With a careful strategy, you can leverage online reviews to your benefit.
You may know that online reviews are important for your restaurant. But they are actually vital to your continued success.
In fact, today, online reviews are crucial, especially when just one review can influence numerous potential diners. Your positive and negative reviews can greatly impact a person’s decision to eat at your restaurant or find another place to dine. One study found that just a one-star increase in a restaurant’s Yelp rating can lead to a 5-9% increase in revenue.
On the flip side, negative reviews, especially ones that restaurants don’t respond to, can keep people away from your food. If you have quite a few negative reviews, they can severely damage your reputation.
This is why it’s essential to manage your restaurant’s online reviews effectively. In this article, we look at managing your online reviews and how to turn feedback into positive outcomes.
Understand the Power of Online Reviews
Think of online reviews as “digital word-of-mouth.” These reviews influence your customers’ choices of where to eat in your hometown more than traditional advertising. (tweet this) Online reviews are powerful, and you can bet you have reviews on sites like Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, Facebook, and OpenTable. These are primary sources where diners share their experiences.
According to one survey, more than 71% of consumers read online reviews when researching a business (that includes your restaurant), and around 70% say reviews frequently influence their purchase decisions.
The challenge for restaurant owners is that online reviews are public and permanent. It is quite difficult, if not impossible, to ever remove a negative review.
However, if you proactively manage your online feedback, you can turn negative experiences into learning opportunities and positive experiences into powerful marketing tools.
Establish a Robust Online Presence
Before you can manage your online reviews, you want to make sure you not only claim but also monitor your restaurant’s presence on major review sites. Here’s how to do it effectively:
- Claim your listings: Register your restaurant on Google My Business, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and any other relevant platforms. You want to do this to set your business information and respond to reviews.
- Maintain accurate information: Keep your restaurant’s name, address, phone number, hours of operation, and menu updated at all times to avoid customer confusion. You’d be surprised how many negative reviews happen because a restaurant doesn’t have up-to-date hours.
- Regularly monitor reviews: Set up alerts or use reputation management tools to stay informed when new reviews are posted.
- Engage with all reviews: Respond to every review you get promptly (within a day or two), whether they are positive or negative. This shows diners that you care about their experiences.
With an active online presence, you create an environment where customers feel heard and valued.
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Encourage Positive Reviews
Many restaurant owners try to get reviews, but they find they can’t get very many.
Your satisfied restaurant customers generally need a little nudge to share their experiences online. Use these strategies to help you get more positive reviews:
- Ask at the right time: Train your staff to ask for reviews when your diners tell waitstaff how happy they are with their food or service. In addition, have your waitstaff ask for a review at the end of the meal.
- Provide easy access: Include QR codes on receipts or table tents linking to your preferred review sites. You can also work this into your POS system right at the table.
- Send review requests: You can also send review requests right after a customer leaves your restaurant. You can do this through your app, a text message, or your email marketing software.
- Incentivize reviews: Offer small incentives, such as discounts on future visits, a free appetizer, or a free dessert. This helps to encourage guests to leave feedback. Tip: make sure you know the policies of each review platform. For example, Yelp doesn’t allow you to incentivize a review.
- Use social media: Encourage happy customers to share their experiences using a branded hashtag. You can also ask them to tag your restaurant in their posts.
- Offer exceptional customer service: The best way to encourage positive reviews is to create experiences that your customers naturally want to rave about.
The more positive reviews you get, the more likely it is that new customers will decide to visit your restaurant and give it a try. Do note that it’s important to respond to all reviews, both positive and negative.
Calm down before responding to negative reviews and respond with empathy.
Respond to Negative Reviews Constructively
Every restaurant gets a negative review at one time or another. They don’t always have to damage your reputation, and the key to this is how you respond to them. In fact, in many cases, if you respond appropriately, you may turn the negative review into a positive outcome. The customer may decide to give you another try or even take the review down.
The key is to respond professionally and empathetically. You can turn criticism into an opportunity for growth. Here’s how:
- Acknowledge the review and apologize: Even if you disagree with the review, it’s important to acknowledge the customer’s experience and apologize for any issues.
- Keep it professional: Avoid defensive or emotional responses. Don’t be accusatory, either. You want to stay calm and professional.
- Address the issue: If the customer’s complaint is valid, explain the steps you are taking to resolve the problem.
- Invite offline discussion: Offer to continue the conversation via phone or email to show you genuinely care about resolving the issue.
- Follow up: If the issue has been resolved, follow up with the reviewer and, if appropriate, ask them to update their review.
- Learn from the feedback: Use negative reviews as constructive criticism to make necessary improvements in your restaurant and with your staff.
When you take care with your responses to negative feedback, you show the broad digital world that you are committed to customer satisfaction. You may even win back unhappy diners.
Leverage Reviews for Continuous Improvement
Reviews provide valuable insights into what’s working at your restaurant and what you can improve. The result of this is definitely a positive outcome. (tweet this)
It’s a good idea to regularly analyze your feedback. Here’s how:
- Identify recurring issues: If multiple customers mention slow service, inconsistent food quality, or other issues, it’s time to address these problems.
- Use positive feedback as a benchmark: Identify what customers love about your restaurant. Then, try to improve those strengths even more.
- Train staff: Share both positive and negative feedback with your team. This helps them understand customer expectations and improve their service. They might even see higher tips from this.
- Make public changes: When you implement improvements based on customer feedback, talk about them on social media or in responses to reviews. This shows customers that you take their input seriously.
Use reviews as a tool for growth so you can improve your operations and enhance customer satisfaction.
Final Thoughts on Turning Feedback into Positive Outcomes
Managing online reviews effectively is an essential skill for restaurant owners. When you actively engage with feedback, encourage positive reviews, address negative comments professionally, and use insights to improve operations, you can improve your bottom line.
Turn your customer feedback into a powerful tool for growth. A strong online reputation leads to increased trust, higher customer retention, and, ultimately, greater success for your restaurant.
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