Restaurant owners and GMs: beyond your management of reservations, staff scheduling, finances and ordering restaurant supplies, if part of your day isn’t devoted to managing your online marketing program or working with your online marketing agency on these activities (which includes online reputation management) as part of your restaurant marketing activities, pause here, scroll to the bottom of this post and submit your email to request a copy of our free guide “Three Things You Can Do Right Now to Start Marketing Your Restaurant Online”.

If you or your agency are actively managing your online reputation, you already understand the necessity of politely responding to negative reviews on local search and review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor in a positive and constructive way. If done properly, not only are you showcasing your restaurant’s culture and interest in guest feedback, you might even get a second chance from the reviewer in a best case scenario.  This is important because just one bad review can cost you thirty potential customers!

But what about good reviews? Do you respond to those? If not, you may be missing an opportunity! Let’s be honest … most people take the time to write reviews when they’ve had a bad experience. If someone takes the time to share good feedback, reward them with an acknowledgement and a few kind words.  You’ll be surprised at how far that will go. Beyond their review, the fact that you responded will stick with them and keep your restaurant front of mind, likely resulting in return visits and their spreading the word about how great your restaurant is…beyond the dining experience…with their friends and family!  The screen shot above is an example from The Lime, one of our Tampa restaurant clients.

Does anyone have any other examples or experiences to share?  Please leave them as a comment to this post!

Request your copy of Three Things You Can Do Right Now to Start Marketing Your Restaurant Online by Visual Alliance Media.

Click to view our slide deck: Social Media for Restaurants.