Virtually eliminate the damaging impact of negative reviews and often convert them to positive.

Let’s cover some best practices in responding to negative reviews, as this is the most crucial.

71% of consumers say they’re more likely to use a business that has responded to their existing reviews.

They happen to the best restaurants in the world. It may feel like the reviewer slapped your baby, but it’s important not to take it personally. Easier said than done, sure, so consider writing the response after you’ve had a chance to calm down.

Keep it simple. Use T.A.P.

Thank them for their feedback, Apologize for what went wrong, and Promise to get it right next time.

Should you ask people to change or take down their reviews? The short answer is: no.

This single tip will set you apart from your competition and dramatically increase repeat visits from your customers.

Should you respond to positive reviews? If you’re working near the door, do you thank your customers as they leave? If you knew that they told 100 of their friends about their positive experience, would you thank them for that? Get the point? This is your opportunity to publicly thank them for their business and for sharing their experience.

Respond to EVERY Positive Review!

Thank them, be specific if possible, and encourage them to come back soon.

When you respond to their review, they’ll get an email from the review site that looks something like this. More than likely, they’ll check out what you said in your response and remember… again… how nice their experience was. Who are they more likely to think of next time they’re dining out or when a friend asks them for a recommendation?

Create a consistent flow of positive reviews with this easy to do strategy.

The key to maintaining a 4 star or better rating on each of these sites is simple… but not easy. Maximize 4 and 5 star reviews and minimize 3’s, 2’s and 1’s.

Here are a couple of things you can do this week to move the needle in your favor.

First, if you haven’t been including the importance of reviews in your meetings and training with your staff, start now! It is vitally important that you take care of unhappy guests before they leave… or even sooner as they can post the review from the table. Your front line staff need to know how to handle disappointed customers.

Servers and bartenders know who is happy and who they went the extra mile for. Ask a favor of guests you know will share a positive experience, “Could you do me a favor? Do you ever post reviews online? Would you consider sharing your experience on {insert site if you’re driving to one in particular}?”

Use review cards to make it easier for your guests to share their experience and easier for your staff to ask for it. Have your servers and bartenders hand these out personally while asking the favor. DO NOT just leave these cards laying around or leave them in the check book. Use Bitly or a link tracker with a QR code generator so you can see how much traffic you’re getting.

These tactics won’t work and may get you flagged by YELP or another review site, so DON’T do them!

Don’t Pay or incentivize people to post reviews – it’s against the terms of service agreement on ALL key review platforms.

Don’t post fake reviews.

Don’t post positive reviews on your own sites or negative on your competion’s sites. This goes for your staff too.

Don’t set up a laptop or tablet to solicit reviews from your patrons. It won’t work. The IP addresses are tracked and the reviews will get flagged. It IS OK to have patrons post from their own phones or tablets as that will send via a different IP address for their device.