Help your restaurant stand out from your competition

Whether your restaurant is new in the industry or a hometown favorite, positive online reviews help bring your company success. Reviews serve as a great tool for receiving feedback from your customers. Maybe your restaurant is too noisy or the lighting is too dim. Whatever your customers are saying, make sure you’re listening.

Here are three reasons restaurants need online reviews:

1. Earning star ratings with Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor.

Research shows that star ratings matter. In fact, more than 1 in 3 diners won’t eat at restaurants with a star rating less than four. People trust other people, and online reviews are reflections of their opinions. The more positive reviews you gain, the higher your chance of reaching that five-star status. According to the National Restaurant Association, a one-star increase in a restaurant’s Yelp rating can result in as much as a 9 percent increase in revenue.

2. Bringing in new business.

Customers like to make informed decisions. With online reviews, people are able to gain a sense of the food, atmosphere and service of your restaurant before they even show up. This is extremely important for driving new business. Whether people are visiting from out of town or just looking to try something new, online reviews provide insight for your company.

3. Becoming customer favorites.

Great owners are aware of what people are saying about their restaurant. Online reviews are a terrific source of feedback for owners and managers to learn what their customers are actually thinking. The negative reviews will indicate problem areas that they can improve – for example, slow service or uncomfortable chairs. The positive reviews will show the areas where the restaurant is excelling. Whatever it is your customers are saying, make sure you take the time to respond to show them you’re listening.

Customers are talking online and it’s your job to listen. It’s tough to stand out from the competition, and online reviews are an easy way to spread the word about your restaurant. By responding to reviews, your ratings will begin to rise in no time.

ReviewMaxer is a great tool for your business to collect and manage your customers’ online reviews. You can also post or stream positive reviews directly to your website and social media channels. Watch our complimentary demo today to see how easily and efficiently you can protect and improve your online reputation.

Photo credit: Pablo

Written by: Kelly Delgado

ReviewMaxer explains this frequently asked question

Most often, third-party review sites retain the rights to content published about your business on their site. In other words, it’s against their terms of service to reuse the reviews published on their site for any other purpose. That’s why we only use a short snippet of third-party reviews in our review stream – to remain compliant with each site’s terms of service (ToS).

However, any reviews you collect directly via our platform (using the Review Now button or Review First layout) are yours forever. You can do whatever you’d like with them, and they remain yours even if you cancel your account with us (just make sure to save them somewhere else so you don’t lose them – we don’t hang onto them after you’ve deleted your account).

ReviewMaxer is an affordable and easy-to-use system to manage your company’s online reviews and reputation. Use ReviewMaxer to promote your positive reviews and interact with your customers to resolve negative reviews. Sign up today for your free demo.

Photo credit: Pablo

Learn customer service strategies from other companies

When it comes to your company’s online customer reviews, sometimes you have to sift through several bad ones to get to the good ones. Occasionally, you might come across a truly ugly one that makes your blood boil, but how do you respond? With anger or love?

Companies, whether small or large, need to be at the top of their game when responding to customer feedback. This requires them to be prompt, witty and gracious. The goal is to earn public approval with exemplary customer service. Take a hint from these businesses in learning what to do and what not to do with your customer service strategy.

Here are the good, the bad and the ugly examples that represent some dos and don’ts of customer service.

The good: An example of a company doing it right

JetBlue is scoring points with customers due to its awesome customer service track record. The airline is serious about pleasing its customers and is willing to go the extra mile for a positive review. The company has more than 1.8 million followers on Twitter, more than 1 million likes on Facebook and hundreds of positive reviews on Yelp.

A tactic that JetBlue employs is that it doesn’t leave its customers hanging. The company responds to complaints and feedback quickly – most times within 10 minutes. The airline doesn’t stop there; it works toward surpassing customers’ expectations. For instance, when one customer, Alexa Burrows, was flying home to Boston, she went on Twitter to express her happiness about arriving home and jokingly tweeted for JetBlue to throw her a welcome home parade. JetBlue’s Twitter team sent a message to the Boston airport staff to throw Alexa a welcome home parade when she arrived, which they did. How awesome is that?

One secret to JetBlue’s top-notch customer service is that employees engage with customers cleverly, using their wits and creativity. They can’t make everyone’s wishes come true, but they do selectively respond to the online comments that provide an opportunity to add value to the company.

The bad: An example of a company doing it wrong

American Airlines is doing it wrong and customers are noticing. The airline is known for its over-the-top positivity, even when its optimistic responses don’t make an ounce of sense.

Customers suspected that something was up when American Airlines kept replying to customer complaints on Twitter with repetitive, upbeat responses. No matter what the commenter said, American Airlines replied with something along the lines of “thanks for your support.” Confused customers quickly got on Twitter to tell American Airlines that the jig was up and that robo-tweeting is lame.

Sending automatic responses is tricky. In the case of American Airlines, the automated responses didn’t make sense in the situation. The lesson: Have robotic responses, but also have humans to address the public when the situation turns sour.

The ugly: An example of a company doing it really wrong

If you are running a company, your first priority is to satisfy your customers, especially those who dislike your company. One restaurant’s response to a negative online review provides a perfect example of how not to treat your customers – ever.

The chef at Pigalle in Boston lost his cool when a patron lambasted his cooking skills on Facebook. She wrote that the pumpkin pie tasted like vomit and that it wasn’t worth the price she paid for it: $200. Instead of offering a free meal or refund, the chef responded viciously and rudely – with several expletives. It took some time – and a public and very nasty online exchange – but in the end, the chef realized his mistake and made amends with the miffed customer. Let’s hope he learned his lesson and leaves the “angry chef” gimmick to Gordon Ramsay.

Regardless of what a customer says about your company, you have to handle it with grace. If you do anything else, the entire Internet may turn against you – and ruin your company.

Responding promptly to online reviews and complaints is an important step in providing terrific customer service. It’s also extremely time-consuming. ReviewMaxer is an online review management software application that helps companies manage customer feedback and also improves their online reputation. ReviewMaxer efficiently monitors, collects and promotes your online reviews from one central dashboard. Sign up for a free demo to see how this cloud-based software can save you time and protect your company online. Read the ReviewMaxer blog for more tips on how to handle negative reviews and how to get your company at the top of search listings today.

Photo credit: 123RF Stock Photo

Written by: Paul Cook

Reputation management is crucial to a health care professional's success

As a health care professional, your online reviews are crucial. One negative review from a patient, and you lose potential business. Ninety-two percent of consumers regularly or occasionally read online reviews (an increase from 88 percent in 2014), according to BrightLocal. Your online reputation is the new word-of-mouth. It’s important that you monitor your online reputation on health care review sites, while proactively reaching out to your patients to gain more positive reviews.

Here are three reasons why you – a health care professional – should care about your online reviews:

1. Great reviews establish trust and credibility.

Your potential patients will feel confident choosing you as their doctor when they read positive reviews from your previous patients. Reviews offer valuable information from your patients and colleagues, like how much they enjoyed your bedside manner or how they had minimum wait time during their visit.

2. Great reviews improve your SEO.

As positive reviews increase, your online reputation will organically improve and enhance your Google search results, ultimately driving more patients to pick up their phones and call you, your office, your hospital or your clinic. Work toward gaining positive reviews on a variety of different health care review websites, such as Healthgrades and RateMDs, as well as your own Facebook page.

3. Great reviews outperform no reviews or negative reviews.

Since health care is a highly competitive industry and there are so many providers to choose from, you can’t afford to lose patients simply because another doctor had more positive reviews. Reviews play a big part in a potential patient’s decision-making process, so be sure you’re reaching out to your current patients for their feedback on review websites.

Reputation management software helps doctors gain more positive reviews by sending an email or text message to their patients after their appointments requesting feedback about their experience. Sign up for a free demonstration to see how the ReviewMaxer software works.

Written by: Rebecca McClure

If you own a business, you know how disappointing it is to receive a negative review. Whether your reviews are good or bad, it’s important to handle them correctly. Online reviews are changing the way consumers make purchasing decisions. Most people will read reviews on your business before becoming your customer. Online reviews play a huge role in defining your company’s reputation.

Here are five tips to remember when responding to your customers to maintain your company’s good reputation:

1. Automate the customer review process.
2. Be gentle with your responses.
3. Think human, not robot.
4. Reply to most (or all) reviews.
5. Make customer satisfaction your mission.

Whether they’re trying a new restaurant, buying clothing, planning a trip, or even looking into housing options, consumers almost always look at reviews first. Reviews help consumers feel confident in their choices. Forbes’ article “20 Online Reputation Statistics That Every Business Owner Needs To Know” states that 74% of people trust a business based off of positive reviews they’ve read.

When you own a business, it’s your “baby.” And when someone doesn’t love your baby, it can be difficult to navigate an appropriate response. Today, reviews are vital in gaining customers, so how you respond is everything.

So, as a business owner, it’s important to put the customer first, even when your feelings are hurt. If someone leaves a bad review, you should respond quickly and gracefully. Doing so increases your chances that the unhappy customer might give your business another try.

A negative review is not always all bad. Criticism can be good for companies. There’s always room to learn and grow. By responding to criticism in a productive way, you’re showing consumers you’re looking to improve. Mostly, people want to know you care – they want acknowledgement.

If you’re new to online reviews or the process seems overwhelming, try online review management software like ReviewMaxer. ReviewMaxer is an affordable and easy-to-use system to manage your company’s online reviews and reputation. Use ReviewMaxer to promote your positive reviews and interact with your customers to resolve issues. Sign up today for a free demo. Or, check out the ReviewMaxer blog for advice to improve your company’s online reputation.

Written by: Taylor Wilson

5 ways to respond to unhappy customers and improve your company’s reputation

Before the Internet, a customer called or visited a business to complain. The only people to hear the angry customer’s complaints were the customers in the store at that time who may gossip to their neighbor about the incident. As a result, there was little negative effect on the business due to a customer’s frustration.

Now that unhappy consumers can take their complaints online, it’s a different story entirely.

When customers complain, they don’t spread the news by personally telling 10 people. Instead, they post their complaints on sites such as Facebook, Yelp, Google + and even Twitter. One comment attracts several others and has the potential to reach millions of people. As a business owner, what can you do?

The first step is to make unhappy customers your number one priority, doing what you can to make sure they don’t post a negative review about your business. In the event you are dealing with an angry customer, always address the individual with kindness. If a person posts a negative review or complaint about your business online, here are some useful strategies you can use:

1. Automate the customer review process.
   Invest in an automated system that notifies you when a customer has posted a review about your business. Online review management software allows you to send customers a request for a review. And, it gives your customers options to post their reviews on several different review sites.

If they do post negative feedback, the system provides them with an option to post on review sites that people rarely visit to search for reviews. If customers leave positive reviews, the opposite happens, and they get sites such as Yelp and Facebook, thereby pushing your more positive reviews and comments to the top of the search engine listings.

2. Be gentle with your responses.
   When you read a negative review about your business, it often leaves you fuming. Your anger is certainly just, but you don’t want to lose a customer or create a bad impression for others. You should pause to regain your composure, and then respond to the customer with kindness and sincerity: “We apologize about your bad experience with us. How may we fix the situation?” or “To make it up to you, we can offer you a discount on your next purchase with us.”

Think with your head and not your heart. Your heart will want to rip the bad reviewer’s comment to shreds, but your head will want you to maintain a good relationship with the customer.

3. Think human, not robot.
   Put yourself in the shoes of the customer to see how you would like the company to handle the situation. When you draft a reply, make sure you put some human elements in the response. A robotic reply will not appease your customers and may only fuel their anger. Be as humane and sincere as possible with your responses.
4. Reply to most reviews.
   If you are unable to respond to every review on the site, employ someone to do it. The reviews you shouldn’t reply to are those from people who seem inexplicably prejudice toward your business or those who are making unreasonable requests that you can’t fulfill. Train your employees to identify comments such as these and avoid responding. Also, instruct employees how to handle general complaints, such as accidentally charging someone too much for his or her food – perhaps by apologizing and giving the customer’s money back or offering a free meal.
5. Make customer satisfaction your mission.
   Make customers your business’s top priority. Tell your employees that even if they have to go the extra mile to make sure a customer leaves satisfied, they should. Adopt customer satisfaction practices such as sending flowers, upgrading shipping or offering refunds. You can also tell your employees to think outside the box when trying to please customers. When your business focuses all their efforts on ensuring the happiness of its customers, reviewers are sure to celebrate the company’s customer-centric approach on review sites.

It’s difficult for businesses to keep track of everything being said about them on the Internet. But it’s critical to manage and control the reviews and complaints in order to protect your brand and reputation. Take control of your online reviews today with ReviewMaxer. This powerful, cloud-based software provides its users with a proactive review strategy to quickly and easily manage reviews and comments from more than 500 sites. Sign up for a free demo to see how the ReviewMaxer software works and read the blog for more tips and resources to protect your company’s reputation and strengthen your business.

Photo credit: 123RF Stock Photo

Written by: Paul Cook