Responding to negative reviews in the right way can even persuade some customers to change their mind and upgrade their review. Or they can actively monitor the reviews on these websites and respond to each review, whether good or bad, in order to encourage better reviews and show that they care what their customers think. They can either hide their heads in the sand and pray that there are no negative reviews.

This means restaurant owners have a simple choice. And people are going to make a decision to come to your restaurant based on these reviews whether you like it or not. People are going to read these reviews whether you like it or not. Reviews for your restaurant on Yelp and Google are going to happen whether you like it or not. In a BrightLocal survey, 60% reported reading a review for a restaurant before they went.īased on the available research, a couple of things should be immediately clear to restaurant owners.A report in the Economic Journal found that an increase of half a star on Yelp meant a restaurant was much more likely to be full at peak times.Harvard Business School found that a one-star increase in your Yelp rating can lead to a nine percent increase in revenue.Let’s start by looking at some of the latest research on the state of restaurant reviews: Why You Need to Manage Reviews For Your Restaurant? Other blog posts will list ten sites that you should be monitoring but we focus on the top 4 sites every restaurant must monitor and manage. There are dozens more review websites out there. It is absolutely crucial for restaurateurs to be encouraging customers to review their restaurant and actively monitoring (and responding to) what customers have to say. Like ’em or hate ’em, restaurant review sites have become a major part of the restaurant industry. Suffer from a string of poor reviews and you can forget about having a full house.

Get listed as one of the highest-rated restaurants in your area and you can expect a flood of visitors. But only if your restaurant has plenty of great reviews. Online review websites are one of the best lead generation tools for restaurants.

Google restaurant reviews