As restaurant owners, it is vital that we respond to every single review or comment that our customers leave on different sites and social media platforms.
Because by doing so, we can maximize the use of online reviews and turn that positive or negative feedback into sales for our restaurant.
For instance, if somebody comments about our restaurant on Facebook, I'll go in and like their comments. I will comment on their comments, like saying, "Thank you for your comment."
Because not everybody does that. Many people see your posts and nobody responds. So you need to encourage what you want to see more off, focus on it.
So any communication that comes our way, we respond, specifically to online reviews. Whether it's a positive or a negative review, we go in and offer an incentive as a token of appreciation.
We acknowledge our customers genuinely for giving us a review or as a way of apologizing if we caused them any inconvenience.
This can give us benefits such as:
1. It will lead to repeat business
Even if it is a negative review, it is still an opportunity for us to have repeat business.
A study shows that 70% of people who leave a negative review online are still willing to give another shot.
Customers went online complaining about something. Whether it's our service or the food, you must provide them a reason to give us a second chance like offering freebies or incentives.
2. We've captured their email addresses so we can market to them in the future
When they email us, we can view and get their email addresses. So we'll send them a gift certificate whether it is a good or bad review.
Now that we have their email addresses, we can generate more sales out of that in the future.
Instead of the customers going faceless on Yelp or Facebook, etc, we have a way to personally exchange messages with them.
When they know that the owner emails them, we can always tell them through email that we truly care, like saying, "If there are any issues with your order, please bring that to my attention and I will personally see it, they will take care of you."
We get their email addresses so we get to sell them more eventually.
3. We can use that as a way of getting more reviews
Because thousands of people would see that our restaurant is not only offering freebies to bad reviews, but also to good feedback, maybe they are more prone to also leaving us good reviews, and in return, they will get an incentive.
This will encourage more people to give reviews, and hopefully, with all our effort to provide excellent customer service, we will get more positive words from them.
Therefore, by responding to every single review or comment that our customers leave online, we are building up a good reputation, we are growing our database, and we are boosting our sales.
Research shows that 85% of consumers make decisions based on online reviews, those being your new customers. So you must understand the significance of your online reputation management.
We must do everything we can to provide our customers with the utmost service so that we will be more prone to having more positive than negative feedback. This should be our ultimate goal.
Maximize the online reputation management of your company and turn online reviews into sales through this free 7 step template on how to respond to negative reviews, please click on this link now to download: https://www.makingdoughshow.com/resources
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