4 Tips On Getting More Positive Ratings & Fewer Poor Ratings
In the “old days” people opened the phone book to find restaurants, services and products they needed. Today, they open their smart phone and search Google or their favorite review site.
In many searches, it’s the review sites that come up first. Sites like Yelp! and Tripadvisor, for example, are popular review sites that millions of people use to inform their buying decisions. Some people simply don’t purchase or use a service without consulting their favorite trusted review site. With that in mind, here are some tips to help your business get more positive reviews.
The first two tips are about creating a positive experience for your customers, which may seem obvious, but it’s a good idea to keep reviews in mind. People will often be quicker to leave a bad review than a good review. Keeping your customers happy is one of the best ways to avoid a poor review.
1. Provide Memorable, Quality Service
People expect good service. If you give them what they want, they will likely come back and do business with you again. This is wonderful, however you are looking for more. You not only want repeat business, you want your customer to sing your praises. You want them to tell their friends and family about you, and you want them to leave you a five-star review on Yelp! or Google or Zomato.
People aren’t likely to go out of their way to leave a review for “decent” or even good service. You have to find a way to set yourself apart from other businesses. When you go the extra mile or offer a unique, personal touch, you will inspire your customers to leave that glowing review.
2. Respond To Complaints Right Away
This is the best way to avoid a poor review. People want to be heard and acknowledged, and most customers are ecstatic when a business “makes it right.” When the customer is disappointed and feels like they aren’t being heard they are motivated to leave negative reviews.
Of course, there are always those people who just seem to want to write bad reviews, but you can dramatically reduce these instances by addressing problems as they come up, making the situation right, and giving your customer the feeling that they matter and are valued. In fact, many a loyal customer has been created by the way a business handled a “bad” experience.
3. Be Sure You Are Showing Up In Review Sites
Review sites help you show up in searches, so it is important that you maintain your profiles with correct and current information.
4. Make It Easy
Finally, make it easier for people. Let them know how they can leave you a review and where they can leave you a review. Be sure that you have active links to review sites in your email signatures, blog posts and social media. Do you have a Wifi sign-in page? This is another good place to ask for and link to a review.
Remember, it is okay to ask for a review and to let your customers know how important reviews are to your business. Too many businesses fail to do this, by simply asking for the review and making it as simple as possible to do so, you dramatically increase the number of positive reviews your business receives.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Common Questions About Restaurant Marketing
Restaurant marketing is the process of getting people to visit your restaurants. Restaurant marketing creates loyalty, provides data to research, analytics, and allows restaurants to gain a better understanding of their ideal customer profile. It utilizes all customer channels: guest WiFi, website, social, rating sites, mobile apps, email, text, and advertising.
WiFi marketing is a marketing technique that uses guest WiFi to collect & clean customer data such as names, emails, phone numbers, customer behavior, and demographics. This data is used to personalize marketing campaigns to increase customer loyalty, build online reviews, and save at-risk customers. The performance of every campaign can be tracked down to the tangible ROI of a customer walking back in your door.
Restaurant reputation management is the process for restaurants to manage customer feedback and creating systems to improve customer experiences, passively build positive online reviews, and save at-risk customers. It is a very important aspect of running a successful restaurant business.
A restaurant customer data platform (CDP) is a unified software system that collects, consolidates, and activates guest data from multiple sources including WiFi networks, POS systems, online ordering platforms, reservation systems, websites, loyalty platforns, event platforms, and review sites. Unlike generic CDPs built for e-commerce or SaaS companies, restaurant CDPs are purpose-built to handle restaurant-specific data sources and create actionable guest intelligence that drives personalized marketing, operational improvements, and revenue growth automatically.
Bloom Intelligence uses machine learning to identify at-risk customers. When one is recognized, the system will send them a message with an incentive to get them to return and re-establish their visit pattern. Bloom users are seeing up to 37% of churning customers return.
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