When visiting a new city, how do you decide on a restaurant for a nice dinner? Do you stop in to the first place to see, or do you read reviews? If you are like most of the world, you’re likely to start with a Google search.
There’s no doubt about it, Google is the most-used search engine by far. As of 2021, it accounted for over 92% of the entire market. If your customers are searching for tacos, for example, they’ll simply type this into Google to explore the highest-rated local food brands.
When customers investigate food businesses, online reviews play a key role in building trust. As part of search results, Google Maps presents the most popular businesses in your local area (ranked and rated), so diners can explore with confidence. Google uses customer reviews to decide which restaurants are the best overall. The better your customer reviews and ratings, the higher you’ll appear on Google rankings.
This is a tremendous benefit to smaller businesses. It’s especially vital for virtual food brands without the benefit of a storefront to move higher up in google rankings. This allows for maximum exposure without huge social media followings or costly PPC advertising.
So, if you haven’t set-up your restaurant business on Google and aren’t promoting customer reviews, you’re missing a crucial marketing tool.
As well as improved rankings on google search results, the more positive reviews your business has, the more credible you’ll seem, and more customers will actively choose your restaurant. It’s a critical way to manage your online reputation and brand, enhance your website traffic and improve your sales…
How to improve your google reviews
Here’s just a few of the most important aspects to consider when encouraging customer reviews for your restaurant franchise:
- Actively ask for reviews – your diners may not have thought about leaving a review, so make sure you’re actively reaching out to new and repeat customers, clearly signposting where they can go to support your business. Automated review management tools can also help streamline this process and encourage customer communication.
- Aim for the stars – while great comments are important, most Google users simply look at the star ratings for businesses. Are there any ways you can personalize to really provide that five-star experience?
- Be responsive – in the rare instance you receive a negative review, courteously acknowledge this publicly and follow-up privately, attempting to rectify the issue and encourage the customer back to your brand.
The bottom line
Google reviews really do matter. Customers use them to judge the quality of your restaurant and they’re a key part of the decision-making process when trying somewhere new.
This is especially important for virtual food brands lacking a customer-facing store front.
With increased trust comes greater sales and profits. make sure you’re proactively seeking customer reviews and finding ways to improve your Google ratings.
Let our team @ Peckwater Brands show you how. We empower kitchen owners to run successful delivery only franchises from their existing kitchens. You could be only one click away from extra orders and increased profits.
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