Online restaurant reviews matter.

A Harvard Business School review found that a one-star difference on Yelp can impact a restaurant’s revenue by 5-9%.

When customers look up your restaurant, the reviews they find influence where they decide to eat.

The good, the bad, the frequency

When it comes to online restaurant reviews, your overall rating is the most important thing. Even a half-star difference on Yelp can greatly impact the likelihood of your restaurant being full at 7pm on any given night.

Yet the overall rating isn’t everything. The number of reviews and frequency matter too. Not surprisingly, customers like to see many reviews and give greater weight to the most recent. If the only three reviews that exist are all two years old, it doesn’t bode well for your restaurant.

What might be more surprising is that bad reviews matter too. The presence of negative online restaurant reviews lets a customer know that the comments are real and authentic. The bad lend credibility to the good and provide an opportunity to see how a restaurant responds (ideally in a calm, friendly, and generally accommodating manner).

5 ways to get reviews more often

Merely recognizing that online restaurant reviews boost business won’t accomplish anything. The real trick is getting more of them. Providing top notch cuisine and exceptional service is, of course, the first step, but good food and service alone won’t necessarily translate to reviews in today’s busy world.

The second step is making sure to set up your Google business, TripAdvisor and Yelp profiles (because customers can leave reviews whether you do or not). Use these resources to provide your restaurant’s address, hours, photos of dishes and any other details that potential customers might find useful, like parking options, whether you have free Wi-Fi, and so forth.

Beyond creating an informative profile for online review sites, here are some effective ways to get people to take the time to leave a review:

1. Ask directly

The most obvious way to get more online restaurant reviews is to ask for them. Train your staff to regularly mention your restaurant’s online review pages. Tell your regulars why online reviews are so essential (they boost your search engine rankings as well!) and that you’re looking to get more of them.

2. Make it easy

These days the number of clicks required to do something is important. People want things to be as quick and easy as possible, so send them an email asking for a review and provide a link directly to the review page. Sometimes it’s not that people don’t want to leave a review, it’s just that it seems like too much trouble. Remove the obstacles and you’ll get more online restaurant reviews.

3. Leverage social media

Social media is a great place to both ask for and feature online restaurant reviews. Use customer comments in your captions on Instagram. When customers post about your restaurant, ask them if they wouldn’t mind repeating their comments in a review and provide a link to the page. It’s really that simple.

4. Showcase your reviews

Beyond using online restaurant reviews on social media, you can showcase them in a variety of other places on your website, in print promotions, or on display in your restaurant. This lets customers know that other people are leaving reviews and encourages them to do likewise.

5. Give them something to talk about

This tip is the most difficult, but can ultimately be the most effective. If you really want to get people talking online, you have to leave a lasting impression. It could be a signature dish that’s out of this world, incredible entertainment, or a story that resonates with people”that’s up to you. The key is to focus on being original and exceeding expectations.

You’ve got the power (of reviews)

People put stock in what other people say. They look to others for recommendations and to determine whether a place is worth trying. This is why online restaurant reviews matter.

Potential customers want to see that other people have recently enjoyed visiting your restaurant and were so impressed that they felt compelled to leave a glowing review.

To get more of these reviews, ask for them directly and make the process easy. Ensure that social media mentions turn into positive reviews and use your existing reviews to get more. Most importantly, give people an experience worth talking about.

If you’re not yet doing all these things, perhaps it’s time to review what your restaurant is doing to get reviews.

Originally posted by Yelp WiFi