Everyone cares about reviews of their restaurants – even if they pretend they don’t.
But this isn’t about ego. There are solid business reasons to successfully manage your online reviews, particularly as Google reviews on Google My Business become ever more vital to local search for independents.
According to a Harvard Business School study:
· A one-star increase can boosts profits by 10%
· 44.6% of consumers are more likely to visit if owners respond to negative reviews
Enjoying only your positive reviews is human nature. But seeing bad reviews as being a potential opportunity makes a huge difference.
Tip 1: Don’t take things personally and be NICE
It can be tough to take any criticism (especially when unfair) but maintaining a professional and upbeat tone in your reply is vital. This is valuable social proof that your customers will feel heard and cared about – which is powerful stuff. Use soft language, be warm, human and come across well.
Tip 2: Respond for readers generally (NOT just the person who gave your bad review)
The chances of you changing the reviewer’s mind or having them retract a bad review aren’t high – so it’s about responding for the hundreds of other potential customers. An apology and offer to make it write makes a huge difference to overall perceptions.
Tip 3: Communicate with happy customers, too
Unfortunately, most businesses only respond to bad reviews if they respond to any reviews at all. But your most important customers—the happy ones who are likely to return – need to be recognised because this dramatically increases the likelihood of a repeat visit. Repeat customers are crucial to your business. If your restaurant’s repeat customers are not around 70%, you’ll constantly need massive marketing efforts to bring in new guests.
Tip 4: NEVER pay people to give you reviews
You just can’t offer money, gift cards, or free food for good reviews. Not only is this against the terms of service for all review sites, but Google also has the legal right to fine you up to £10,000 for a paid review. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from recognising a happy, loyal customer who had already left you a nice online review and buying them a glass of wine. That’s just good customer relations!
Tip 5: Be brave enough to OWN any bad reviews!
Reputation management is the technical term for all of this. But, whatever happens, you could always do what this pizza place in Loughborough did (see below!)– ie.100% own the bad review and literally write it on the wall. As reputational management strategies go, it won’t work for everyone but I, for one, love it…
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/making-google-reviews-work-your-restaurant-especially-david-sandhu