Reviews and Restaurant Marketing; The Key to a Good Reputation

Thanks to the rise of the digital era, consumer focus has shifted from traditional media (i.e., offline media) to online media as in websites and social media platforms. And of all the industries getting reviewed online, the restaurant industry has its fair share of scrutiny. Hence, the indispensable role of restaurant marketing and how it is key to a restaurant’s good reputation.

Why restaurant marketing is important?

Most guests will check out review sites before they pick a restaurant. They may come across your website or social media, and according to guest reviews, they may either go for your place or move on to another. And when you know that a study has found that 93% of consumers check reviews before dining out, you’ll know why integrating reviews in your restaurant marketing strategy is something worthy of consideration.

How to encourage positive restaurant reviews

Restaurant reputation goes beyond managing online reviews. To boost positive reviews, your restaurant marketing needs some tweaks as follows:

1. Keep one step ahead

You don’t want to wait till dissatisfied guests leave your restaurant, return home, and write a negative review about your place and service. Rather, encourage your staff to reach out to them while they’re dining in. This way, you’ll prevent a bad review from being posted by going only one step further with your restaurant marketing.

2. Incentivize online reviews

For many, positive online reviews are key to picking a restaurant. Good restaurant marketing is to ask guests to leave a review, but excellent restaurant marketing is to encourage them to leave one through an incentive. A discount coupon is an effective way to get more customers to give online feedback on your restaurant.

3. Respond to online reviews

Yes, you may not have control over reviews, but you can control the way you handle them. A good response to a negative review could be a smart restaurant marketing move. It shows that you care about what guests think of your brand. And, obviously, responding to positive reviews shouldn’t be overlooked. Replying to both positive and negative reviews helps build the restaurant community you want.

How to respond to reviews

1. Respond timely

Ideally, respond within 24 hours. It shows you are online present,  responsive, and that you take your restaurant marketing seriously.

2. Be considerate

Even if the review is aggressive, keep your response kind, courteous, and considerate. Bear in mind that your goal is to maintain a good image of your restaurant.

3. Don’t play the blame game

Guests aren’t always right. Even if a guest is to blame, respond calmly while stating the facts and acknowledging their issues.

4. Personalize your responses

A great deal of restaurant marketing lies in making your guests feel special. Refrain from copy/paste texts, for when you address your guests personally, you show that you care.

5. Create a template

Your response template should be fixed, yet flexible. Start off by thanking your guest, refer back to something in their review, be positive, acknowledge your mistakes, and always invite them back to your restaurant.

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Why Your Restaurant Needs POS Integration

If you’re a restaurant owner, you probably have some repeat guests who regularly spend a good deal of money at your restaurant. Such information you may have come across through mere observation, but other valuable information may go unnoticed if there is no POS integration.

What is POS?
A point-of-sale system, or POS, is the place where customers make payments for products or services at your business. POS software isn’t limited to credit card payment transactions. It also tracks sales and inventory, adjusts prices, and gives sales reports.

What is POS integration?

Technology isn’t new when it comes to restaurant management. Think reservations, online ordering, stock management, loyalty programs, etc., all are aspects of restaurant digitization. But if you want to know a customer really well, the answer is data integration. In other words, instead of having a POS data system and a reservation management system run separately, why not integrate both and have a wider picture of what is going on in your restaurant. Hence, POS integration.

How do POS and reservation management systems complement each other?

A POS system would typically be used to monitor restaurant revenue and evaluate its menu based on sales and profit. One drawback of POS systems is their using tickets instead of data. This is overcome by POS integration with a reservation management system. Once POS integration takes place, you get insights into guest and server monthly revenue as well as average guest monthly spends, trends, lifetime value, and spend per reservation.

How does POS integration work?

Typically, data flows from the POS terminals to a centralized POS server, then to a cloud-based data warehouse – through custom integration software-, and finally to the system where the data is being shared.

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What are the 3 top pros of POS integration?

The greatest three benefits of integrating POS and reservation management systems are as follows:

1. Customized service

POS integration helps you identify VIP guests as the system spots high spenders as per revenue as opposed to the number of visits. Knowing your VIPs means knowing your strongest supporters and, thus, your brand ambassadors. When you offer your VIPs complimentary dishes or discounts, you easily get them to spread the good word around your restaurant.

2. Segmented marketing strategies

Thanks to POS integration, you can tweak your marketing strategies based on ‘guest’ segmentation. For instance, you may come up with new ideas for targeted messaging based on birthdays, food preferences (e.g., allergen-free or vegetarian), preferred dining days and times, and many more.

Even if a VIP guest hasn’t been to your restaurant for some time, you can win them back with a customized win-back offer based on their favorite dish.

3. Improved customer service

A dissatisfied customer may voice their opinion through a negative review which is something you may want to prevent from happening. As you reach out to them, and as you understand their complaint, POS integration shall add more context to the situation and help you handle it as best you can.

For more information on choosing a POS system for your restaurant, click here