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Jessica True | March 19, 2024 |
Online reputation is important for any business, but when it comes to restaurants, it is absolutely vital. Think about yourself as a consumer: how often do you check reviews online or search for a menu before dining out?
What consumers are faced with when they search for your restaurant online can have a huge impact on your reputation, your sales, and ultimately, your success. Poor online reputation management can be linked to a loss in revenue, diminished customer trust, increased employee turnover, and lower online search rankings.
In this article, you will learn exactly what online reputation management is, why it is important, and how to enhance your restaurant’s online reputation.
Restaurant online reputation management (ORM) refers to monitoring and managing a restaurant’s presence and reputation across all its online channels. A positive digital reputation can improve trust amongst your consumers, engage new customers, and keep existing customers coming back.
While you can’t control what people are saying about your restaurant online, you can certainly take steps to improve your online reputation. Online reputation management is essential for restaurants, and here are some reasons why.
Clearly, consumers in today’s market are highly influenced by a brand’s online presence. For a restaurant, this will include your website, social media pages, and online reviews. You may even have an ecommerce element to your online presence to consider. A positive online reputation will therefore lead to more customers, and more loyal customers, boosting your sales as a result.
By incorporating sales automation tools, restaurants can effectively manage customer interactions, ensuring prompt responses to inquiries and feedback, which in turn contributes to maintaining a positive online reputation.
On the other hand, negative reviews are likely to put customers off and can therefore impact your sales revenue. Ultimately, restaurants with lots of positive customer reviews as well as a comprehensive and user-friendly website and social media pages will attract more customers.
As well as this, restaurants with a positive online reputation will save money by reducing the need to create costly marketing campaigns. They can let the online reviews and word of mouth do the work for them.
Another important aspect of online reputation management is that you can act on customer feedback in order to improve your product, service, or the overall customer experience. By monitoring your customer feedback and your online reputation in general, you can better address customer needs.
For example, you might ask customers for feedback via virtual agent software, designed to automate some of your customer interactions. Customers appreciate when businesses take their views on board, and this step will go a long way to improving your restaurant’s online reputation.
It’s worth remembering that your online reputation matters not only to your customers but to your employees too. When it comes to attracting top talent to work in your restaurant, your restaurant’s online reputation matters.
Restaurant staff don’t need to be knowledgeable about in-depth technologies such as mainframe integration, but they need to have a good understanding of the digital solutions that make a modern restaurant thrive.
Not only that, but you want to attract people who align with your company values, share your goals for your brand, and want your restaurant to be a success. In order to attract these people, you need to build a positive online presence, and ORM is an essential part of that.
To improve or enhance your online reputation, you must first understand your restaurant’s current online presence. Search for your restaurant online and observe what you find. It’s best to do this on an incognito browser for the most accurate results.
Look at what you see, as this is what your customers and potential customers will see when they search for you online. First, are you easy to find? Does your restaurant come up in the search results? If not, you’ll need to start there, and revise your web page for search engine optimization (SEO).
If your restaurant shows up in your search, look closely at your results. You might want to consider:
Once you have an idea of how your restaurant is showing up online, you will have a better understanding of what your online reputation management strategy should look like.
A good restaurant web page should give customers a good first impression and, ideally, will match your restaurant’s aesthetic and vibe. It should also provide relevant and up-to-date information such as:
For larger chains that are using contact center AI solutions, make sure your website has clear links to customer service solutions and make it easy for your customers to get in touch or use the customer service solutions you are providing.
Check for glitches like broken links, as these can turn users off immediately. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile users too, as many prospective diners will be searching for you on their mobile device.
Finally, don’t underestimate good cyber security solutions. Protecting your site from cyber-attacks and complying with relevant regulations is essential. Make yourself aware of guidelines such as GDPR and NIST CSF to prevent a major reputation crisis.
In addition to optimizing your restaurant's website, leveraging modern technological solutions is important for optimizing operational efficiency. Integrating advanced systems like cloud POS solutions can significantly streamline various aspects of restaurant management.
With diners checking social media more often before dining, it is not only essential to have a social media presence, but to optimize your profiles to boost your online reputation.
To leverage social media to enhance your restaurant’s online reputation, consider the following:
Looking for inspiration? Consider brainstorming social media post ideas that showcase your restaurant's unique ambiance, featured dishes, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or customer testimonials. Engaging content can significantly contribute to shaping a positive online reputation and attracting more customers to your restaurant.
For restaurant reputation management, reviews are key. In fact, 86% of consumers have reported that they would avoid a business based on negative reviews.
Understanding the significance of online reviews is important, especially considering that the restaurant industry statistics indicate how influential they are in shaping consumer perceptions.
It’s important to keep a check on your new reviews on a regular basis, and keep your whole team updated with common themes that come up in your reviews. This is where technology such as enterprise web conferencing can come in handy as you can communicate effectively with your restaurant team. Doing so will help you to:
What if you receive negative reviews? Firstly, don’t panic. Negative reviews don’t have to ruin your reputation, but how you respond to them can heavily influence the impact of the review. Resolving a negative review in a polite, timely, and genuine way will strengthen your reputation and show that you truly value your customers’ opinions.
A restaurant's online reputation management is not only about protecting your reputation but also about improving your customer experience and boosting the overall success of your restaurant.
A good ORM strategy starts by understanding your online presence. Then, by optimizing our website and social media pages, you can begin to enhance your online reputation.
Keeping an eye on your reviews and ensuring you respond to them is also a key component of a restaurant’s online reputation management. Recognizing your strengths and addressing criticism will help you to run a better and more successful business.
Jessica True is the Senior Director for Marketing Strategy and Operations at Dialpad, a modern business communications platform that takes every kind of conversation to the next level—turning conversations into opportunities. Jessica is an expert in collaborating with multifunctional teams to execute and optimize marketing efforts, for both company and client campaigns.
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