Transcript:
JEFF: I usually tell companies, like look. Do you know what Chinese are saying about you on social media in Chinese?
STEVEN: Right
JEFF: No, Like dude, you really need to pay attention to that because I guarantee you they're talking about you. If you have a hotel in the south of France, I guarantee you Chinese consumers are talking about you.
STEVEN: You know, it's funny cause if you get Meituan Dianping people that don't know what that is. It’s kinda put like Yelp, right. I mean that's the best way I can kind of put it but if you look out meet whenever you're in the US or even Canada are pretty much anywhere and you look up your restaurant around that because me find how to change your location and it shows you everything around.
JEFF: Talking about you.
STEVEN: Yeah. I bet you most of these restaurants don't know that they're on it. So
JEFF: No, you need to be on top of it like. Yeah. Chinese consider coming back to my initial Point like that Chinese and Asian consumers are one of the dominant economic phenomenons of our lifetime.
STEVEN: Yes
JEFF: You have to know what and then they operate in real time. They operate almost entirely digitally. You have, they’re digital first consumers so you have to be aware of what's going on with Chinese netizens. Now, not every business. But, if your Hotel in San Francisco. They absolutely talk to you about you in real time. If you, you know if you treat Chinese tourists badly or sit in your hotel lobby. They're going to talk about it.
STEVEN: Right and not gonna come to you.
JEFF: You know.
STEVEN: Yeah, That for sure
JEFF: So, they are a phenomenon that is like when they're huge. And it's really dynamic. It changes like all the time. You have to play beyond what you call a smart offense. you can't, you have to be engaged I wouldn't call it PR. I just call it marketing and sales like your reputation is being changed in real time. Oh, and by the way, your competitors might be talking about you on those forums.
STEVEN: Right
JEFF: Are you aware of that? So like you got to be a smart offense and you got a fast defense when something does happen. You have to jump on it Immediately. I think McDonald's is excellent at this. Like they had to I think I wrote about this in the book like they had an issue on one of the restaurants
STEVEN: No, I think you wrote about it about KFC because of
JEFF: KFC, yeah
STEVEN: That was their supplier for most of. I don't know exactly right.
JEFF:and they had an issue like McDonald's is famous for this like if there's an expose over press report or whatever about food safety at one of their branches they close one. They will respond online within like an hour. They will close the branch in a day.
STEVEN: Wow,
JEFF: That's past defense and it reinforces the reputation of we care about you.
STEVEN: Yeah, safe food
JEFF: But if you're going to wait a week no no no. Keep in mind a lot of the online stuff. It's not coming from consumers. It's coming from Press. That’s looking for a story. It’s coming from competitors who are looking for issues. It's coming from Carol Wells. You know, it ain't all honorable. There's a lot of dirty tricks.
STEVEN: Yeah
