Gaining Positive Reviews

How to generate positive reviews for your restaurant.

Everyone has an opinion. Thanks to social media, these opinions can now be shared and (advertised) throughout larger audiences more than ever before. One negative experience can broadly impact your reputation thanks to sites like Yelp, Facebook, Instagram, and google reviews. These review sites have made it possible for every consumer's voice be heard, shared and reposted throughout the world wide web. This innovation can be bittersweet for business and continuous negative reviews can deter potential  customers from even giving your restaurant  a chance.

Why should you care about reviews?

When searching for a restaurant, most consumers filter their search by most reviews and high rating. The modern day consumer knows that online reviews can be honest and high traffic means return customers, return customers mean customer-satisfaction.

Having positive reviews provide trustworthiness, so it’s clear that reviews can have a major role in the success of your business.

Here is how to generate positive reviews

A research study done by BrightLocal found that 68% of people said that positive online reviews increase their trust towards a local business and that 91% of consumers regularly read online reviews

The question is: How do you get positive reviews?  

The best way to get reviews is to simply invite customers to leave a review. Brightlocal found that 7 out of 10 consumers will leave a review for a business if they're asked to. There are some tips to follow when asking to leave a review:

-Making sure your customers are happy

This is the best way to receive positive reviews. If a customer is happy with service, food, and environment, they will surely let that be known on the review.  

-Respond to your reviews

Yes, that includes the bad ones, too! Writing a personalized message positive and negative reviews will simply state that you truly appreciate their business. Don’t forget to thank the customer for the review.

-Reaching out to negative reviews

Not only will this make you seem like you are eager to fix any problems and shows that you genuinely care. Offer them a second chance with a free meal or some coupons that will definitely bring them back in.

-Avoid fake reviews

This includes your friends/family members to leave a positive reviews. People are getting better at catching fake reviews and if they start to wonder about the legitimacy of your reviews, it’s certainly not a good sign for your business.

In conclusion,  having positive reviews will help your restaurant, not only thrive, but will also make your customers happy. What’s better than that?!