Here’s a ‘food for thought’ fellows. Recent studies conducted by social scientists and economists say that online reviews are extremely crucial to the restaurant industry’s success. And that is inclusive of their online ordering systems as well. Even though one’s desired food is merely a few clicks away, those surveys showed that 57% of the entire dining-out population relies on online reviews to choose where to eat at.
This might seem unbelievable but is definitely not untrue. While in the olden days customers asked others for recommendations before choosing a place to eat, these days they simply turn to online reviews which not just tells them about the food but also about the ambience and hospitality services.
For those who wonder whether online reviews affect a restaurant’s business, the answer is an undisputable ‘yes’, which can be justified pretty well.
- Online reviews are the only source for prospective customers to find restaurants and enjoy their services like online ordering systems, etc. They don’t just expand the restaurant’s influence but also improvise their quality and enhance business.
- They’re a significant part of attracting new clients and building up business because people are looking up online reviews of restaurants all the time on the internet as that’s what defines its online identity. Hence, they help drive a restaurant’s popularity.
- As the restaurant business revolves around customers’ satisfaction and recommendations, nothing helps more than positive online reviews. They not only fuel the online ordering system for restaurants but also help the owners, chefs and management understand where they’re going wrong and how they should improve.
- Both positive and negative reviews provide opportunities to eateries to interact with their customers and gloat in their appreciation or try to understand their problems. Cultivating these reviews garners more attention from clients towards the problem areas (online ordering for restaurants, for instance) and how they’re tackled.
Few tricks that restaurants can apply to make the most out of their online reviews are:
- Keeping a close tab on what online reviews say about one’s restaurant plays an important role alongwith responding to those properly. They don’t just impact overall business including hospitality, online ordering for restaurants, etc but also provide a great insight into what they want and don’t want.
- More the reviews, more is the scope to improve. Hence, loyal and frequent customers can be encouraged to post their reviews online either on Facebook (regarding online ordering for restaurants) or Zomato or Yelp (regarding the quality of food, hospitality, etc). Not only should they be thanked but rewarded as well.
- Sharing positive online reviews via e-mail, advertisements, etc and making sure that the restaurant’s excellent quality is recognized is very necessary.
After all, all said and done, every restaurant wants to be the one that a customer will choose. And what’s a better way than utilizing the privileges that online reviews have to offer.