Double your Google reviews: Cardito Village's success story

💪 X2 the number of Google customer reviews collected. 🎢 +0.4 on average Google rating. 🔍 N°1 on the strategic keywords "Italian restaurant" "brunch restaurant". In just one month, the Cardito Village group has seen its online performance explode.

With a family approach, the group's three Italian establishments offer convivial cuisine based on sharing. All in a setting designed by architect Wilmotte. The Cardito Village adventure begins with the opening of Caffé Cardito in late 2022. This will be followed by the inauguration of Nonna Cardito and Casa Cardito at the end of 2023. With ambitions both in Paris and in the South, the group plans to expand by the end of the year.

How did the three restaurants manage to achieve remarkable performance in terms of local SEO and e-reputation? By collecting a large number of Google customer reviews in a very short space of time! Let's find out how Cardito Village overcame two major online communication challenges.

Kevin, Marketing Director of the Cardito Village group, called on Malou in November 2023. He shares the keys to a successful communications strategy for Caffe Cardito, Nonna Cardito and Casa Cardito.

"The MalouApp is very easy to use. It's become a daily tool, I use it every day, it's my routine!"

Challenge No. 1: Make restaurants rank No. 1 on their strategic keywords

Before Malou, local SEO wasn't a priority. Invisibility on Google was an obstacle to attracting new customers.

Before Malou, working on local SEO for restaurants is not on the agenda at Cardito Village. Restaurants don't appear in the first results on keywords that are essential for attracting potential customers, leaving them invisible.

The solution: Set up a turnkey local SEO strategy with MalouApp

Kevin asked Malou to define and facilitate the daily execution of tasks aimed at moving restaurants up the search results and increasing conversion.

Thanks to the MalouApp, the marketing director of the Cardito Village group :

• Manages all restaurant information, such as schedules, across all centralized platforms via the interface to ensure optimum consistency.

• Use the most strategic keywords for each restaurant in all SEO-relevant spaces: Google descriptions and publications, as well as customer reviews.

• Create and schedule regular Google posts with keyword-rich captions, thanks to generative AI.

• Respond to all customer reviews in under 25 minutes, thanks to templates and automation from the MalouApp.

The centralized automation of time-consuming tasks via the MalouApp enables marketers to manage their local search engine optimization in a fun and efficient way, achieving more than satisfactory results in less than 2 months.

The result: Restaurants appear in TOP3 on +4 decisive keywords

Regular SEO work with the MalouApp has enabled Caffe Cardito, Casa Cardito and Nonna Cardito to increase their online visibility.

Occupying first place on "Italian restaurant", "brunch restaurant", and ranking in the top 3 on "restaurant open on Sunday", the Cardito Village group restaurants are now well positioned. Since these improvements, Casa Cardito's visibility on Google Maps has increased 16-fold, and Nonna Cardito's has doubled. Better online visibility attracts more customers, boosting the success of the Cardito Village Group.

Challenge 2: Improve the e-reputation of each of the group's restaurants as quickly as possible and manage Google customer reviews.

Before Malou, Cardito Village restaurant customers weren't asked to leave Google customer reviews, and the management of collected reviews was limited.

"On Google reviews we were a little off".

The Cardito Village group's first restaurant - Caffe Cardito - received very few customer reviews. The two more recently opened restaurants started out with relatively low ratings, due in part to operational problems in the service and kitchen areas. The teams on duty paid little attention to the number of reviews received for each service.

The solution: Use Malou's magic totems to motivate employees about Google customer reviews and improve operational quality with semantic analysis.

First of all, we had to make operational decisions to improve the problems and monitor the evolution of customer satisfaction.

Using semantic analysis on the MalouApp, Kevin tracks the sentiments - both positive and negative - that emerge from customer reviews on a daily basis according to the main categories: Price, Cuisine, Atmosphere, Service, Cleanliness, Expectation. The analysis provided by the MalouApp enables management to adapt its actions and rectify any areas of dissatisfaction.

Kevin has installed Malou magic totems in his three restaurants. But he has also found a motivating method to encourage his teams to maximize their use.

Thanks to contactless technology, Malou's magic totems enable customers to access the "leave a review" page directly by bringing their phone close to the totem. Customers are no longer discouraged by the numerous steps required to share their opinion. Kevin then introduced a motivating competition to encourage his teams to make maximum use of the totems. Servers have their own personal totem. At the end of each month, Kevin uses the MalouApp to identify the totem with the most customer reviews. The winning waiter wins a meal for two in one of the group's restaurants, or a bottle of champagne.

The result: 2X more Google customer reviews thanks to the totems, up from 4.2 to 4.6 in one month on Google.

The initiatives implemented in Cardito Village restaurants, coupled with an assiduous response to Google customer reviews, have improved the group's e-reputation.

Number of totem scans: 338 over the past month, generating 222 reviews - double the number in November before the totems were installed. Employees, motivated by the competition, have contributed to the collection of positive customer reviews. As a result, the average rating for each restaurant has risen over the past month. Casa Cardito: +0.4 on Google in one month, Nonna Cardito: +0.3 since inception and Caffè Cardito: +0.1 on Google since inception. The response rate has risen to 100%, compared with 32% at Nonna Caffe. A real gain in time and productivity in the management of Google customer reviews, enabling restaurants to respond in less than 25 minutes, compared with 3 to 4 days previously, and to reply to all reviews without exception.

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Conclusion:

In just two months, the Cardito Village group has transformed its online visibility, moving from obscurity to the spotlight. The results speak for themselves: Casa Cardito x16 in visibility, Nonna Cardito +0.7 in average rating, and Caffe Cardito in the lead for "Italian restaurant". Kevin, Marketing Director, brilliantly met the challenges of local SEO and e-reputation.

The collaboration with Malou was decisive.The MalouApp optimized local SEO, propelling the restaurants into the top 3 of crucial searches. Proactive e-reputation management, via Malou's magic totems, boosted the number of positive reviews. The results? Improved visibility, higher ratings and stronger customer relations.

Cardito Village has not only improved its online presence, but also created a fluid, user-friendly customer experience. This success story demonstrates the power of an intelligent strategy, combined with innovative tools, in building a powerful online presence and creating a positive e-reputation. The future looks bright for Cardito Village, with its ambitions for Paris and the south of France shaping up to be exceptional.