Proving that every kind of business is susceptible to an online marketing fail, take the case of Sheri’s Ranch.
Sheri’s Ranch is a legal brothel located in Pahrump, Nevada that styles itself as a resort, with upscale rooms and furnishings, a sports bar, tennis courts, a spa and outdoor swimming pool.
Perusing the online reviews for Sheri’s Ranch, we stumbled across the following unusual item.
A female guest at Sheri’s Ranch noted that she and her husband “got really bad food poisoning from eating at that bar. My husband missed five days of work from this and he isn’t salary like I am! May this be a warning to anyone thinking of eating here. DON’T DO IT!”
A gut-wrenching tale, to be sure. But what really takes the cake is the response from Sheri’s Ranch.
WOW. Talk about a marketing fail! That’s pretty much the definition of what NOT to do when a customer complains about service at your brothel — excuse me, your “luxurious resort and spa” that caters to men, women and couples.
This is where a smart business bends over backward to show empathy, and that it cares about customer satisfaction; as a wise man once said: “Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.”
Do better, Sheri’s.
4 Responses
The old saying “The Customer is ALWAYS right” is a simple blueprint for customer satisfaction. Bad reviews will kill any business and even Google now has reviews of businesses.
Restaurants that provide bar service or bad quality food and find their customers disappearing just need to Google their business and they will see their ratings. The same thing applies to brothels.
Sadly, the problem of food poisoning is not unique to Sheri’s. The irony here is that the public health threat from brothels is actually the food, not the sex!
I think the response of “We don’t operate the restaurant but certainly will take it up with the proprietor of the restaurant and am sincerely sorry that their food made you sick” would have been more appropriate. If the restaurant is on the Sheri’s Brothel premises they could theoretically be held responsible even if they aren’t serving up the food — especially if it is not reasonably apparent to a customer that the restaurant is separately operated from the brothel.