Any feedback from guests provides an opportunity to evaluate the institution from the outside. Reviews open up new knowledge to the owner about their strengths and weaknesses, competitive advantages and the most striking disadvantages.
Reviews can be different, both extremely positive and sharply negative, however, it is better to find out the bitter truth in a timely manner than to make efforts without removing the root of the problem, regularly encountering a drop in revenue.
Reviews must be read and analyzed to eliminate possible shortcomings.
If all the feedback is positive, then you should also not waste time. Strengthen your positions, improve service, work with the institution non-stop, because your competitors are also on the alert.
Where can I get feedback from?
Open Sources:
- social networks (VK, FB, Instagram)
- forums of your city
- your site and account in the social networks of your institution
- specialized sites with restaurant reviews, which are highly respected by restaurant critics: afisha.ru, tripadvisor.ru, komandirovka.ru, irecommend.ru (the site interface allows guests not only to leave a message, but to evaluate the restaurant by parameters, highlight advantages and disadvantages) .
On such sites, reviews of restaurants and guest ratings determine the rating of the restaurant on the site, which means that according to it, network users will be able to roughly imagine whether to visit you or look at competitors.
2. Reviews from guests of your establishment:
- in the hall there may be information stickers with logos of sites on which there is a page of your restaurant,
- e-mail and sms newsletter, where you can leave a link with a proposal to evaluate the work of the institution.
Each message with the name of your institution must be carefully analyzed.
It is especially important to pay attention and analyze negative comments. In rare cases, they are written "in spite", most often, it may be an attempt to pay attention to those places in which there are flaws.
Direct your marketing activity in the direction in which shortcomings are found. After all, the idea of marketing is to offer guests what they want, and negative feedback is the easiest way to understand what it is.
For example, your guests complain about the meager selection of fish dishes in the menu - expand the category and focus on this in the future. That is, you need to inform about new dishes, and for this, tastings are more suitable than ever. An operational solution to the problem will show the disgruntled guest that they heard him, listened to him, and are ready to please him again and please him with a tasty treat.
Work through and discuss with staff not only negative reviews, but also positive ones; praise and celebrate success, because this is how the staff sees the result of their labors and efforts. Celebrate achievements in obtaining a certain number of positive reviews for the period or decrease in negative reviews compared to the previous period. It strengthens team spirit. On this occasion, corporate trips can also be arranged if it is practiced by you.
Be sure to pay attention to those aspects that guests praise. Since this is what they pay attention to, it means you should constantly improve it (if you note the design and atmosphere - continue to work in this direction, make it the main advantage).
The reaction to the reviews should not even be operative, but reactive, because this is how you can stay afloat and not see the dynamics of profit in analytical reports. To ensure that the revenue curve always strives to the upper right corner, it is important for the business owner not to lose his advantages, but to turn weaknesses into key success factors.