12 tips for responding to your restaurant’s customer reviews in the best way

In 2023, 35% of consumers choose a restaurant based on influence from online reviews. Responding to customer reviews for your restaurant, both positive and negative. 77% of diners rely on peer reviews over critic reviews.

In the restaurant industry, these reviews are crucial, as they reflect the quality of the restaurant and the customer’s experience, influencing whether more customers will choose to visit. Reviews also play a significant role in the local SEO of your restaurant.

So, how can you take care of your online reputation? What should you do with negative customer reviews? How can you strategically respond to customer feedback and gather more reviews?

Responding to restaurant customer reviews can be time-consuming, but there are methods to follow to manage and enhance your online reputation. After listing your establishment on relevant platforms, it’s crucial to monitor what is said about your business and respond to feedback, both positive and negative. Here are our 12 tips for responding to customer reviews effectively!

Online Reputation: An Essential Tool for Restaurateurs

Your restaurant’s online reputation reflects customer satisfaction. When choosing a restaurant, internet users rely on the online image, especially customer reviews on platforms like Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc. These reviews help them gauge what experience to expect. Thus, online reputation is a crucial factor in your digital communication strategy.

To improve your online reputation, you must first have an online presence on as many relevant platforms as possible to maximize your restaurant’s visibility.

However, just listing your restaurant on these platforms is not enough; you must also ensure daily and rigorous management of your pages. Responding to customer reviews is one of the tasks that require daily attention.

The more customer reviews you have, the more new visitors consider your restaurant popular. Don’t hesitate to ask satisfied customers to leave a comment after their visit.

Platforms like TripAdvisor or Google also provide dissatisfied customers with a platform to voice their opinions and potentially tarnish your online reputation. Responding to negative reviews is absolutely essential.

Here are our 12 tips for optimal responses to your customers’ reviews:

1) Be Responsive and Reply Quickly

Regularly monitor reviews on various platforms. Responding quickly or within a short period—ideally within 24 hours—is important. Platforms value establishments where the restaurateur engages with customers (responding to a negative review can lower its impact on the overall rating). Responding quickly shows the customer that you value their experience. On the contrary, a delayed response could hinder building a connection with the customer, and you might miss the opportunity to foster loyalty.

Note: If you notice that you haven’t responded to one or more reviews dating back a few weeks or months, still take the time to reply. Better late than never!

→ At Malou, our mobile application, MalouApp (available on the App Store and Google Play), allows restaurateurs to receive notifications for each customer review or message sent by customers. This enables them to respond promptly using the application!

2) Respond in the Language of the Reviews

Customers who take the time to leave a positive comment after their experience will appreciate your effort to respond in their language.

Note: To assist you in translation, feel free to use ChatGBT.

By responding in the customer’s language, you convey that you value their perspective and also encourage non-English speakers to visit your restaurant. The emphasis is not on perfect mastery of the language but on creating a positive impression.

3) Respond to Restaurant Customer Reviews in a Personalized Manner

Responding individually to each customer demonstrates genuine interest in their feedback and the experience they had at your restaurant. Address the customer by the displayed first name and refer to elements mentioned in their review. The ideal approach is to personalize your response further based on what the customer ordered, the occasion of their visit, your interactions at the restaurant, etc. The goal is to avoid giving the customer the impression of a generic, copy-paste response to every review.

In the example below, the restaurant owner took the time to address specific details mentioned by the customer, making the response more personalized and avoiding the sense of an automated reply to everyone.

→ Our solution offers various ways for restaurateurs to respond to customers efficiently without sacrificing the importance of personalizing their message. Through personalized automation, including the author’s name and mentioned elements, and the ability to save response templates for different scenarios, adaptable later.

4) Include Keywords in Your Response

Responding to customer reviews is essential not only for customer retention and promoting a positive image but also for boosting search results for relevant keywords. Responses to reviews provide a strategic location to insert terms searched by potential customers. However, use keywords intelligently to avoid making sentences sound meaningless.

Platforms like Google read the content of customer reviews and responses, using the terms as keywords related to the restaurant.

Note: Define the 10 most relevant keywords for your restaurant, often searched by users. Then use them in strategic locations: description, responses to reviews, Google posts, etc.

→ With its algorithm, Malou defines the most strategic keywords for your restaurant to use: based on search volume, your restaurant’s identity, and offerings. It then guides you on how to use them effectively. We’ll show you how it works!

5) Always Thank the Customer

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

6) Invite the Customer to Return to Your Establishment

After thanking the customer for their visit and feedback, don’t hesitate to extend an invitation for them to return to try new dishes they might not have ordered the last time. It’s also an excellent way to highlight any new offerings, special events, changes to your menu, new cocktails, additions like a terrace or a winter-themed corner, etc. When you respond to a review, the customer receives an email notification, creating an opportunity to capture their attention.

How to Respond to Negative Reviews?

Negative reviews are more challenging to handle than positive ones. Responding to an unsatisfied customer has prerequisites but is necessary to mitigate the impact of their feedback, both online and within their circle. Some restaurateurs fear negative reviews to the extent of avoiding implementing a review collection system.

However, properly managed negative feedback can be de-dramatized and an opportunity to improve aspects that displease customers.

So, when you receive unpleasant reviews, don’t panic! Solutions are available to restore your image online and encourage dissatisfied customers to give your establishment another chance.

7) Take a Step Back from the Comment

Even if the review is hard to digest, you must consider it. View this perspective as an opportunity to improve your offerings or service. Forbes explains that there are three types of negative customer reviews:

• The “SOS” Review: The customer wants to alert your establishment to a problem they encountered and seeks a solution.
• The “Feedback” Review: The customer wants to inform you of a malfunction that you should address to improve your service.
• The “Alert” Review: The customer wants to inform other users not to visit your establishment.

In each case, thinking about solutions can help ease tensions with the user.

When facing negative customer reviews, we recommend staying calm and expressing regret for the customer’s dissatisfaction.

8) Propose Solutions Publicly

Offering solutions in your response publicly demonstrates your mature handling of the situation. Some customers will find negatives during their restaurant experience, and you have to deal with it. The zero-risk doesn’t exist, and your followers understand that. The key is to show your community that leaving your restaurant dissatisfied is not common. You can afford to propose solutions to rectify the situation.

Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution; each problem has its unique response. Therefore, take the time to analyze the negative review, as recommended above.

Among possible solutions, you can offer a complimentary item (dessert, cocktail, etc.), making it easier to convince the customer to return.

9) Continue Privately with the Unhappy Customer to Avoid a Cascade Effect

After publicly proposing a solution to the customer, you can continue the discussion privately or invite them to contact you directly if the platform doesn’t allow private messaging, such as Google. This shows that you take their complaint seriously and sincerely attempt to understand their dissatisfaction and learn from it. Private messages also help maintain the relationship with the customer more instantly than through reviews. You can keep them informed of improvements made following their critique.

10) Do Not Hesitate to Invite Unsatisfied Customers Back to Your Restaurant

Why invite an unsatisfied customer to revisit your establishment? Simply to change their opinion! By making these proposals, you show internet users that dissatisfaction is not a habit and is only due to an incident. If they agree to return, pamper them and ensure they leave with a smile. Who knows, you might even turn them into a regular customer.

11) Request an Update of the Review

If tensions with the user ease, don’t hesitate to ask them to change their review or respond to their own comment, indicating to users that the problem has been addressed and resolved. Your negative reviews could thus transform into positive ones. Of course, this step should occur at the very end of handling the review. However, if the customer refuses to change their comment, do not insist. The important thing is to publicly indicate that the problem has been solved and present the solution transparently.

12) Use Negative Customer Reviews to Improve Processes

Take a step back from posted reviews; if certain remarks recur, consider how you can improve your processes. Once a month, gather your teams to review all customer reviews, identify recurring strengths and weaknesses, and then work on improving them.

→ At Malou, we developed our own Artificial Intelligence that analyzes the content of all customer reviews and generates detailed reports. With our semantic analysis feature, restaurateurs have real-time access to positive and negative elements highlighted in customer reviews across different categories: cuisine, prices, ambiance, service, etc.

Victim of a defamatory review, a competitor, or a customer who has never visited your establishment?

We recommend reporting the review (Google and TripAdvisor easily allow this), then responding publicly, highlighting the inconsistencies in the review. For example, comment on a dish that is no longer on the menu at the time of the review or on a suspicious account that seems to belong to a competitor.

If the review has not yet been deleted by Google, it at least reassures internet users researching your restaurant and seeing this deterrent note.

While word of mouth once made and broke the reputation of establishments, today, reputation is played out online. It is essential to manage your image, highlight positive reviews, and retain their authors. It’s equally crucial to neutralize negative reviews, learn from them, improve, and eventually change the minds of those who left them.

The key is to respond to all these reviews and ensure that the reviews left are positive, and the customer experience is good.