Almost every week, you hear about the latest marketing trends on social media — we’re constantly seeing usage stats on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. That can be great news for you as restaurant who needs to get the word out & get more butts in seats, BUT there’s a major risk to consider.

Just as fast as social media sites become a relevant marketing tool, they can quickly change and put a big dent in your marketing & communication strategy.

We all remember when Facebook started changing the news feed algorithm that dropped organic reach for businesses on Facebook 50–90%. Today, Facebook has become less of a social media platform and more of an ad platform (while Facebook reviews are becoming a force to be reckoned with — more on that in a different post).

We have seen many restaurants focus their entire web strategy around Facebook — utilizing resources to create a social media following just to have the content you post not visible to the majority of the people who like your page.

Whoever owns the platform owns the data.

There’s no doubt that organic social media content & engagement is an important part of your marketing, but it’s not foremost, it’s too fickle for that. When you’re using social media to market your restaurant, you’re the tenant renting space (and instead of paying with your wallet, you pay with your data).

When your primary marketing medium can make a quick, seemingly overnight algorithm change and drop your visibility by close to 90%, you may want to rethink your marketing priorities.

After Facebook made the change to their algorithm, it affected every business page- and social media industry insiders reeled. John McDermott of Digiday said it represented “one expensive and frustrating lesson that’s better to own than rent.”

Owners make the rules, not tenants. 

Better to own than rent.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a big advocate and promoter of social media. But I encourage every restaurant operator interested in growing sales to begin with a home base that you can control. Use social media to support your message, get reach, & connect with your customers, but build your house on your own lot. 

Few things in business and life are stable, but some things are more stable than others. When it comes to the internet, the only thing you can truly control is your own website and your own customer list.

Do a quick check — go visit your website on a mobile device and check the following things:

1. Is it mobile friendly? The test for this is if you can view the entire site (especially the menu) without pinching and zooming.
2. Is your menu up to date and accurate?
3. Do you have current specials, & events posted?
4. Do you have a way (and compelling reason) for your customers to sign up for your email/ text list?

If the answer to any of the above is no, unfortunately you may be missing the point. You may be making a common mistake of maintaining and improving property you don’t own (social media) while letting the property you own fall into disrepair. If you find that you’re in that place, don’t dispair- almost half of independent restaurants today are in the same place. The good news is you can absolutely take steps to remedy that today and stand out from the competition.

Once you have your website up to date, I recommend you focus on building your own customer database — it may not be as trendy as social media, but email is truly one of the strongest assets you have to turn one-time customers into loyal followers.

Why? Because it’s yours.

The post Don’t Build Your House On A Rented Lot appeared first on Restaurant Logic.

We recommend that each negative review gets a thoughtful response from you. Online review sites continue to shape customer’s decisions about where they are going to dine. While you can’t directly control what is said, you can control your public response. Below you’ll find the 3 components to a great owner’s response.

Before we analyze a great response to a negative review, here are some key points to remember:

• Be sure to get claim your listings & get notified when a review is posted. Here are instructions on how to claim your profile & get notified for reviews on each of the top 4 review sites.
• When responding to reviews, you’re goal is not to win an argument, it is diffuse the negative review and show a thoughtful & engaged ownership/management team at the restaurant
• Your response isn’t just for the individual that wrote it, it is for the thousands of people that will see the review and your response in the future.

Here is our quick guide on how to respond to a negative review:

1. Say thank you

The quickest way to diffuse negativity is with gratitude. Say thank you t0 the reviewer for taking the time to provide their feedback. No need to gush, just a quick thanks.

“Hi (person’s first name),

Thank you for taking the time to write a review here on (review site)…”

2. Acknowledge their feedback & give a sincere apology

Make sure you show that you heard their specific feedback (food, service, ambiance, etc), that the experience they had on their visit was less than what you strive for.

“…We always strive to provide excellent service & great food in a comfortable and friendly environment, we are very sorry you didn’t find that on your recent visit…”

3. Learn more offline

Transition into learning more about their experience and utilizing the feedback to help improve for the future. Ask them to provide more details to take the conversation private via email.

“…We often hear of the great things here at (your restaurant’s name) but it is helpful to hear when things aren’t so good as well. If you are willing, please email me at (your public email) with the approximate date & time of your visit and any other details you can recall. We would like an opportunity to learn more from your feedback and do everything we can to create an enjoyable dining experience for every one of our guests in the future…”

A complete response to any negative review should include these 3 components. Your goal is to take the conversation offline to your email inbox. Here is the complete response template:

Hi (person’s first name),

Thank you for taking the time to write a review here on (review site). We always strive to provide excellent service & great food in a comfortable and friendly environment, we are very sorry you didn’t find that on your recent visit. We often hear of the great things here at (your restaurant’s name) but it is helpful to hear when things aren’t so good as well. If you are willing, please email me at (your public email) with the approximate date & time of your visit and any other details you can recall. We would like an opportunity to learn more from your feedback and do everything we can to create an enjoyable dining experience for every one of our guests in the future. Thank you again!

-(Personal signature)

While there are many ways to word a response, we recommend starting with a thank you, acknowledging the feedback, sincerely apologize, and learn more offline.

The post Anatomy Of A Restaurant’s Response To A Negative Online Review appeared first on Restaurant Logic.

YELP

1. Start by searching your business name at biz.yelp.com (this is our Yelp for Business Owners website). You should log in to your Yelp personal account first.

2. Click the business’ name from the search page listing the business.

3. Locate and click the “Work Here? Unlock This Business Page “link from the page.

4. Create your business account on Yelp

5. Then Follow all the steps on the page in claiming your business

6. You will be receiving a phone verification to verify that you are claiming your business; all you need is to verify and approve it.

7. NOTE: If you aren’t able to claim your business on Yelp using phone verification, you’ll receive a prompt to submit a report to their Support team, which will include information about your business and the time of the attempt that they can use to assist you.

Get notifications anytime a new review is written:

1. Login to your Yelp business account

2. Click ‘Account Settings’

3. Click ‘Manage Your Email Preferences’

4. Check the box next to ‘Send me an email when someone reviews my business’

5. Click ‘Save Settings’

TRIPADVISOR

1. Enter your business name and city, and then click “Search.” A drop-down menu will appear if your business is listed in the directory. (If your business is not listed, go to the new listing page and follow the prompts.)https://www.tripadvisor.com/GetListedRestaurant

2. Register your Listing. You can choose to register your business or continue the process without registering. Click “Register for this business,” which is the only way you can manage your listing. Registration is free.

3. Sign in using Facebook or Google. Alternatively, you can complete a registration form. If you are already a TripAdvisor member, sign in using your current credentials.

4. Complete the registration form. This step connects your TripAdvisor account to the business listing.

5. Verify your business. For security, TripAdvisor requires that you verify your identity using one of three ways: Facebook profile (recommended), credit card details, or documentation sent via email or fax.

Get notifications anytime a new review is written:

1. Login to your Tripadvisor business account

2. Click on Profile > Account Preferences

3. Ensure ‘TripAdvisor Review Report’ is checked

ZOMATO

1. Visit https://www.zomato.com/business

2. Search for your business name and where it is located

3. Click on the “claim listings” link and this will send a verification email or SMS to the email address of phone number you provided.

4. Approve verification

5. Start managing your Zomato Account

GOOGLE

1. Visit google.com/mybusiness, click ‘Start Now’ on the top right

2. Sign into google account

3. Search for your business. Click the listing if it already exists or click Add Business if not listed.

4. Verify your business. The verification process helps ensure that your business information is accurate and that only you, the business owner or manager, has access to it. You may see one or several types of verification depending on the type of business you manage:

a. Verify via postcard

b. Verify via pone

c. Verify Instantly

d. Bulk verification

5. Once you’ve verified, you may see a banner asking you to review your information and make any final changes. Click Done editing when you’re certain that everything is up to date. You won’t be able to update the business’s name until the verification process is complete.

Get notifications anytime a new review is written:

1. Login to your Google Business account

2. Click ‘Settings’ on the top right menu

3. Scroll to “Receive notifications” and check or uncheck the box next “Reviews” to turn review notifications on or off

—

If you’re looking for a great tool to help you improve your online reputation, check out Restaurant Logic: a multi-platform internet marketing engine built for independent restaurants. Visit Restaurant-Logic.com to get more info and schedule a demo.

The post How To Claim Your Business Profile On the Top 4 Restaurant Review Sites appeared first on Restaurant Logic.

Let’s face it: Customers wield a remarkable amount of power over businesses these days — anyone with taste buds and a wifi connection can be a restaurant critic.

Sites like Yelp & Tripadvisor have revolutionized the way consumers talk about and discover restaurants. Review sites can either be a great thing for your restaurant or a major deterrent of business.

If you’re like many restaurant operators, you prefer to ignore the online review sites as it feels like you have no control or maybe you share a popular belief — only certain pesky customers really pay any attention to sites like Yelp. There is no doubt that there is an increase in the amount of power a review site has to influence customer actions — A recent Harvard studyfound that an uptick of just 1 star can have up to a 9% overall increase in your sales.

Since you are reading this, you’ve probably had some sort of negative experience with an online review. You’re not alone. The good and bad news is that your competition is also on every review site and has either chosen to complain about it/ignore it or to use it as a powerful marketing tool. Get a step up on your competition by using online review sites to boost your business. It’s not as hard as you may think.

Here is your 4-step guide to combating negative reviews and wield online review sites as one of your greatest marketing tools:

Step 1: Embrace online reviews.

The first step to combating negative reviews is to know when and where people are talking about you online.

It can be daunting to think about how consumers can talk about your brand online — there are hundreds of sites people are writing reviews on, however, there are 5 sites where over 80% of online reviews get posted. Here are the top 5 sites you need to keep your eyes on — these links will take you to the page to claim your listing:

Yelp

Tripadvisor

Google

Facebook

Zomato (formerly urbanspoon)

And of course OpenTable if you accept reservations through their platform

Through each of these platforms you can claim your profile and set up notifications each time a new review is posted.

Pro tip: You can catch most of that last 20% by setting up a Google Alert

Negative reviews aren’t the end of the world, in fact, negative reviews can actually be good for your restaurant. Here’s what I mean. If you see a perfect 5-star rating for anything, you become a bit skeptical of the accuracy; however, if you see a ‘positive review sandwich’, it actually creates more credibility for your restaurant:

Good review

Great review

Bad review

Great review

Good review

Having a few bad reviews thoughtfully responded to (more info on this below) mixed with mostly positive reviews builds a lot of credibility for your brand — everyone knows that a human-based business isn’t perfect ALL of the time. Embrace that thought and use the negative reviews to your advantage.

Step 2: Respond to all negative reviews.

Now that you have your profiles claimed, it is important to respond to all negative reviews that are posted.

Have negative reviews from many months (or years) ago? Only respond to reviews from the past 90 days as it may look a bit disingenuous to respond to a review 4 months after it was posted. Make a commitment to respond to all negative reviews from this point forward.

For positive reviews — give random, unexpected thank you’s to through a different medium than the review came in on and an occasional thank you as a comment on the review. Send a personal thank you note, email, Facebook message, etc.

Pro Tip: send personalized thank you notes automatically throughThankster

Why respond to the negative reviews? Here are 2 great reasons:

1. Responding not only helps to pacify an angry customer, it can turn a negative into a positive. Respond, and you’ve got a 20% chance of converting mad customers not only into returning customers, but raving fans.
2. Show the thousands of people that will see this review in the future that there is a consciences & thoughtful owner/management team at this restaurant. Not only will you diffuse the negativity of this review, you’ll get a chance to show your restaurant’s personality and culture to future viewers.

You may be asking what a good response to a negative review looks like. See our ‘Anatomy Of A Restaurant’s Response To Negative Reviews’ for response tips and template. You may also be wondering if any reviews can be removed. Generally, you can flag reviews for removal if they have vulgar/obscene language, call out a specific employee/manager/owner, or have slander. Here are Yelp’s guidelines for what types of reviews can be flagged for removal.

Step 3: Take bold steps to improve based on valid feedback.

It’s easy to write off negative reviews as they seem to come from ‘trolls’ and are hard not to take personally. I encourage you to look at the reviews objectively and find ways to improve — afterall, this is pretty inexpensive feedback you may not see yourself and would have to pay a mystery shopper to get this sort of objective look at your business.

Talk about that internally & be transparent with your team and customers — in some cases, you may choose show the feedback on social media and what you did to correct it. Celebrate the feedback and show the world how you’re improving. This will go a long way to build trust and credibility.

Pro Tip: Create your own mystery shopper program. Utilize a tool likeRestaurant Logic’s feedback feature or Google Forms to create a questionnaire. Have your friends and regulars fill this out using their smartphone.

If you listen to feedback & make meaningful changes based on what you learn, watch what happens to the customers and team members you engage in this process, I think you’ll like the results.

Step 4: Get more positive reviews.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking: Duh, that’s the whole goal here. How to do this isn’t as obvious, however. Here is a sure-fire way to get more positive online reviews: ask for it! The best ways to do this:

• Add a feedback element on your website on a feedback page (www.yoursite.com/feedback)
• Advertise the ability to give feedback through your website in your check presenters — Example & Free template here
• Add a sign on the back of your front door w/ link to your site
• Add the link to the bottom of your receipts

The point here is to not let a customer leave your restaurant without knowing they can give you direct & candid feedback through your website. Once you get that feedback, thoughtfully respond and manage the negative reviews and personally invite the customers who gave you positive feedback to write a review on a review website.

Pro Tip: Use Canva to quickly create professional-looking check presenters. A typical check presenter insert is 3.5″ x 8.5″

Here is a positive feedback response template that will help you in generating more positive reviews on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc:

Make it personal — write a note in the check presenter requesting feedback(example here). Use an online feedback tool embedded in your website. AtRestaurant Logic, we have developed a full online feedback tool that you can configure to automatically respond based on sentiment of the review or you can use a free solution like Google Forms. Make it a habit to respond to every review that comes through your internal feedback system. Automation is recommended here so responses go out very shortly after someone writes a review:

When responding to negative feedback, you’ll want to get a thoughtful response out as soon as possible to dissuade someone from going to an online review site. Again, automation will help things from falling through the cracks, but it is recommended you follow up with a personal response addressing their specific concern.

Here is an example of an automated response to negative feedback:

Hi (customer name),

Thank you for your recent feedback about your experience at our restaurant. We value your opinion & are very sorry to hear that we didn’t exceed your expectations during your recent visit. Please know that our management team will be reviewing your feedback and we will be in touch very soon. In the mean time, if you would like to speak to one of our managers, please call our office at (your number) or email (your email).

Thank you again for your feedback.

-(your name)

When responding to positive feedback, you’ll want to genuinely thank the reviewer, provide a kudos/gift of some kind, and refer them to online review sites.

Here is an example of an automated response to positive feedback:

Hi (customer first name),

(your name) here from (your restaurant). I just wanted to reach out to you personally to say THANK YOU for providing the great feedback about our restaurant during your recent visit! Customers like you are what keep me smiling every day.

As a special thank you, I’d like to give you a coupon for a free appetizer of your choice just for being an awesome customer. Simply click this link for your coupon (must be used for dine-in only).

Thank you again for your business, we hope to see you again soon!

-(your name)

P.S. I’d sure be honored if you’d share your feedback about (your restaurant) on Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, and Zomato

If you are a Restaurant Logic customer, these responses are already loaded in your dashboard, however, you can edit these templates to make them your own. If you’re not, please feel free to use the suggestions above for the system you’re using.

My hope is that you’re feeling more empowered about your online reputation. Let me know if you would add anything to this in your comments below!

-KS

The post 4 Steps To Combating Online Negative Reviews appeared first on Restaurant Logic.