Testimonial from customer with angry emotion face on virtual screen, Bad social media review, dislike service and quality, low rating. Business service concept of customer experience dissatisfied.
By Ed Avis
It’s almost inevitable that a negative review of your restaurant will pop up on Yelp or some other platform. Maybe a customer is having a bad day and can’t resist taking it out on you, or a server’s error negatively impacted a guest’s meal. The reason doesn’t really matter; what does is how you navigate any fall-out to minimize its impact.
Not sure how to respond? Industry pros share six things NOT to do when responding to a bad review.
1. DON’T WAIT UNTIL YOU GET A BAD REVIEW TO CREATE A REACTION PLAN.“It is really important for a restaurant to have standard operating procedures, a framework as to how to handle your reviews,” says Karla Cobreiro, a veteran restaurant publicist and chief credibility officer of cobreiro comms.
That framework should clarify who on your staff reads reviews, who triages them, who responds to them, how often they are monitored, and what the tone of the reply should be, Cobreiro explains.
In addition, consider beforehand what other steps you will take in the case of a bad review, such as reaching out to the customer, offering some kind of make-good, and/or addressing the root of the problem in your restaurant, if appropriate.
2. DON’T POST A GENERAL, GENERIC RESPONSE. Take time to read the complaint and craft a response that addresses the specific issue the customer raised.
“The worst thing that can happen is that a customer comes to the reviews and it looks like the responses are all cut-and- paste,” Cobreiro says. “If you’re saying the exact same thing again and again, people realize that your responses aren’t personalized, that you’re not actually doing something with that information.”
3. DON’T BLAME THE CUSTOMER. Yes, sometimes a restaurant experience goes sideways because the customer makes an unrealistic demand, orders something they don’t like, or thinks your prices are too high. Regardless, resist the temptation to point fingers.
“You can acknowledge the customer’s dissatisfaction by saying, ‘I am sorry that your experience was less than ideal. We will reach out to you momentarily to learn more about your experience at our establishment so that we can rectify this situation,’” suggests Danyail Lawton, founder of the public relations firm BoldMoves.
That kind of statement shows you care about the custom- er’s complaint — even if it’s unfounded in your opinion — but it doesn’t automatically acknowledge that your restaurant is at fault. It leaves the door open for further clarification.
4. DON’T ARGUE IN PUBLIC WITH THE CUSTOMER. If addressing the bad review is going to involve more than one response, invite the customer to discuss the issue offline, either by direct messaging them (when possible) or by posting your email or phone number.
“If a review calls out food quality, service, or ambiance as negative, take the high road. Acknowledge the issue directly, and most importantly, move the conversation offline; you do not want to get into a back-and-forth on any review platform,” says Sean Wille, vice president of strategy + operations at Bear Icebox Communications. “Invite them to connect via phone or email so you can have an honest conversation and, when it makes sense, invite them back for the experience you aim to deliver every time.”
Lawton echoes that thought and adds that it’s important to remember that your audience for your comments is actually future potential customers who may read the reviews.
“Going back and forth with a dissatisfied customer is a lose-lose situation,” Lawton says. “The business owner’s reputation is at stake in these moments and how they handle these online issues is important. If they are defensive and aggressive in their response it will ignite the dissatisfied customer even more and they will make matters worse by sharing the con- versation even further on social media. Now instead of only a few people seeing the message, it’s at a viral level all because the response to the customer was an emotional response.”
5. DON’T AUTOMATICALLY OFFER SOME KIND OF COMPENSATION. It’s tempting to tell every dissatisfied customer they should come back so you can compensate them with a meal or some other perk. But that’s not always the best approach for two reasons:
One, offering a free meal or comped appetizer before you understand the full story may lead the customer to think you are just trying to quickly extinguish the conversation.
“If right off the bat, you decide to offer compensation before even having the full picture, that could come across as like, ‘They’re just trying to make this go away, they don’t actually care to fix it, they’re not actually deeply trying to listen,’” Cobreiro says.
Two, guests might start comparing situations and saying, “Hey, when I complained about such-and-such, I didn’t get a free dinner. “That opens up a potential flood of problems with past and future guests who had or will have a less-than-stellar experience.”
6. DON’T IMMEDIATELY ASK REVIEWERS TO CHANGE THEIR BAD REVIEWS AND DEFINITELY DON’T “BRIBE” THEM TO DO THAT. Of course, you would love it if every bad review was quickly revised or followed up by a great review. But the way to do get that result is by discussing the problem, fixing it (if feasible), and inviting the guest back for another visit in the hopes that they will post a better review the second time around.
“I worked with a restaurant group where the manager at one of the locations was reaching out to people who did not leave a five-star review and saying, ‘I noted that you came in and you gave us a four-star review. We really strive for a five-star experience, so would you be willing to come back in with a $250 gift card and change your review to a five-star review?’ That is essentially bribery,” Cobreiro says. “That is not good, that is not okay.”
Instead, Cobreiro advises, follow-up with the guests after you have addressed the problem and they have visited a second time. Then you can gently ask them if a new review is warranted: “’Thank you so much for giving us a second chance. How was the experience this time? If you think it makes sense, we’d love it if you updated your review to reflect the updated experience.’”
The bottom line is to remember that the way you respond to negative reviews does not just impact the customer who posted that review — it will impact countless future potential customers who read the reviews when they’re deciding where to eat.
Willie offers one last tip: Create a structure that encourages guests to immediately tell you something is wrong because it might prevent bad reviews from ever being posted.
“This is about creating early opportunities to address negative feedback,” Wille says. “Comment cards, receipt surveys, and manager touchpoints give guests a chance to say something in the moment instead of waiting until they get home and post about it. One of the easiest ways to build a connection is to turn a poor experience into one that earns a positive review later.”