Customer Reviews and Ratings are Your Internet Reputation

Why are reviews so important for your restaurant?

Owning and operating and independent restaurant is a daunting undertaking. There is so much to be done a less and less tine to accomplish anything.  In the midst of all this you must pay attention to your restaurant’s reviews.

In the current restaurant business environment(1), you simply must pay attention to your reviews while striving to get better reviews all while focusing on more volume of reviews.  The reason for this is simple…..Consumer’s use review to decide where they will dine.

Why Are Customer Ratings Important?

Utilizing the internet has become a way of life for most consumers. Websites like Google and Facebook have already become one of the preferred methods for deciding which restaurants the consumer will dine at.  Millions of consumers view these reviews daily. You should put those reviews to good use for your restaurant and do so without having to spend any marketing dollars.

By encouraging more positive 5 star reviews you can nudge your total review volumes up and increase your average ratings. By doing so more consumers will trust that they can anticipate a great experience at your restaurant. Long story short…consumers want to see lots of reviews as compared to your completion. They also want to see higher overall ratings than your competition.

Great Customer Ratings Will Improve Your Business(2)

A recent study performed at the University of California, Berkeley, concluded that positive reviews have a direct correlation to increases in foot traffic during peak hours. They found that a ½-star rating increase resulted in a 30-40 percent increase in the number of peak hour bookings.

Imagine if your restaurant could increase its foot traffic by 30 to 40% and what that could meant to your revenue and bottom line. Further imagine that you could encourage more and better reviews for zero cost. That’s t nsidering these data points you can only conclude that consumer reviews are critical to your restaurants business and health.

It’s plain to see that receiving more and better customer ratings is key to growing your customer base, increasing revenue, and driving down costs – and this is expected to remain the case for quite some time.

Therefore, you should be doing everything you can to improve your ratings across all the major review sites. By only asking know delighted customers to review your site you in effect are stacking the odds in your favor. You’ll find it easy to get more reviews and at the same time you will increase your star rating.

The kind of marketing program that every restaurant needs.

So, make it simple, just ask delighted customers for a review. If the customer has already expressed their delight with their experience at your restaurant, then you are nearly assured of a great review.  You just need to ask.

Why You Should Care About Customer Reviews

There are many more studies about the effects of positive customer ratings and reviews. Websitebuilder.org collected data and statistics about the effects of good and bad user reviews.

Their data has many revelations:

  • 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more.
  • The vast majority of consumers have read online restaurant reviews, substantially more than any other type of business.
  • Most 18-to-34-year-olds report that online reviews factor into their dining decisions,
  • 34% of diners choose a restaurant based on information provided on a peer review website.
  • Consumers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with excellent reviews.

Should you respond to reviews?

It is only proper to thank your customers for their reviews.  Even though the internet is where the review is posted one of your customers has taken the time to review you.  At the very least you should respond with a ‘thank you’.  If by chance you receive a negative review you should respond with an action plan.  Something like; “Thanks for pointing this out, I’ll be sure to talk to my kitchen staff about this ASAP.”

With this all this in mind you know that there are many things you need to do to serve and satisfy your customers superbly.  You can also now see why third-party client reviews are so critical.  Focusing on quantity and quality of reviews will clearly improve your business.

Platr Marketing team,

5/25/22

**If you need any help with your restaurants digital marketing needs, be it customer reviews and ratings, social media, email marketing, search optimizations, list accuracy, Google business and more then please contact us at www.Platr.co