment. It was downright awful, pathetic, painful, horrible. (Did I mentioned I was already having a bad week?)
But here’s the deal. I’m not over-reacting. There is an entire recap from a food blogger at a local television/radio media outlet here in the Twin Cities who said pretty much the same thing (in not so colorful language) here: http://wcco.com/entertainment/curiocity/twins.cities.originals.2.1820475.html
I’m not over-reacting.
This is what when down:
A few months ago, I purchased tickets to the Taste of Twin Cities Originals via Groupon. This is an event that I’d attended in the past. It’s basically a yearly event where this cooperative/association of locally-owned restaurants showcase their food and wine distributors also showcase their stuff. I totally support an association in support local restaurateurs. Most of the restaurants in the association are ones that I am a fan of.
That said, I do have to admit, my experience in the past with this particular event isn’t all that positive. We’d attended the year it was on Nicollet Island. I remembered then the that things were pretty crowded, but it was a manageable evening, even fun. The event ran out of wine towards the end, the dessert ran out early. But we got to talk to chefs. We had some amazing samples including the best oyster samples. We walked away saying, yeah, that was fun, but I’m not sure it was worth $50/ticket.
Years passed. Then the Groupon deal came this year: $25 for the $40 tickets and I was sold. I recalled the experience and thought, “Sure! For $25, that would totally be worth it. AND fun.” We talked friends into attending with us. We purchased our tickets. And I really, really looked forward to the event.
In fact, up until we entered the building, I was really looking forward to the event. I even tweeted my anticipation hours prior…
But when we got there, I should have known it would be bad. The event was to run from 6-9pm. We arrived around 6:30 and the line to get in was two blocks long. I gasped a little. I complained. But we got in line. It moved pretty quickly. I figured that was probably the worst. “Buck up, Heather,” the internal orders sounded.
Oy.
When we entered the building, the line kept going. It finally ended at a very random and frantic set of 2 people checking IDs and applying the “drink-age” wrist bands. As we passed, we realized there are actually 7 or 8 people there to check IDs & apply wristbands, but the lines were filtering in so poorly, no one even knew that there were more than the first 2 options available.
Still, that was probably the best of it. Once we got our wristbands, we ended up in a line that ceased to move. We quickly realized that the wine glasses for the event (and used to sample the various wines) were gone. The staff (looking like deer in headlights) were handing out plates. But they were being beat down by the event-goers who were hungry for food and looking for wine. When we finally got within reaching distance of the plates, we saw one staffer actually throw the plates on a side table and run away.
Seriously. She RAN away.
And this is also when the shoving started.
I’m surrounded in the crowd. I’m getting shoved. I grab a plate and melt into the next crowd/line. I hope this will take me to food. There is a sea of people around me. There don’t appear to be other line options for food/drink nearby.
So we stand.
And stand.
And stand.
Our line is clearly not moving. Yet, people keep filtering in from outside. The shoving continues. I’m starving and I finally say to my husband, I think I might want to leave. Of course, I know he’s a good sport. He gives everything the ole college try. He chats with a woman passing who says, “go upstairs. There’s food and wine up there!”
So, we do. But same story. Packed line around the entire upstairs balcony. It’s a sea of people. We look down, another sea of people. I can’t even distinguish tables, vendors, event-goers, shoot — where are the fire exits??!!!!
This is a cluster.
We have to go. I’m too hungry, too frustrated. I can’t imagine any good can come of knocking elbows, shoving, pushing just to get a “sample” — and by the WCCO reporter’s description in the article linked to above, it sounds like “sample” is a generous term.
Our friends hadn’t gotten there yet. We called and warned. We also said, “hey, give it a try if you want — we just can’t hack it.”
I guess that scared them enough and off to Psycho Suzies we were. There, we had wine, pizza, tiki drinks, outdoor seating and elbow room. It actually ended up being a very pleasant evening — minus the $100 I spent of four tickets to Taste of Twin Cities Originals for us cats.
I did Twitter the entire time. The irony of the situation is that there was signage up everywhere at the event encouraging participants to “ENGAGE” (and, BTW, what advertising/marketer wrote THAT copy? ENGAGE is *not* a consumer-friendly term — you might as well print “leverage your social medium of choice to spread your WOM re: this event”. BARF!!! But anyway…)
No, the irony of these ENGAGE posters with the #TasteTCO hashtag and @TCOriginals handle on Twitter is that they (the posters) encouraged just that: a conversation. I twittered away what a horrific situation this was — as did many other ticket holders. (Just do a search on Twitter for either or click on the previous links). There are, by far, more negative comments than positive. And there was NO conversation to be had.
Honestly? This is a really interesting Social Media case study. At least a text-book “what-not-to-do.” I keep thinking I should construct and post something more marketing-centric to talk through the story because, not only did they (as an event) not “engage” back during the event to the comments, they have yet to apologize. Shit, they haven’t even acknowledged on the social nets what a disaster it was beyond saying it “was crowded”!!!!
Worse? They re-tweeted positive comments multiple times making it look like they are/were completely oblivious to the people suffering (or trying to bury the negative tweets with positive ones).
For an organization that wants to “engage” digitally and socially, WTF????
How can you not respond, acknowledge, apologize?
It’s a social media fail-whale of epic proportions. Everyone at @TCOrignals and #TasteTCO (including their agency partners) should be ashamed. Even just a simple apology would have done wonders in making good.
But now, 24 hours laters, there is yet nothing. And, of course, their Facebook wall is set to show only their posts — so even that shows how they are not willing to participate in the conversation. Even though they asked us to “ENGAGE!”
If you want your customers to engage, YOU need to engage. It’s only fair.
The good news? Groupon was there right away. Super cool. I got a comment back via Twitter immediately promising a refund. I hadn’t even taken my first sip of wine at Psycho Suzies yet. And today, sure enough, I got the confirmation. Groupon apologized (even though the poor event handling wasn’t their fault), they responded immediately (imperative in this digital/social networking age) and they acted human (because, WTF?, aren’t we all?). It’s so unfortunate, that Twin Cities Originals couldn’t do the same.
I could say that this experience reflects badly on the restaurants associated. But that’s not the case. I’m sure those restaurants were all just as horrified with what went down as I was. In fact, it was probably worse for them. They couldn’t leave last night, like me. They couldn’t just give up and go drink sparkly pink wine @ Psycho Suzies instead. No, they had to stay put. They had to deal with the angry crowds. They had to struggle with the pushing, shoving, swearing and hissing. And they had to just pray that, at the end of the day, it all wouldn’t come back to haunt them in business.
No, I can’t blame the restaurants.
But I CAN blame the organization.
The organization was in over its head. They oversold an event. They poorly planned. And then, perhaps even worse, they didn’t even admit what went down. They were silent in the social space. And, when they wanted us so badly to engage for the positive, they wouldn’t engage when it truly mattered.
Seriously. A “sorry” would have gone a long way, but they missed that boat which is really sad.
It has been a textbook “what-not-to-do” with social media.
Okay. Climbing off my soapbox now (I’m just a little passionate in this subject matter between being both a consumer who lost money & an evening and a professional in the social media-interactive space witnessing such a train wreck. It’s a total industry example of what not-to-do).
So, that was last night.
Enter today. After arriving home late last night after all the fireworks of the evening, the morning came earlier than desired with barking dogs at a congregating assembly of cars on our residential street at 6am. Car after car appeared with passengers seated inside and I began to worry about an alien take-over. Turns out it was an estate sale. An estate sale that started at 8 AM. WTF? with all the people parking on our street at 6????? So, no. Didn’t get to sleep in.
Work didn’t go smoothly either. There were a number of fire drills. There were stressful conversations and emails. I still have that pit-in-my-stomach feeling that, while I work my ass off and care more than I really should about what I do, it’s still not good enough. I know, in the end, it’ll all be fine, but I just had/have that sickly feeling today.
I finally leave work for the weekend. I get my oil changed, my car washed. It’s all cool. I then hit the Apple store to replace my brand new iPhone 4 because of a scratched screen (from only a few days in). I’d gone in on a few days earlier, they’d told me they’d order a new one and I could swap it out. Then, I show up today. I have to stand in a line for an HOUR. I’m then told I’m in the wrong line — I have to wait in the Genius line instead.
And I crack.
I freaking crack.
I tell them it’s crazy, this is my worst experience with Apple ever. I tell them I can’t wait in another line. I also tell them about the poor disabled girl I see an Apple associate tell can’t jump the line to get her new phone. She has to wait an hour. The DISABLED GIRL! SHE HAS TO STAND IN LINE!!! NOT FAIR!!! NOT RIGHT!!!
I crack. They have me sit down.
I’m supposed to be waiting for a tech.
But instead, I get another guy who says the manager says I can have a new phone after all.
They hook it up. I have a phone. They practically escort me out.
I finally get in my car.
I breathe.
I holler.
I whimper.
I breathe.
I crash.
Weekend.
I’m so tired.
I’ve been a bitch long enough this week. Time to suck down some wine. Think about unicorns. Love life.
XOXOXO