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.

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.

It’s safe to say that most
restaurants experience amplified guest counts during the holiday season. In
fact, you might be so busy that driving more guest counts may not be top of
mind; however, gift card sales can be an extremely effective way to increase
sales during your busy holiday season without having to grow your guest counts.
Here are some quick stats to consider for holiday gift card sales: 

· Restaurant gift cards
are the most commonly purchased gift
during the holiday season — 18% of all shoppers purchase a restaurant gift card
as a gift! 

· The average gift card
value in 2015: $47

· 52% of ALL gift card sales for a FSR happen during
the month of December

Gift cards are a quick and easy gifting solution for your
patrons, but more importantly they serve as FREE marketing to help you acquire
new customers. And who doesn’t love free marketing? So how does your restaurant
capitalize on holiday gift card purchases? Here are some best practices: 

1. Start with your website — make sure gift cards can be purchased
online

Whether its egift cards, or you
     literally just mail the gift cards out – this is extremely important as
     customers continue to move toward mobile payments.

2. Create a Gift Card LTO

 Holiday Gift Card LTO ideas: 

o Purchase $50 gift card, get $10 bonus card ($15 for Black Friday
through cyber Monday)

o Purchase any gift card over $20, get free dessert to go
(tableside offer at end of experience)

o Purchase any gift card over $20, get a free appetizer (tableside
offer at beginning of experience)

3. Define process & have staff ready to fulfill the
orders 

With the holidays, seems to come endless to-do lists for your staff. Make it a priority to educate them on selling gift cards, so when the time comes no one is confused and the gift card selling can be done quickly and effortlessly.

4. Promote the LTO in-house starting before Thanksgiving

It seems like every year Christmas comes up a little faster – Don’t get left behind.  Begin helping your customers think about your gift cards as a great gift option, so when thetime comes they know just where to go.

5.  Create table tents & bathroom posters

These are a simple solution for promoting gift cards to all your customers. Whether they come into your restaurant wanting to purchase gift cards or not, make sure they don’t leave without hearing…err seeing why they make the perfect gift.  

6.  Create staff training & staff contest

Rather than simply cutting your staff a bonus check during the holiday season, try offering an incentive program for the staff member who sells the most gift cards. It could go a long way! You may also want to help them along the way by giving them some quick one liners to help motivate customers to buy gift cards from them!

7.  Promote gift card promotion through email and social
media 

The internet is the best and fastest way to interact with your customers. With a number of social media network available as well as email communication, invest your time in promoting your gift cards through these outlets. While people are online shopping your marketing will shine through!

8.  Sell gift cards!

Gift Cards are a low-cost marketing tool that can help large or
small restaurants boost sales, and even deepen current customer relationships. However
you choose to promote gift card sales this holiday season, we encourage you to
not miss out on an excellent revenue opportunity! 

-KS

The post Your Hidden Profit Center for the Holiday Season: Gift Cards appeared first on Restaurant Logic.

 1.] Trade Social Media Action for
Free Stuff

 Incentivizing customers to share your
posts means more eyeballs on your name which equals more customers in your
door. Be sure to include an awesome picture of your food so people are
associating that delicious eye candy with your restaurants name and
initiative. 

 Here’s what I mean:

     a.) Facebook
Post: “Help us help others in this season of giving! For every share this post
gets, we will serve a hot meal to a member of our community who is without a
home.“

-Coordinate
with a local Food Pantry or Shelter to provide (x) meals for one of the nights
their kitchen is open

  -That event is also something that can be shared on social
media

     b.) Facebook
Post: “Every person that likes this post will be entered to win a 3-course dinner
for 4 people. Shares count as 3 entries!” 

2.] Gift Card Bonus Programs

 As much as this is the season of
giving, we all know humans enjoy treating themselves well too. There seems to always
seen massive success when running the deal, “Buy one $50 gift card, and get an
additional $20 gift card for free!” (or really any amount free). People know
they have to buy a few gift cards as gifts every year anyways, they may as well
get a $20 gift card as a bonus for themselves to use! Or, of course, they can always
sweeten the gift they’re giving away.

(Gift cards also make terrific last
minute gifts, so this is a program you can run until the very last minute!)

 3.] Empowering Employees 

 As part of a Christmas gift to your
employees, here’s another great option: A “Friends & Family” coupon, VIP
LTO, or $5 gift card to your restaurant for them to give to their, you guessed
it, friends and family. This can help employees feel good about working for a
place that gives them perks they can pass along. Hopefully, it also encourages
their kin to come have an extra meal or two in your establishment. 

 4.] "Customers Nominating Other
Customers” Contests

 People love interacting with other
people on social media. (Obviously that’s why the whole Facebook idea worked in
the first place. Good thinking Mark Zucherberg!) Challenge people to highlight
other people doing things in the community; whether it’s a single mother
working overtime for her kids, a local youth worker going the extra mile, or
that guy in the neighborhood who always plows everyone’s driveway before they
can get to it, let people honor other people. 

 Here’s one idea we love: 

  ‘Pie From the
Sky’ Campaign (that name is obviously designed for a pizza place)

   -Facebook Post: “We want to hear about some folks who are spreading joy this
holiday season — Nominate a person who deserves a free pizza! Create a post of
your own, write out why this person is awesome, and tag us along with that
person. We’ll select a winner in 5 days!“

 5.] Employee Bonus Night

 We have one Restaurant Logic customer
in particular that has massive success with this every year. Basically, they
dedicate one night in which all of the profit from that night goes right back
to the employees. The community absolutely eats it up (in more ways than one).  There is always a great turn out and it’s
fantastic for employee morale. Utilize this idea for your own restaurant
and show your employees the love!

 6.] Free Holiday
Appetizer

 The slight tweaking or renaming of
crowd favorites is always a great strategy to create more perceived value for
one of your LTO’s. The holidays are a great excuse to take that concept to the
next level!

 Work with your food rep and your chef
to think of a low cost special appetizer (or dessert) that you can advertise
and give away for free to every table. This might only be for one night of each
week, or it could be every night for the whole month of December; either way,
it’s a great tactic to stay top-of-mind and get people excited about coming
into your restaurant. It’s like a seasonal version of what many Mexican
restaurants do every day with the free chips and salsa. You can always choose
to include a caveat where they’re required to spend $25 or more to deter the
free-loaders. 

 Here’s some examples of “Special
Appetizers” ideas:

     -5 Golden Rings…
of Onion (Obviously, onion rings)

     -Christmas Dip
(Spinach Artichoke Dip w/ tomato or peppers diced on the top for festive
coloring)

     -Reindeer
Droppings (Pretzel Bites piled on a plate) 

     -Santa’s Cookies
(Yes… just bake some cookies and toss them on a plate)

  This is a really underutilized
resource to restaurants — You can really do this with any cause or
organization. Lots of restaurants do it once or twice a year, but it can really
be done much more than that and end up being truly mutually beneficial! Whether
it’s your area’s United Way office, a local school program, or a national
foundation, it’s a perfect way to get people eating at your restaurant all
while supporting a great cause that both you and your customers care about. Select
a percentage that you’re comfortable with and it might just be enough to tip
the decision your way when customers are looking around for a bite to eat that
night.

 One last thing. Its not necessarily a marketing tactic, but keeping
your overall goal in mind, make sure you have enough staff to work through the
entire busy season. It seems a little counter productive to get customers in
the door, then not have enough staff to keep them all happy!

 The Christmas season is a time when even the savviest penny
pinchers are willing to spend a little more to honor the spirit of giving.
Hopefully this list will serve as a useful resource for you through these busy
times, and allow you to find some time to enjoy the holidays with your own
friends and family!

 Let us know what you think of our list, or if you have had
success with our tactics you’ve incorporated in the past.

The post 7 Ways to Spread Holiday Cheer and Drive-in More Traffic this Season appeared first on Restaurant Logic.

So what does this have to do
with your marketing? Lots actually. 

It’s important that we make
some regular changes to our marketing plan – especially this time of year. With
back to school now in full play, many families are settling down for the year with
new routines. And even the younger crowd of college students is establishing
their new norms. 

Before we jump into this
pile of leaves, take a step back to see your big picture.  What are your goals
and priorities for your marketing plan? Be sure to take note of things you feel
like you and your staff have done well, in addition to things you feel could use
improvement.

Our last few blogs from RL have focused on preparing in advance for your marketing, and making sure to have a plan for your long term marketing. All great things!

But today, we’re talking baby steps. Don’t get overwhelmed by
taking on too much too quickly. Small changes to your marketing strategies can
make a huge impact on your restaurant’s business. Just be sure that everything
you do take on will further your goals. 

Now, let’s get right to the good stuff. Here’s some quick updates you can make to your marketing, that will make a big difference. 

1. Check the Health of your Website.

  If your potential customers feel like browsing
your website is like walking through a corn maze, then you’re doing it wrong. This is a great opportunity to take inventory of your site.
Broken links? Outdated content? 

It may even be time to update some photos or slides. 

Don’t miss out on customers interested in your
restaurant because your website isn’t updated and doesn’t represent you well. 

2.  Get Social.

We like our social media
presence how we like our bonfires – hot. Take a look at your Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram right now. If you were a potential customer, what would your
impression be? Is the information updated? Are the images vibrant and enticing?
Does the information posted represent your brand? If these things seem
overwhelming start small. Change your profile picture to a fresh and updated staff photo. Add some updated content regarding your fall menu. Share an enticing photo today of your new weekly specials. Make some refreshments to the little things, so when you get your regular marketing going, absolutely nothing will be outdated. 

3. Email Marketing

Like a flannel shirt in
October, great email marketing is an absolute necessity these days. If you’re seeing that your clientele isn’t reading, or even opening your emails it may be time to rethink your strategy. No matter how fancy your emails look, if they’re deprived of well-executed content, your subscribers will probably lose interest. Consider your subject line the gatekeeper of the email – your customers need to feel the email worthy of their time and this piece is key. Keep them concise, catchy, and clear. 

Well, I’m officially running
out of Fall puns, so I’m about ready to wrap up this blog post. As you read through this, I hope you were able to find at least one key idea, small as it may be, that you will be able to utilize in your own restaurant. If you’re able to dedicate even a small portion of your time or budget to one of these tactics, I guarantee you will begin to see a bountiful harvest of customers. (Ok, I lied. I guess I had one more in me.)

The post The Leaves are Falling – An Updated Marketing Plan is Calling appeared first on Restaurant Logic.