Applebee’s Turns Selfish Customer Into PR Nightmare
February 1, 2013 
Author 
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You can’t make this stuff up. A few days ago an Applebee’s server posted the above receipt to Reddit. A rude and inappropriate response from what I would classify as a very selfish restaurant goer.
Naturally, as a Redditor I saw this and felt terrible for the poor waitress, thought nothing of Applebee’s (I didn’t even realize where this occurred when reading the thread) and moved on. This should have been the end of the story which at that point had basically nothing to do with Applebee’s.
However this isn’t the end of the story. Consumerist has the news that this waitress was shortly after fired from her position. I recommend reading the previous link for full details.
One key bit from the story (emphasis mine):
…the customer who had left the receipt contacted her Applebee’s location, demanding that everyone be fired, from the servers involved to the managers.
As the story noted, Applebee’s did fire the employee. Which then, naturally, triggered a firestorm of national media stories plus responses in the social web:
Stop me if you’ve heard this story before.
Now, was it appropriate of the waitress to post this online in the first place? No. But it is far less appropriate of Applebee’s to fire someone due to the actions of an unbalanced customer who is demanding everyone be fired. It’s not like any sensitive information was shared, the “policy” isn’t even followed by Applebee’s themselves and this customer left a hostile, personal note directed at the server.
If Applebee’s truly valued their team member, as well as valued not being put in the national spotlight for such a polarizing story, there were two easy potential paths that would have ended this crisis then and there:
1. Apologize to the customer, let them know the situation was being handled and offer a free meal (their actions were socially unacceptible and de-humanizing to the Applebee’s staff member, so this would be the extremely generous thing to do).
And
Discuss what happened rationally with this team member and perhaps have them issue an apology. That’s it. Don’t fire an (otherwise) well-performing team member over a mistake in judgement which can happen when emotions are flared.
OR (I’d vote for this one)
2. Do nothing, and effectively fire the customer. Yes, seriously. Harvard Business Review and Business Week share plenty of reasons this is smart such as a boost in morale for your staff, a focus on your higher value customers, etc. Do have a discussion with the team member, but let them know you are on their side. This would keep morale positive for your team and ensure all other customers continue to receive the best possible service.
Either of these decisions would have prevented the self-inflicted crisis before it started.
There is no reason this story had to escalate to the extent it has and cause the immeasurable level of damage to their brand. In a connected society, brands need to realize that their 1970′s-era actions and inhuman, PR / legal-issued statements do nothing to foster warm feelings with the rest of us or their own team members. They only succeed in activating the web’s hive mind.
Society has changed and companies need to change with it and take new, creative approaches to these situations, acting with empathy. They also should consider formalized training for all employees, because everyone is part of the digital ecosystem (not just those in communications).
One final note, how is it that everyone doesn’t yet understand the power of the Reddit community? None of this stuff is new.
@Weave replied | Feb 1, 2013 (1 comment)
Agree – fire the customer! But before you do, ensure the org has a crisis management framework that’ll help management, franchisees and all social-facing departments know what to do in future (unfortunately inevitable) incidents around hot-button social issues. Before it ends up blown up and distorted on news channels.
Stephanie Kari replied | Feb 24, 2013 (1 comment)
For anyone who has not visited the Applebee’s facebook page let me just tell you that if you have any feedback for them supporting the waitress or a negative comment regarding their handling of the situation that the PR firm overseeing this site is deleting those comments or banning the user from their site. Last I heard there are almost 300 banned. Nice way to make this go away. Several boycott sites are up as well.
Andrew Hanelly replied | Feb 1, 2013 (42 comments)
Whoa. I know that feel, server. As someone who was slinging sandwiches for years in the restaurant business, I totally understand her POV. Just because you bought I $30 meal, doesn’t mean you own me. But that kind of thing happens. You move on.
I agree with you on #2 here. That’s not a customer you want. That’s a customer who is going to slay you in every forum they have access to, and come back, demand freebies, kill morale on the staff and generally be a drain. No business needs that. And yes, effectively firing the customer is the best move here. I have a great story of how I did this once at my sandwich shop … but I’ll save that for another time (plus, this comment is already getting dreadfully long).
But here’s the other thing: They also need to fire the employee. That was the right move. Venting is for the back porch smoke break or the quick beer after a long shift. Venting is for the space between the kitchen and the front of the restaurant during a slow time. Venting is not for the Internet. Not for Reddit, in this case, anyway.
Sure, she was upset, but the logo on her polo shirt extends to anywhere she wears that polo shirt – whether that’s in person or online. It sucks, of course, but it comes with the territory. When you work for a brand, you represent that brand no matter where you are. She made a mistake, and unfortunately it cost her a job.
Hillary Rettig replied | Feb 1, 2013 (1 comment)
I wonder if they fired the employee because they were afraid of offending Christians in particular.
Interesting to speculate on whether this would have happened had another group been singled out.
Adam Singer replied | Feb 1, 2013 (597 comments)
That would make this 1000x worse.
David Jones replied | Feb 1, 2013 (1 comment)
Great response, for the most part. Sure, the customer is an ass and should not be part of he Applebee’s core (see what I did there?) customer base. However, the issue is more about confusing and convoluted employee compensation. Pay your employee what they are truly worth, and end the bogus charade that is tipping. I often hear, “if you can’t afford to tip, don’t eat out!” But my response is, “If you can’t afford to pay your employees a living wage, you shouldn’t be in business.” FYI, Applebee’s food blows anyway.
c4 replied | Feb 1, 2013 (1 comment)
I don’t understand the big deal with this. The guy paid 18% tip already. It is not like he stiffed the waitress. It is disturbing that the restaurant determines what tip amount automatically as if their service is always above average.
Both were wrong however. The customer should not take it out on the waitress who does not make restaurant policy and the waitress should not try to embarrass their customers.
Sam Smith replied | Feb 2, 2013 (1 comment)
Actually, the lady (pastor) that ate out that day did not pay the 18% tip. She attended with a party large enough the cue the automatic tip (I believe it was a party of 10 and Applebees starts the automatic tip at 6+). If you notice, on the receipt she crossed out the automatic tip and wrote an amount that would not include ANY tip. Also, although she was covering the entire bill she requested that it be split up, attempting to bypass the automatic tip initially that way. So, the pastor did not pay their bill in full. In addition, the main facebook page for Applebees has posted customer’s receipts multiple times, thus omitting their excuse for firing the server in the first place.
LLL replied | Feb 3, 2013 (1 comment)
I only want to note that c4 said that the customer paid the 18% – which is what Applebee’s posted on their facebook page and the attitude many have taken – but please note that the gratuity was scratched out and the final amount matches the amount due before tip. Of the many years I’ve spent waiting tables, one year was spent doing so in the Bible belt and I assure you – Sundays were dreaded as this was the attitude many “good Christians” took. It was not uncommon to be stiffed on multiple tables per shift. I would just have to go into those shifts knowing what I was getting into…and take my 2.13 an hour and run with it knowing other nights balanced things out. There will always be assholes who find a reason to not tip, but for those that bitch that “servers only make 2.13 an hour,” be honest: we all know they come out well above minimum wage in the long run. One bad table in a shift isn’t breaking anyone. That said, the Pastor is still a complete asshole. God isn’t pocketing that 10%, man is.
Sohil Memon replied | Feb 3, 2013 (1 comment)
Hey hello everyone,
This news is out of my mind, really it can do, fire the employees ? Nice sharing bro and really informative, I have also searched google and its true. So, I will agree with you and your well written post :D
@PR_pro_account replied | Mar 6, 2013 (1 comment)
Applebee’s fired the server in order to immediately appease the customer, who was the problem at that exact second; a knee jerk reaction just to get the incident over as quickly as possible. But of course something like this will hit the internet, it’s far too emotionally charged not too.
At this point, I feel, that Applebee’s probably should have just admitted they made a hasty discion. Everyone who looks at the story sees that what the pastor did was rude, and there’s not really any excuse for her actions. Instead, Applebee’s doubled down on their original assertion: save face for the customer, even though they are wrong.
The old mantra of “the customer is always right” is losing some steam in the modern world, mostly due to the fact that the markets are so fractured that it’s almost impossible to appease every single customer that walks through your organization’s door. This is a clear case where, as the the article and other posters have mentioned, the customer should have been ‘fired’.
alexandra replied | Mar 22, 2013 (1 comment)
Adam, I appreciate your blog post sounding off on the current PR nightmare happening with Applebee’s. In today’s world any negative comment or action from an organization or person can result in a PR firestorm that can end someone’s career, and in this case it did. Not many people outside of the PR world realize how big of a difference one wrong move can make for a corporation such as Applebee’s. I agree with you though, that the corporation was wrong to fire an employee for such a small matter, even though it may have made them look like the bad guy. In the end Applebee’s should have apologized for the incident and ended it there. Firing an employee for one mistake seems a little excessive and I feel like in the long run it made everyone look bad. Not focusing on the matter at all could have possibly kept it from getting so out of control in the first place. You were right when you said that upsetting one customer out of so many would only make a tiny difference to the corporation, but people who are familiar with how PR works know that it’s not that easy. Public relations firms should work with the organizations they are representing to help prevent things like this from happening, which could save them a lot of hassle and possibly keep people from getting fired. This article goes to show you how much of an impact social media has on today’s society. It can take you from a nobody to a somebody in a matter of seconds, I just don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing!