Manage your customer reviews like a pro: 12 tips for restaurateurs

These reviews also play a very important role in your restaurant's local referencing. In other words, your position in search engines (i.e. whether you're found first when certain keywords are searched).

‍Sohow do you take care of your e-reputation? How do you respond to reviews? What to do with negative customer reviews? Can they be deleted? How can I get more reviews? Here are 12 tips from Malou!

Why respond to google reviews of your restaurant?

1. Respond to image reviews

Responding to customer reviews of your restaurant can be time-consuming and tedious, but there are ways to effectively manage your e-reputation. Once you've listed your establishment on all the relevant platforms, it's vital to monitor what's being said about it, and to respond to both positive and negative feedback.

The main target: "Google reviews", which appear as soon as someone searches for you online. They are linked to your Google business listing (also known as "Google listing", "Google my Business" or "Google Business Profile").

Your restaurant's e-reputation reflects customer satisfaction. When choosing a restaurant, Internet users rely on the image reflected online. This is particularly true of customer reviews left on the Google page, TripAdvisor, TheFork... It's these reviews that Internet users rely on to know what kind of experience to really expect in the restaurant concerned.

Reviews therefore have decision-making power: convincing (or not) Internet users to come and eat at your restaurant.

2. Responding to reviews for your SEO

But that's not all! E-reputation is also a crucial factor in your digital communications strategy. But to nurture your e-reputation, you need to exist online.

The best way: register your restaurant on as many relevant platforms as possible to maximize your chances of being listed.

As an expert in restaurant SEO, Malou connects you to over 60 global platforms to get your restaurant to the top of search results. Take advantage of our guide to local SEO below!

But it's not enough to register your restaurant on these channels to take advantage of them, you must also ensure rigorous daily management of your pages.

Responding to customer reviews is one of the tasks to which we devote time on a daily basis.

Did you know? Your rating on Google is not equal to the average of all your ratings! This figure out of 5 takes into account 1/the fact that you respond to your reviews 2/the speed with which you respond. Result: responding - and responding quickly - to all your customer reviews raises your average rating 🤯

The more customer reviews you have, the more popular the Google algorithm considers your restaurant to be. The same goes for responses to customer reviews! The more reviews you respond to, the more the algorithm considers you to be an active and trusted restaurant.

So don't hesitate to ask your visibly satisfied customers to leave you a comment after their visit. You can also organize review collection campaigns using a QR code, a Malou Totem or a Malou Wheel of Fortune.

Responding to negative reviews is absolutely essential!

Prepare 2-3 sample responses that you can use in the event of a negative review, and personalize each response by mentioning the surfer's name, the reason for their complaint, an apology, a solution (coming back, a free dessert), etc. More tips on negative reviews below👇

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Here are our 12 tips for responding optimally to customer reviews

🔥 No time to read this article? Prefer pictures to text? No problem! Everything a restaurateur needs to know about customer reviews is in the webinar replay below!

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12 tips for responding to Google reviews of your restaurant

1) Be reactive and respond quickly (72 hours maximum)

Responding quickly - ideally within 72 hours - is rule no. 1. Platforms value establishments for which the restaurateur responds to customers (responding to a negative review reduces its weighting in the total average).

On the other hand, responding promptly to a customer shows your interest in their experience. On the other hand, a late response would abort the beginning of a contact with them, and you'd miss out on building customer loyalty.

If you notice that you haven't replied to 1 or more reviews from a few weeks/months ago, take the trouble to reply anyway. Better late than never!

At Malou, our MalouApp mobile application gathers all your reviews in one place and lets you respond to them directly from the app. Our artificial intelligence can generate automatic responses in a matter of seconds.

2) Reply in the language of the reviews submitted

Customers who have taken the time to leave positive feedback about their experience will be delighted to see that you've also made the effort to respond in their language. Even if your answer is only approximate!

To help you with the translation, don't hesitate to use simple tools like ChatGPT.

‍You'll give your customer the feeling that you're considering their point of view, but you'll also encourage non-French-speaking web users to visit you.

3) Respond to customer reviews of your restaurant in a personalized way

Personalized replies allow you to :

• ‍‍Showthat you are genuinely interested in customer feedback and experience;
• Improve your local SEO by including keywords in your answers.

To do this, greet the customer by the first name displayed, and repeat elements cited in their review.

The aim is to avoid giving the customer the impression of a generic response, copied and pasted to each and every review!

For referencing purposes, add the name of your restaurant as a signature, your neighborhood, the name of a dish, etc.

Best of all: if you remember this customer, personalize your answer even more according to what they ordered, the occasion of their visit, your discussions in the restaurant, etc.

4) Include keywords in review responses

To move up in local search results, there's nothing like keywords!

In fact,review responses are a strategic place to place terms searched for by potential customers.

However, it's important to use them intelligently, so as not to render the sentences nonsensical. Algorithms on platforms such as Google read the content of customer reviews and their responses, and use the terms used as keywords relating to the restaurant.

Define the 10 keywords most relevant to your restaurant and often searched for by Internet users. Then use them in all strategic places: descriptions, review responses, Google posts...

For example: "pizza Paris 14", "Indian restaurant", "best artisanal ice cream in Lyon", etc.

At Malou, we define the most strategic keywords for your restaurant, based on their search rate and your restaurant's identity and offering.

5) Always thank the customer

Positive or negative reviews, you should always start by thanking the customer for taking the time to share their experience in your restaurant. For negative reviews, this helps to soften the situation, and maintain a positive image of your restaurant despite strict feedback.

6) Invite the customer to return

After thanking the customer for coming and returning, invite them back! To try out new dishes, for example.

‍It's also a great way to highlight your new products: if you're organizing a special event, change your menu, create a new cocktail, add a terrace, a special winter corner... Because when you respond to a review, the customer concerned receives an email notification, thus creating an opportunity for you to capture their attention.

How do you respond to negative or fake reviews?

Negative reviews are inevitably more complex to manage than positive ones. Responding to a dissatisfied customer has certain prerequisites, but is also necessary to reduce the impact of the feedback, both online and in the customer's environment.

Some restaurateurs dread and fear negative reviews to the point of preferring not to respond to them. Yet responding to negative reviews improves your average Google rating and your SEO!

Negative feedback, if well managed, can play down a situation or give you the opportunity to improve your image with Internet users.

Can I delete a negative or false review?

👉 The answer is no, it's not possible to remove a negative or false review yourself.

👉 What to do:

• Go to your Google business card;

• In the event of a fake review (the review seems to come from a robot, a competitor, has no connection with your establishment, or is intended to harm you): report it to Google ;
• To do this, click on"more" then "flag as inappropriate" ;
• The Google teams intervene in the following days to decide.

If, in the opinion of the teams, the notice does not comply with the rules, it will be deleted. Otherwise, the notice will continue to appear.

👉 The last resort: responding to the notice!

If the review hasn't been removed by Google, be sure to respond calmly and clearly. Explain why (false review, intention to harm you, etc.), that will be enough.

7) Step back from negative feedback

First thing to do: take a step back. According to Forbes explains that there are three types of negative customer feedback:

• The "SOS" notice: the customer wishes to alert your establishment to a problem they have encountered and would like you to find a solution;
• Feedback: the customer wants to tell you about a problem that you should resolve to improve your dishes or service;
• The "alert" review: the customer wishes to inform other Internet users that they should not visit your establishment.

76% of those who leave a negative review expect only an apology and a show of interest from the establishment concerned.

In the case of SOS or feedback: thank the customer, specify the solution.

In the case of an alert: state that you don't agree with the review and invite users to visit your site.

A little humor or a light-hearted tone will always go down well with potential customers.

8) Propose solutions publicly

Providing solutions in the body of your answer, publicly demonstrates your mature handling of the situation.

"You can't please everyone!" - there will always be customers who find something negative about their experience with you. There's no such thing as zero risk!

Remember that other Internet users are aware of zero risk. With social media, they've probably already experienced it: hateful comments, harassment... So they know that certain opinions are not legitimate, and they know what's what.

The important thing is to show your community that leaving your restaurant unhappy is not a common occurrence. And that you can afford to offer solutions to make up for it.

That's why taking the time to analyze and respond to a negative comment is worth it. ‍

Possible solutions include offering a discount/promotion, a free dessert, a goodie, etc.

9) Follow up privately with the dissatisfied customer to avoid a cascade effect

Once you've publicly proposed a solution to the customer, you can continue the discussion in a private message, or invite them to contact you directly if the platform doesn't support private message exchange like Google.

This shows that you take their request seriously, and that you are genuinely trying to understand and learn from their dissatisfaction. In addition, private messages enable you to maintain a relationship with the customer more instantly than through reviews. You can keep them informed of the improvements you've made in response to their criticism.

10) Don't hesitate to invite unsatisfied customers back to your restaurant

Why invite a dissatisfied customer to repeat the experience at your establishment? Simply to change their mind! By making these suggestions, you'll be showing Internet users that this dissatisfaction is not a habit and is only the cause of an incident. If they agree to come back, pamper them and make sure they leave with a smile on their face. Who knows, you might even end up turning him into a regular customer.

11) Request a notification update

If tensions with the user subside, don't hesitate to ask them to change their mind or to reply to their own comment , letting users know that the problem has been taken into account and resolved.

In this way, your negative reviews can be transformed into positive ones. Of course, this step should come at the very end of the review process.

However, if the customer refuses to change his comment, don't insist. The important thing is to publicly state that the problem has been solved, and to present this solution transparently.

12) Use negative customer reviews to improve processes

If certain comments come up regularly, ask yourself how you can improve your processes. Once a month, you can bring your teams together in a meeting room to review all the customer reviews and identify the strong points that come up frequently, and the negative points.

At Malou, our Artificial Intelligence analyzes the semantic content of all customer reviews and draws up detailed reports.

Thanks to this functionality, restaurateurs have real-time access to the positive and negative elements highlighted in customer reviews in different categories: cuisine, price, atmosphere, service... and can act accordingly.

Are you the victim of a defamatory review, a competitor or a customer who has never been to your establishment?

We advise you to report the review ("flag as inappropriate"), then reply to it, highlighting any inconsistencies in the review. For example, a comment about a dish that is no longer on the menu at the time of the review, or a suspicious account that seems to belong to a competitor...

If the review hasn't yet been removed by Google, it can at least reassure Internet users who may be inquiring about your restaurant and have seen this prohibitive rating. Don't forget: responding to customer reviews, both positive and negative, increases your chances of success by 88% of converting customers.

In the past, word-of-mouth made or broke the reputation of an establishment, but today, reputation is played out online. So it's vital to look after your image, highlight positive reviews and neutralize negative ones (or learn from them!). And don't forget local SEO! The 12 tips above are designed to improve your position in search results. It's up to you! 🔥

How many reviews do you need to increase your average Google rating? Discover the online calculator created by Malou to estimate how many positive reviews you need to improve your overall average!

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