For a business, reviews and star ratings are one of the things that weigh heavily into a consumer’s decision on whether to invest in your business or not. Within the restaurant industry, there’s no denying how vital reviews and ratings are to keeping current customers happy, while also enabling the acquirement of new customers. For businesses who depend heavily on reviews, having a pristine online reputation is crucial to keeping up with their old customers while also allowing themselves to drive new business in; all by the digital age’s version of word of mouth.

Though you may not think you have a hand in the altering of your business’s ability to acquire more 5-star reviews, the opposite is actually true. See, once you come to the realization that change starts at the center of your restaurant, you’ll easily begin to tweak things and maneuver your way around the world of online reviews. Yes, it can be difficult and seemingly impossible to navigate your way through every review and rating left in regards to your business on the web. Let’s be real; the internet is a huge place.

With the quantity of areas for reviews and word-of-mouth to hide around the web, it’s crucial that your business has some sort of plan implemented to review and dissect these reviews before they get the best of you. After all, it’ll be hard to gain 5-star reviews if you’re not monitoring and catering to the ones you already have. For all you know, they could contain valuable information in them regards to how you can better your services from various angles. The customer sees your restaurant differently than you may, and that’s OK.

But to ignore the multiple opinions of patrons isn’t a best practice; and it surely won’t lead to gaining 5-star ratings. Contrary to what you may have heard or believe, the power to gain more 5-star reviews is in your hands; it just takes looking over these 5 steps carefully and with much consideration to each point within. Keep in mind, these are not complex tasks; merely ones that once you’re in the habit of, they’ll seem like second nature, and who doesn’t love that?

1.Identify Current Review Metrics

Before you can start raking in the 5-star reviews your business wants and/or needs, you’ll need to first Identify current review metrics. This means identifying your current review metrics. From the total number of reviews per month, to breaking them down between positive, negative and neutral; this is a vital step so that you can see what your starting benchmark is, and just how far you have to go. People leave incalculable value when they post a review of any sort regarding your business, and you should start to view negative and positive reviews in a different light if you desire to up your ante and gain more of those well sought after 5-star ratings.

2. Identify Feedback Opportunities

Identifying where there are asking opportunities to receive feedback is crucial. Whether it be at the counter or the front podium of your restaurant; there are countless opportunities you may be missing out on due to simply not asking for feedback. Nowadays, there are numerous ways to request feedback. Whether it be via email, text or via tablet at your dining table; there’s hardly an excuse to not be out there requesting feedback on a plethora of platforms. The one exception is Yelp This is a crucial step in any restaurant’s management protocol, simply because if you don’t ask, you likely won’t receive. With this feedback, you can pinpoint problem areas while letting those lifting their weight and then some around the restaurant shine.

3. Establish Review Goals

To break that down for you, this means setting attainable goals for your restaurant’s singular or multiple locations, and sticking to it. For example, setting a goal of 40 reviews per location per month is a great starting point to gauge feedback in moderation. Setting these goals allows you to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and add incentive to your staff’s daily routines.

For instance, let’s say that you have a server who seems to be struggling, and isn’t pulling their weight on the serving team. If you incentivise them with rewards for performing at a higher level with customers and get them to seek feedback at the same time, your business will undoubtedly grow in unexpected yet necessary ways, and your wait staff will see the benefits of performing at a higher level; likely making them more eager to join in on the fun.

4. Set Up Landing Pages

Next you’ll need to set up or buy review request landing pages. This prompts customers to the specific page they need to be at to leave feedback. There is a beautiful thing about incorporating landing pages such as these into your restaurant’s website, as well. By embedding landing pages that are directed back to your site, you can gather valuable feedback from verified customers, thus allowing you to make real-time improvements without the negativity being spread throughout the world wide web.

However, with landing pages, you can also prompt users who internally leave you 4 or 5 star reviews to share their feedback on a third party site such as Google, Facebook or TripAdvisor. This leads them into the review funnel with minimal effort; making it a seamless transaction on all fronts.

5. Launch Beta Test

Lastly, it’s best to launch a batch of small tests with a few restaurant locations over a 2 to 3 month time frame to gauge what differences have been noticeably implemented. Throughout the course of time you’re introducing these new policies and factors into play, you need to be tracking the success or downfalls of certain aspects. Maybe your efforts have gone awry because you picked the road less traveled. Perhaps you saw exponential growth in your sales customer retention thanks to implementing asks for feedback at every stage of the dining experience in a user-friendly way. These are all stats you’ll want to be managing and keeping a close eye on, as they’re direct reflections of your business’s online reputation. Monitoring every review left in regards to your business can be difficult to do on your own, but with our help; it’s not only easy, it’s free. Get started with us today and see the difference and growth for yourself.

Lee McNiel