There are two types of customers you'll often find on online review sites: diners who had an amazing experience and want to sing your restaurant's praises, and diners who had a bad experience and want to make sure everyone knows about it.
So the question is, how do you take advantage of the former and deal with the latter? In this article, we’ll focus on your “fans”: those happy customers who love your restaurant! Here’s how to make the most of positive reviews and opinions in your marketing and operations.
Use Online Reviews as a Marketing Tool
But why focus on online reviews? Here's why reviews and ratings are a powerful marketing tool for restaurants .
Online reviews serve as a kind of social proof : people like to learn from telegram free number philippines other people’s experiences. When a potential customer visits your restaurant’s Google My Business or TripAdvisor profile and sees enthusiastic comments from diners, they will be more likely to see what it’s all about and visit your restaurant. It’s normal, right? Curiosity is piqued! Positive reviews and opinions = more customers .
But once those reviews are left, what can we do with them? Once those reviews are posted on Yelp, TripAdvisor , Google , and other review platforms, customer feedback can be transformed into powerful user-generated content , and used in conjunction with your restaurant’s marketing efforts. Read on to learn how to turn user-generated content into compelling marketing assets and tools for your restaurant.
Advice
Booking platforms such as Tablebooker or Resengo offer guests the opportunity to leave a review after their visit. This way, you give your customers the opportunity to give their honest feedback, which is valuable.
6 Ways to Promote Positive Reviews for Your Restaurant
1. Turn reviews and opinions into user-generated content (UGC)
And yes, this is free content that you can repurpose. That’s the magic of user -generated content (UGC) . Turn positive online reviews into content for optimal word-of-mouth marketing!
You could turn reviews into charts or infographics. Start by selecting the best reviews of your restaurant . Then use a graphic design tool like Canva to give the quote a nice shape . Focus on certain keywords, and don’t forget to give credit to the person who wrote the review. You can do this by tagging them, but you can also mention them in your description (“Jan S. of TripAdvisor”). Choose a simple background in a color that matches your branding.
You can also share your customers’ photos on social media. If a customer shares a great photo of your restaurant with a positive review, post the photo on your own social media and include a clip of their review in your caption. Also, be sure to give credit to the person who took the photo. You could even reply to their comment with a link to the social post, so they know you used their photo on your platform. We reveal more tips and tricks for using social media to drive customers to your restaurant in this article .