Why do reviews matter?
Better Reviews get you found more:
- Increasingly, people turn to their phones to discover new restaurants and check out places they have heard about.
- When ranking restaurants
for search, Google considers 3 things:
- 1.
Relevance 2. Proximity 3. Reputation
- ➢ Examples: “Best Sushi”, “Best Restaurant”, “Best Steak”
- 1.
Relevance 2. Proximity 3. Reputation
Better Reviews get more guests who find you online to come in and eat and help you build sales:
- 87% of consumer won’t consider a local restaurant with low ratings
- 44% of consumers pay attention to the quantity of reviews and how recent they are
- Increasing your score by 1⁄2 star results in an increase of 2-5% of sales.
- 77 percent of consumers pay more attention to consumer reviews than to professional critic reviews
- 33 percent of frequent restaurant-goers would never eat at a restaurant with an average review score of less than 4 stars (out of 5) on online review websites like Yelp, Google, and Facebook.
- 60 percent read reviews before going out for a meal
- A half star rating increase on Yelp can lead to it being 30-49% likely that restaurant will sell out seats during peak hours
- 53% of customers expect businesses to reply to their online reviews within 7 days
Reviews can also be a good source of intelligence about what is going wrong AND right in your restaurant:
- Spot
trends you may have missed
- See issues that happen when you’re not there
So how can you grow reviews? In a word, ask!
Customers who are dissatisfied and angry are motivated to leave reviews out of spite. But happy customers often don’t think about it. Most satisfied customers will be happy to leave a great review if the server or manager just asks them to do it.
Here
is an example:
Server when delivering the check or Manager at a table touch towards the end of
the meal:
• “Was everything as excellent as it
should have been tonight?”
o
If “no” –
follow up and ask why and use the Five A’s method. Get the manager if needed.
Five A’s:
- Awareness: Many mistakes go unaddressed because no one is even aware they have happened. If you’re not aware, you’re nowhere.
- Acknowledgement: “Our server had an accident, and we are going to prepare a new plate for you as quickly as possible.”
- Apology: “I am so sorry this happened to you.” Alibis are not one of the Five A’s. It is not appropriate or useful to make excuses (“We’re short-staffed.”)
- Action: “Please enjoy this for now. We’ll have your fresh order out in just a few minutes.” Say what you are going to do to make amends then follow through.
- Additional Generosity: Unless the mistake had to do with slow timing, I would instruct my staff to send out something additional (a complimentary dessert or wine) to thank the guests for having been good sports. Some more serious mistakes warrant a complimentary dish or meal.
If “yes” – “That’s wonderful to hear. I’m so glad you enjoyed the [steak and chicken]. Can I ask you to take a minute and leave us a 5 star review online? I’d really appreciate it. And it helps support our local business. Thank you and hope to see you back soon!”
Tips and Tricks from your peers:
- Be authentic and natural in your approach, make it part of the dialogue not something awkward to stick in
- Train your servers to ask, but also have GM follow up with a table touch to ensure everything was great and ask to support us with a review
- Use the “local” aspect. The best way to support a local small business is to leave a public review and tell others about it.
- Keep the entire team aware of progress! Post reviews for all to see, celebrate server wins, have a goal and make sure everyone knows it!