Are you having trouble attracting new guests to your restaurant and building your business? If so, have you checked what your restaurant’s online reviews are like? According to stats collected by NetWaiter, negative online reviews can severely restrict a restaurant’s ability to attract new diners to their business.
Potential Guests Will Check You Out Online
Infographic by NetWaiter.
Bad reviews hampering potential new business shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, especially when every survey conducted on modern consumers point to them checking out a business online before spending money. And that number is extraordinary large in the restaurant industry; 90% of guests will check out your restaurant online before deciding if they want to eat there or not.
That means they’re going to be exposed not only to your web presence, but what your previous guests have said about you.
As to where potential guests will go, the answer is Google. More than half of online reviews (57.4%) of online reviews are on Google. Facebook ranks second at 20.8%, and the industry’s boogieman, Yelp, comes in at a distant fourth with 6.6% distribution.
What Restaurant Guests Are Looking for in Online Reviews
In the restaurant industry, profit margins are razor thin and so is guest’s acceptance of bad experiences. According to the stat collection, a third of potential diners won’t eat at a restaurant if the restaurant’s rating is below four stars. That leaves very little wiggle room for restaurants. Every guest matters and every mistake could hurt potential future business.
And guests will straight-out refuse to visit you if you’ve been knocked for having a dirty restaurant. Three-quarters (75%) of consumers won’t visit a restaurant with negative reviews about cleanliness. That includes your tables, the dishware, and especially your bathroom. Make sure your restaurant’s cleanliness is above reproach.
What to Do with These Stats?
Hopefully, you don’t have to do much of anything. If you’re running a solid and sound business, bad reviews and complaints about unclean experiences shouldn’t be an issue for your restaurant in the first place. But if you’re finding the same complaint over and over again from guests, then you need to take it serious and change your ways.
None of us enjoy a bad review, but if we take our business seriously and want to succeed, we need to listen to what our guests are saying. The good news is there are ways of recovering from bad reviews, but why get there in the first place?
