Advice Guy's winter 2012 report card

It’s time again for the Advice Guy quarterly report card. How did my advice work on the ground? We ask the readers who submitted their questions:

The question (9/19/2012): Do people still use phone books? Is it worth it to advertise there?

What did you do? “So the outcome of the phone book issue probably didn't come out the way you might have thought: Although I agree with you about listing my restaurant in the yellow pages I decided not to list it for two reasons.

1. The sales person was beyond annoying - he called 5 times a day (no exaggeration) to sign the contract. I became so annoyed with his hard sales approach that it ended up ruining my experience with the company. Plus when I finally got the contract the wrong city was listed, etc. I know they have a job to do and certain quotas to meet but it became a big annoyance instead of a positive experience.
2. I had a rough time with the $20 fee every month along with the sign up costs. I know it costs money and time to print but in the age of technology I felt our online presence was enough to get out contact info out to our customers.

My feeling is that the people that want to find us do, and the people that can't find us eventually will!”

How did I do: C-
Lesson: A pushy sales rep can do more harm than good.

The question (1/2/2013): Our most recent health inspection had violations, some legit and some I'm fighting. While working to correct them, I have a B letter grade to post, as well as a Grade Pending sign. I can legally post either until reinspection. Which is better?

What did you do? “I put grade pending exactly for the reasons you give. Rather then having someone assume I was downgraded due to cleanliness or some other matter, they always asked why is your grade pending and I said simply a few reasons, legitimate ones that were just minor. For example the vent in bathroom, dented cans. Not a big deal. People who see my place is clean were happy with that answer.
Plus we got that A back a week later, and they were all happy to see that.”

How did I do: A!

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Jonathan Deutsch, Ph.D. is one of our Advice Guys and Professor and Program Director of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Food Science at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He is the author six books, including They Eat That? A Cultural Encyclopedia of "Weird" Foods (ABC-CLIO, 2012).

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