​DID YOU KNOW, WHEN IT COMES TO ONLINE REVIEWS...

• An increase of just one star can give a restaurant an approximate 5-9% increase in revenue

• 34% of diners choose a restaurant based on review websites

• 53% of those 18-to-34- years-old reported that online ratings and reviews were important factors in their dining decisions

• 70% of those posting negative reviews hope to get a response while only 38% actually get one

Restaurant reputation management is the process for restaurants to manage customer feedback and to create systems to improve customer experiences, build positive online reviews, and save customers. While it may seem optional, in today’s world it is a major part of managing a successful restaurant. The reputation, online or offline of your restaurant, can make – or break – your restaurant business.

 

Reviews and reputation can be the difference between a packed front-of-house with a line to get in, or a sparse dining room with too many empty seats. For these reasons, and many others, actively managing your restaurant reputation is crucial for a profitable, growing business.

 

While it is important to grow a more positive reputation, it is just as important to manage any poor customer experiences effectively.  Doing so can turn a poor experience into a loyal, happy customer ready to speak positively about your establishment.

 

A large part of reputation management is monitoring and improving your online customer ratings and reviews.  According to Modern Restaurant Management, an increase of just one star can give a restaurant an approximate 5-9% increase in revenue. 

 

Modern Restaurant Management also reported that 34% of diners choose a restaurant based on review websites and 53% of those 18-to-34- years-old reported that online ratings and reviews were important factors in their dining decisions.

 

According to Time.com, customer ratings across all industries are dominated by 5’s and 1’s and largely lack anything in the middle.  This happens because customers who have ordinary experiences are not motivated to leave a review while most that take the time to leave a review either had an amazing experience, or a terrible one.  To overcome this, Moloco will help you with useful strategies to ask your customers to leave a review for you.  Asking can make a large difference with a 2017 BrightLocal Local Consumer Survey showing that 68% of consumer respondents actually left a local business a review when asked to do so.

 

A recent study by TNS NIPO that researched 2,000 negative online ratings concluded that 70% of those posting negative reviews hope to get a response while only 38% actually get one.  This  shows that responding to customer ratings and reviews is more important than ever and Moloco can help you by responding to reviews on your behalf following the best practices including offering a solution where possible, being genuine in the desire to help, and helping you embrace the feedback by even continuing the conversation with the customer offline.  These and numerous other best practices used in responding to negative reviews have been shown in numerous studies to double the number of negative reviewers that would be willing to try your establishment again and recommend it to others.

 

While responding to negative reviews is important, responding to positive reviews can also improve the reputation of your restaurant. Simply thanking the customer for their business has been shown to improve the perception of readers of the review and inviting the customer back or inviting them to share the word about your restaurant has been shown to increase repeat visits and word-of-mouth. 

 

For most restaurants reputation management can seem overwhelming and outside of the core functions of those on your staff.  Using our reputation monitoring and response processes that have been developed, both by adopting the strategies shown to be effective through studies and those that we’ve first hand seen to be effective with our customers, you can get the benefits of experienced and active reputation management without drawing a staff member away from their core function or putting them in a position to attempt to manage your business’s reputation without having the expertise to do so.