Love them or hate them: Restaurant reviews are powerful. Economists at the University of California, Berkeley found that a half-star improvement on Yelp’s 5-star rating scale makes a restaurant 30-49 percent more likely to be fully booked during peak dining times. Google has become especially important, attracting 73 percent of all online feedback, because so many people find a restaurant by searching Google Maps. At the same time, reviews carry risk for restaurants. Guests may not feel inspired to write a review unless they have an extremely good or bad experience, and the bad reviews often amount to noise, including nothing that could actually be used to improve the business. Accordingly, research from Nationwide Insurance and Edelman Data & Intelligence found that when restaurant operators were asked about their digital risks, 25 percent of them reported that managing negative reviews was among their biggest risks. This is where you can lean on your special occasions – like your holiday gatherings, contests and other features of this time of year that delight guests – as well as your loyalty program. Target these guests when asking for reviews. After they visit, send them an email or text asking them to share their review on Google if they enjoyed their meal (and link to the review page so it’s easy for them). Include some simple boilerplate language on each of the general messages you send to your list and invite people to leave a review. When you serve a happy group that has clearly had a great experience with you, consider mentioning at the end of their meal that they will be getting an invitation to review their experience – and that their feedback really does help you. You read the Yelp reviews about your restaurant. You consider the preferences of your guests when developing your menu. You collect data in an effort to understand what you do well and where you might improve. But do you make an effort to be your own guest in your restaurant – or for your staff to do the same? You may be surprised at what you learn by taking a look at your business from the other side. Consider what you value most about eating restaurant food – either onsite or off-premises. Walk through the customer journey, both online and in person. A recent report from Modern Restaurant Management suggests how to approach this and what to observe. Do you feel welcomed by your brand? If you didn’t have an association with your restaurant, would you want to return? What works really well? Do you think something is missing? Going through this process – and making it something your staff does as well – can reveal strengths and weaknesses in your business that you might otherwise overlook. As for your staff, encouraging their feedback as guests in your restaurant can also help them take ownership of your restaurant – and take responsibility for delivering great service to others. If they notice problems, they may have an easier time seeing how they can be part of the solution. Restaurant reviews – both positive and negative – pack a punch. TripAdvisor found that 94 percent of U.S. restaurant diners base their dining decisions off of online reviews. The sweet spot for ratings is four stars and higher: According to Review Trackers, consumers don’t trust businesses or restaurant operators with reviews of less than four stars, and 33 percent of diners won’t eat at restaurants where the ratings on Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google are lower than four stars. A Harvard Business School study found that restaurants can boost their revenue by 5-9 percent for every star added to a Yelp review. Playing reviews to your advantage requires a deft response, particularly to your negative reviews (though potential brand ambassadors may be hiding out in both your positive and negative reviews). A thoughtful, calm, well-written response can turn a bad review on its head and make a reader – if not the reviewer themselves – want to give you a try. In a recent report from Modern Restaurant Management, Izzy Kharasch of the restaurant consulting company Hospitality Works advises operators go back through two years of online reviews for their restaurant and respond to each one personally. Thank the person for bringing a problem to your attention, apologize for not meeting their expectations, and invite them to contact you personally. Ask them back to your restaurant and check on them personally – you may or may not want to offer a free appetizer or round of drinks. Your treatment may motivate them to post a positive updated review and to recommend you to friends. A strong digital presence is important to the vast majority of consumers looking for a restaurant. According to a survey of 1,000 consumers by the tech company HungerRush, 85 percent of consumers say it’s important to them to find reviews and other information about restaurants online when determining where to dine. Looking beyond your app and website, what does a Google search on your restaurant reveal about your business? If you have been slow to respond to online reviews – or the information about your restaurant is simply inconsistent or out of date across different online channels, use any quiet periods you have this winter to follow up on – and neutralize – any negative reviews, as well as update basic information about your menu, hours and takeout/delivery availability. Digital restaurant orders continue to be high, making your restaurant’s online presence especially important. That extends to what people are saying about you online, but when restaurants are strapped for staff, responding to every review with a professional, sensitive, well-thought-out answer can feel like one task too many. If that’s the case for you, artificial intelligence may be able to provide some relief. In a recent report from Pymnts.com, Paytronix CEO Andrew Robbins said smart use of AI can help expedite and automate the process of responding to reviews. Much like an extension of how AI is used in drive-thrus and customer service call centers, AI may be able to process the words used in a review and craft an appropriate response – with minimal time and involvement from you. It’s easy to get canceled these days. For a restaurant, a critical online review going viral, a negative story about a key supplier appearing in the news, or a food safety crisis can do it. Even the public’s perception of a restaurant’s connection to the war happening on the other side of the world (whether that connection actually exists or not) can have consequences that temporarily derail a restaurant business. While you can’t control how people react to your business, you can take steps to manage a crisis in a way that turns down the heat instead of making the problem worse. Make it a priority to monitor and manage your online profile. When you receive a positive written review, thank the reviewer for the post. When the inevitable negative review happens, respond promptly and stay professional about finding a solution. If you feel you can do something to make the situation right, encourage the person to call you directly or invite them back – showing everyone how you handle an upset guest constructively may even win you some fans. If a larger crisis comes about, use your Google Business Profile and prominent space on your website to pose and answer commonly asked questions in an open, transparent way. While no restaurant is looking for crises, they can generate some opportunities to elevate your reputation with the public if managed thoughtfully and promptly. During the course of the pandemic, so many restaurants had to reinvent themselves in order to survive – perhaps opening in-store bodegas, offering takeout and delivery where none existed before, or otherwise operating in ways that might have been considered off-brand before the pandemic. Now that life is returning to normal, it’s time to refine your approach so you can glean the most success from your marketing efforts. In particular, it’s important to fine-tune your online marketing efforts, now that we have seen how important it is to have a strong web presence. The Rail suggests that once a restaurant has solidified its brand, it should approach online marketing from several directions. First, look to online media publications that cater to your audience and offer opportunities to collaborate with restaurant critics or pay for advertorial content. Your website should allow a user to easily and quickly place an order, find your hours and location, and leave a review (and also prompt you when that happens so you can respond right away). If your restaurant is looking to attract more traffic from people visiting the area who haven’t heard about you yet, consider crowd marketing, which allows you to promote your restaurant in themed forums on social networks. When it comes to advertising, think about whether it makes sense to pay for contextual advertising – perhaps if you’re a sports bar, you might want to have your ads appear online next to content about your city’s baseball team – or through influential bloggers in your area who have an engaged following of guests in your demographic and would take payment (or perhaps just a free meal) in exchange for an honest review. “More reviews equal more success.” That’s what restaurant consultant and coach Ryan Gromfin told FSR Magazine recently, adding that operators need some kind of well thought-out system for generating reviews – whether it’s a simple reminder on a guest check, or better yet, a text or email reminder that is automatically sent after a visit. What kind of structure do you have in place? At a time when consumers are heavily researching their dining options online, ironing out any weak spots in your feedback loop can give your business a much-needed boost. First, make sure your business has an updated profile on the main review sites including Yelp, Google and OpenTable. Next, ask and you shall receive: Post a request for reviews on your website, social media channels and on table cards if you have a dining room. If you can, use an automated system for requesting reviews electronically – if a guest receives a prompt on their phone that includes a link to where they can post a review, you make it easy and quick for them to help. (If you offer them loyalty points or another incentive for taking the time to share their thoughts about you, all the better.) If you get a less-than-positive review, make sure you respond professionally and helpfully – a quality response to a negative review can neutralize it. Promote your positive reviews as testimonials on your website and social media.
It’s not the eye-catching ambience on display through your front windows that is drawing people to your restaurant right now – your website is more likely the place responsible for making a good first impression and enticing people to support your restaurant. Are you making it as easy as possible for people to find you, be assured of the hours you will be open, access your menu and place an order? First, review and update your information on GoogleMyBusiness to manage your presence across both search and map functions. Beyond that, make sure your hours, phone number, webpage link and physical location are up to date, and that your website (with minimal clicks) allows people to access your menu and new safety and hygiene practices. On your website, consider a pop-up invitation to join your email list – and preview the benefits of joining it. Your online information – including what is viewable on a search engine or your site itself – should be just as easy to read on a phone as on a computer or tablet screen.
In the COVID-10 era, restaurant reviews are changing – and for better or worse, so are operators’ responses. At a time when consumers are placing elevated importance on restaurant cleanliness and may be more selective about the occasions when they eat out, a negative review can have extra power – and many professional restaurant critics are suspending their critiques right now to avoid adding to operators’ challenges. A recent Eater report detailed how Yelp is imploring reviewers to consider the challenges of the current environment before leaving a review – and some operators are shelving their “customer is always right” approach to review responses by actively challenging negative feedback. But focusing on generating positive reviews is generally the best approach – if restaurants routinely make the request. BrightLocal research found that more than 85 percent of customers are willing to leave a review. Can you ensure your staff knows to ask customers to provide feedback – and also make it easy and fast for them to respond? The Rail suggests including review link on your newsletter and email marketing campaigns, as well as using online reputation management tools to solicit views via email or text. Further, urge guests to come to you first when they have a complaint or concern. Make sure they know you want the opportunity to address a problem when it happens. It can also give you a chance to explain how the current climate has changed the experience customers are used to having with you – before they unload about it over Yelp.
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