This morning I had coffee with a friend who owns many businesses and he had a question.
“What’s the best strategy to increase your Google, Yelp and Tripadvisor Rating?”
He’s buying a company that was at 4.4 stars earlier this year and over the past few months it’s taken a nose dive to 3.9 stars. The owners decided to sell to him and I guess they’ve taken their eyes off the ball. (FYI, the image above is not for the business, I can already see someone pointing out this restaurant has a 4.1).
Here’s My Advise To Raise Your Online Review Scores
1st – You need to start sending “survey” requests to customers after their visit. This would be an email that says something like “How was your visit to XYZ restaurant? We’d really appreciate your help, can you answer 3 quick questions and give us your feedback?” Then you take them to a quick 3-question survey that gives them an option of 1-5 for each question.
– If they give you below a 4 Star they should land on a page saying “Thank you for your feedback, it looks like we have some improvements to make. The owner is going to reach out to you personally to find out how we can be better,” or something like that. Then you have an alert that sends that to the owner right away.
– If they give you a 4 or 5-star review, send them to a landing page that ONLY has 1 link for them to click to leave a review. You should have a headline like “Thank you for your amazing review, we really appreciate it. It would mean a lot to our team if you clicked the link above and left us an online review mentioning your server and what you had. Thank you for your business.”
2nd – Go back to your customer database and send out a mass email asking for feedback, use the same email idea above.
3rd – Have a QR code made about the size of a business card and give it to all of your staff. When they ask “was your meal awesome today” and get a HECK YES back then WHIP OUT that QR Code and say “It would mean a lot to me if you scanned this an left an online review and mentioned me and your favorite item you ate today.”
When you put in place this 3-step approach above you will gain the positive reviews you need to lift your score. Once you have the score where you want it, then change where you ask for review, go from Google to Yelp
Few Notes On WHY?
– Why only give them one place to leave a positive review? Research shows that when people are given multiple choices they are less likely to leave a review. You are making them think, aka choose, and their default is to simply close that window and move on.
– Why send a survey request vs just the link to leave a review? Because you want to keep that info private. Many people simply want to be heard, and if you give them a way to tell you how you sucked they won’t go online and leave a negative public review.
– Why ask for customers to mention the server’s name in the review? It adds a personal touch and also shows love to your team. AND you get some great content to print off to handout in shift meetings, which will put pressure on others to get more reviews.
– Why ask for a specific menu item? Two reasons: #1 SEO value and #2 it will give people looking at reviews ideas on what to get when they visit.
