Foursquare, Are You There?

The social media application foursquare has been around a little while now and has gained popularity among a lot of the people I currently follow on Twitter. However, I had been resistant to joining Foursquare for some time now, despite the prodding of many of my friends and followers. After all, their arguments could not justify a reason for me to join this new craze. It took me quite a while and some serious convincing to even join Twitter, a application that I now use constantly. Yet even though I got the purposes and uses of Twitter, Foursquare practicality still managed to elude me. All I could see is useless messages of people checking in here and there and becoming a fictitious Major of some business establishment. But today all that changed!

Today I saw the light and a reason to attach myself to yet another social media tool and it's all due to Pizza Hut on Knutsford Boulevard! I was at a business lunch meeting at the mentioned restaurant and experienced a disappointingly poor level of customer service, one of the poorest I have had to endure. Yes it was that bad. When we entered the establishment, despite the sign saying we should wait to be seated, we had to wander about the restaurant to a table. This was followed by a lengthy wait just to get the attention of what seems to be the only person working the entire floor, even though the restaurant was practically empty. Nonetheless, we made our order and after waiting for a while the orders came out, but only for two of us, the third was missing. The waitress explained that the third order was burnt and would not be ready until 6 minutes later! I understand that we are all imperfect and things happen, but she didn't even offer some form of compensation for it! We had to ask what kind of compensation will we get for this extra wait for out food and a total disruption of our dining experience. After explaining that we would have to speak to the manager we agreed that we would speak to the manager. However, they manager took her own sweet little time to come. And even after hearing the situation she still did nothing to appease us, their paying customer, the ones putting money into her pocket. Now this is a typical example of the lack of customer service that is lacking in the majority of this country called Jamaica. But what does this have to do with Foursquare?

Well, Foursquare allows me to "check in" at business establishments in Jamaica and worldwide: restaurants, stores, hotels, etc. It also allows me to leave a review of my experience at that specific place, whether good or bad. This can now be shared with other friends I have on Foursquare and Twitter to give a first hand review of the service, decor, amenities, etc. By doing this I can spare someone the horrible ordeal I had to experience at that establishment! If my experience at this place was good I can encourage others to visit there based on my positive review. It doesn't end there, as I supposedly can see reviews of places, known as tips, before going there to determine if it's worth my time and money!  So with those cool features I finally decided to give it a try.

Now I can go on my crusade to improve customer service in Jamaica by means of this social media tool! Um, well not really as I doubt my checking in and tips at these establishments will not make much of a difference. But at least I will be able to give some form of help to my Foursquare and Twitter friends. I figure too that with each person making a contribution in the social scope by using Twitter and Foursquare we can all make some impact to prompt these places to pull up their socks! Time will tell as these social networks grow and transform. In the mean time you can follow me on Foursquare and Twitter, both have the user name StunnerJ. So are you there?