How to Encourage Guests to Write the Perfect Restaurant Review

Many companies are losing their reputation, unwilling to admit that feedback affects sales. Posting reviews on the site is useful: visitors are sure to get acquainted with it, and if they do not find it on your page, they will look elsewhere.

Fact: we are usually happy to express our dissatisfaction but not positive emotions. How to motivate customers to leave feedback? There are at least 5 simple but efficient methods at your disposal.

According to statistics, feedback is one of the main arguments to encourage people to buy products or services. 97% of potential clients, firstly, get acquainted with the opinion about the restaurant of the other customers and only then visit.

Everyone knows how often feedback is written to order. But 85% of people believe what they’ve read on the Web. The credibility of the reviewer resource is more influential. Even if a person is satisfied with the visit to your restaurant, he will not immediately write a review. So, how can you encourage people to write a perfect restaurant review?

METHOD 1. DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK CUSTOMERS TO SHARE THEIR OPINION

Be sure to ask your customers to leave a review! If you don’t ask, you won’t get it. Try to make the writing process comfortable for the client. So that he or she did not have to fill out many fields, go from tab to tab, or register.

Give customers several opportunities to leave feedback so that they can choose the best one:

• site;
• social networks;
• special services for reviews about restaurants.

Let the client choose the form that he or she considers the most comfortable.

Naturally, it’s nice to get good feedback from customers. But do not leave only positive opinions, mandatorily leave negative opinions, don’t remove them. The flow of eulogies without including negative or neutral reviews is suspicious. Respond to criticism constructively, be sure to offer a compromise and conflict resolution, if you know that you have guilt.

Remember that user-generated content is read by others. Therefore, feedback should be displayed correctly and attractively. It should be noted that the responses are indexed by search engines and can be a great plus for ranking.

METHOD 2. EVOKE POSITIVE EMOTIONS

Every customer is happy when they get good service. A person feels spiritually lifted if there is nothing wrong with the quality. Why not make a nice addition to the positive emotions?

Remember! You are certainly pleased to receive feedback from customers, but they are also pleased to receive more than they paid for. Let the visitor feel the attention, and then ask to leave feedback. A client will be grateful for your cooperation and easily agree to scribble a few lines if you ask unobtrusively.

METHOD 3. USE BONUSES AS A MOTIVATOR

Every restaurant has regular customers. A frequent guest will not leave a response on their own initiative, even when everything suits. At the same time, returning customers can share their experiences.

That’s why it’s important to motivate regular customers to create feedback. Offer them some activity bonuses in exchange for comments. This could be an affiliate program, providing a discount, accumulating points, etc.

METHOD 4. GIVE DISCOUNTS FOR REVIEWS

Offer future discounts to everyone who writes the review. Not for nothing, but for a posted review. Here you can set a number of requirements for feedback — by volume, by the time of placement.

It is crucial to ensure that they actually get this discount. Notice, it must be profitable and attractive. Few people will be inspired by the 5% discount, 25% discount is already significant. You can not offer unfeasible, unimportant, bonded discounts.

METHOD 5. GIVE GIFTS OR OFFER A BENEFICIAL EXCHANGE

In order to get feedback from the client, you need to clearly explain the benefits that he or she will receive in exchange for an opinion about your restaurant. Give gifts for opinion. But not to everyone, otherwise there is a risk to gather fans of free treats. Offer special products, make small surprises, promise service out of turn in exchange for feedback.

Give subscribers who have shared their opinions access to valuable content that is not shared with the rest of the public.

In these directions, it is necessary to work with loyal clients. To notify them, you can collect an active base and prepare an e-mail or SMS-message, use channels in messengers, groups in social networks.

Successful examples of how hotels with restaurants encourage guests to leave feedback

Hotel Yadanarbon

This is a low-cost hotel in Mandalay. What do they do? In each room, they lay a promotional card on the bedside table with an invitation to visit a certain site and write a review of the hotel and restaurant. For the days that people live there, they fall asleep and wake up next to this card every time.

Does this work? Absolutely! They write reviews due to this promotional card — not only because they had a pleasant hotel and restaurant experience, but also because they were asked to do so. The room advertisement is a great idea, you can do the same with your tables.

Sheraton Hotel

This is a mid-priced hotel. How is this hotel different from the others? It is the way the management asks guests to provide feedback. They leave a bright business card on the table in the restaurant saying: “Did you like our hotel or restaurant? We are very pleased that you are staying with us. Share your experiences with others: leave a review at some site. Thank you for your comments. Good luck!”

Do you want your clients to leave feedback?

Do you think that in both cases, the request to leave a review looks quite intrusive? Perhaps, it is. But you know what? It works. People took the time to write a review. Why is that? There are two reasons: firstly, it was obvious that the restaurant management really cared about the customers’ opinions. Secondly, if the restaurant is not afraid to ask visitors to leave a review, then the owners are sure that the quality of customer service is excellent.

That’s the whole secret. If guests receive only good impressions of their visit to your restaurant, and you always ask them to leave impartial reviews, the quality and quantity of comments received by you will certainly increase.

Create a fruitful interaction with people based on respect and trust. Communicate with them. If you apply motivation, do it honestly! Then people who are grateful for good service, pleasant bonuses, and great mood will be happy to share their opinions on cooperation with you.

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