5 Essential Ingredients for Reputation Management for Restaurants

Restaurateurs, bakers, caterers and other culinary businesses put so much heart and soul into their businesses. It takes a real passion for food to succeed in this market, and the rewards of satisfying your customers are delicious. But every culinary business runs into less than happy customers from time to time. Whether it was an off-batch of ingredients or the client was just having a bad day, we know that unhappy customers are more likely to post a negative review online than all of your many happy customers. Sad, but true! So, do you know how much just one bad online review costs? In blunt terms, just one unhappy customer review could cost you 30 new diners—talk about leaving a bad taste in your mouth! This is why reputation management for restaurants is one of your most critical ingredients for success in the business. Reputation Builder can help you defend your restaurant’s reputation and actually help you build clientele by helping you the 5 following ways:

1. Diners Make Snap Decisions from Online Reviews

Practically all of your diners are looking at online reviews, and more often than not, they’re checking them on their phones while looking for a good place to eat. They’re making snap decisions based on where they are and how many stars your restaurant has collected from online reviewers. With this in mind, does your restaurant have a strategy for managing online reviews? Did you even realize it was possible to do? It is! Aside from putting forth your best culinary efforts every day, you need a plan. That’s where Reputation Builder’s reputation repair for restaurants can help. Because otherwise, at least 80 percent of diners who see even one bad review of your restaurant will look elsewhere for lunch.

So, building a strong collection of happy reviews from diners who enjoyed your restaurant is one of the most critical keys to defeating the few negative reviews you may get. Reputation Builder has an incredibly easy way for you to do this.

2. Reputation Repair for Restaurants: Building a Library of Happy Reviews

The statistics show that if your restaurant can collect 12 happy reviews to every one bad review, you’ll be in good shape. Until now, the problems has been how to collect all of those happy reviews—because it’s unfair (and incredibly frustrating) when you know you are putting wonderful food on the plate and providing delightful service, and most of your diners are delighted—but the one vocal diner who didn’t like it is the one posting the review.

Reputation Builder provides restaurants, caterers and bakers with a fast, mobile solution that helps you collect 5-star reviews from happy clients in several different ways. When you know they’re really enjoying the food and the ambience, you can request a review via text, email or other quick and easy online means, all with one very easy-to-use interface on your end. 

Reputation Builder makes reputation repair for restaurants a very easy matter. As you build a full pantry of happy customer reviews, the one or two negative reviews will pale in comparison, as most of your potential diners can tell that the negative poster was probably just having a bad day compared to everyone else who really enjoyed your restaurant.

3. Reputation Defender Services for Restaurants: Get Feedback First!

Another angle Reputation Builder uses to provide useful reputation defender services for restaurants is the “Feedback First” feature. As you interact with your diners and customers, Reputation Builder gives you flexible tools to request feedback from them during your interactions with them. So, if they’re having a less-than-perfect experience, they can inform you right then and there, giving you the opportunity to take amazing care of that diner so that you turn their poor experience into a fabulous one. More often than not, this will turn a skeptic into a major fan. If you are able to collect that feedback before an online review even becomes reality, you can cause what might have been a negative review to turn into a super positive one. It’s all about being there, in the moment, for your diner, and making it right for them.

Of course, it’s not possible to stop trolls—those totally negative people who post negative reviews without ever having eaten at your establishment—but if you’re building a large collection of happy reviews and nipping potentially bad reviews in the bud by providing extra fabulous service to customers who need a little extra something, most people looking through your reviews will be able to tell the difference between a real dining experience and a troll. This two-pronged approach to reputation defender services for restaurants is a recipe for success in online marketing.

But you’re still wondering: How do we handle trolls? The short answer is to ignore them and keep doing what you do best while Reputation Builder handles the rest. You can also report them to the online review service they’re using. The most important thing to remember is to keep a cool head and not respond to them online or when in a fury about it. Trolls thrive on your attention, so starve them of it while you keep serving the best food to your hungry diners.

4. No Reputation is almost as Tasteless as a Bad Reputation

Restaurants, bakeries and caterers are often so busy that they have little time to worry about their online presence. And yet, a positive online presence is just as important as knowing how much salt and pepper to add to a dish. Potential diners expect to be able to look for places to eat from their phones, and they expect to see online reviews. It’s not an option. If they don’t find you there—with good or bad reviews listed—you’ll practically be invisible to a huge potential clientele! Your establishment’s survival depends on taking a proactive approach to reputation management for restaurants.

Reputation Builder can actually boost your visibility online, in a delicious way. This is because the more happy reviews you collect, the bigger your SEO footprint will be. The more potential diners will see your listing and be enticed to come and taste your wares. And with each new customer you delight, that will give you another opportunity to collect “feedback first”, which can turn into even more positive reviews, which are like…

5. Free Marketing? Reputation Builder Makes It Happen

If you and your team are too busy creating fabulous food and new culinary experiences for your diners, it makes complete sense to enlist your happy customers into your marketing team. And because potential diners trust the online reviews of current diners, it’s almost like free marketing for your restaurant. Restaurant goers care about positive reviews and often decide to visit new restaurants based on those reviews.

Reputation Defender Services for Restaurants