According to a recent study conducted by Bright Local,

— 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses

— Only 48% of consumers would consider using a business with fewer than 4 stars

— 72% of US consumers have written a review for a local business

Making sure your online customer reviews positively reflect your restaurant can be a delicate process. Even with exceptional service and delicious dishes, any restaurant can fall victim to negative reviews. Whether they are genuine voiced concerns, or trolls looking for freebies, here are some ways to prevent poor restaurant reviews in the future and improve business reputation management.

You are Always Being Evaluated

It might be obvious but acknowledging that your business is always being judged by every patron, is critical to staving off negative reviews. Make sure that every location is clean and up to the covid cleanliness code. Remind staff to reflect your brand’s core values and be courteous to all customers.

Stay Up to Date With Technology

If you have a restaurant and social media platforms for your restaurant, make sure that each of them is cohesive and easy to understand at a glance. Having a difficult website to navigate can immediately put off customers and doesn’t provide the positive atmosphere you want to promote to them.

Have A Clear Communication Between Customers?

There is nothing more upsetting than not being able to contact an establishment when something is wrong with your order. You can prevent this by having a secure phone line for customers to call, so you are easy to reach a moment’s notice. Now, people who may be dissatisfied with their service can talk directly to an associate who can amend the problem, instead of going online to write about their poor experience.

Utilize Third-party Review sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Google Local

Monitor, listen with empathy and respond when issues arise. Offer a solution instead of defense and a sincere apology will go a long way. Here are some useful links to get you started.

Yelp Business Homepage: Here you can create your business review page:
https://business.yelp.com/

Trip Advisor Business Page:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Owners

Create/own your Google Business listing, then send customers to post a review to your page. https://www.google.com/business/

Finally, here is a great example from one of our Fine Dining restaurants, the beloved Caffe dell’ Amore. This is a two-sided card the server gives customers along with the bill once he has ensured the customer has had a great experience.

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