Maintaining Your Online Image with These 5 Reputation Management Tips
QUESTION FROM: Meg in NC
"Has anyone ever used a reputation management that's trustworthy? Could use some hep in that department.
Thanks for any recommendations."
HH ANSWER:
Don't underestimate the power of a disgruntled employee or competitor with and interest in hurting your business and $200 in a PayPal account. Negative reviews can be bought just as easily as positive ones on outlets like fiverr - as I learned while working to clean up some online reputation damage for a previous client.
It was infuriating to learn that these fake reviews on TripAdvisor, Yelp, Google and a popular reservation platform could not be removed even when it was an obvious malicious attack vs “review”. I went so far as to meet with reps for Yelp and TripAdvisor during a restaurant show at Javits in New York only to learn that, if we were a customer of theirs (purchased an advertising or SEO package) they would "look into it and make sure that if the reviews couldn't be removed they would at least be pushed to the bottom as unverifiable reviews while the more ‘verifiable reviews’ (i.e., positive reviews) would be pushed to the top.
Essentially, these pay-to–play platforms are able to take advantage of owners / operators and hold us hostage with their firm stance on just being a conduit and selling the solution to the very problems they help create... which force many operators to view online reputation management as another "revenue center" requiring more time and money to manage than they have.
It’s reminiscent of the days of King Henry V and the church run state that threatened damnation for sinners while selling forgiveness to the nobles.
This is one of the main reasons I developed and recently launched an alternative restaurant-friendly recommendation platform that’s powered by private reviews: Paire (paire.io). After learning how many of the existing platforms are just soapboxes to air grievances or hold owners hostage in a “pay -to-play” system, we realized that, if the real intent is to make it easier for people to find more places they’ll like - we could creatively apply modern technology to that ends instead of having people doom scroll through the opinions of others. Our app is created in a way that makes it impossible for other reviews (fake, paid or real) to impact the determination as to whether or not a restaurant matches your specific taste profile. I think that custom tailoring recommendations in this guest-centered way not only makes the experience more personalized but also takes some of the online reputation management work off the desk (and clock) of owner operators and managers. But there are some solid proven ways to help mitigate damage that’s already been done…
The best way to mitigate damage to your restaurant’s online reputation is to
1. Focus, very strongly, on the culture inside your four walls. Not only how you treat your guests, but how you treat your staff. If you have an unbelievable culture and “walk the walk”, word of mouth can often stand up to negative bullshit online.… And sometimes even overshadow it.
2. Another thing I've done is incentivize guests to leave reviews. I don't like having to game the system and don't believe in bribing people / asking for positive reviews... but there are ways to “stock the pond” (i.e., incentivize the right people). If a guest is having a fantastic time and asked to speak with one of the managers to communicate how happy they are, I would absolutely make it SOP for the manager on duty to incentivize that guest to leave a review… Not ask for a positive review… Just ask for a review.
The importance of not asking for a positive review or a quid pro quo is that the guest could unwittingly reveal that fact (that you "took care of them") in exchange for a positive review - which could undermine the integrity of the review to discerning readers - or worse: be squashed quickly as it is against most if not all of these platforms' "rules" to solicit customers for positive reviews.
3. An additional step you can take is to respond quickly, but never defensively, to any negative review in a very transparent, honest and empathetic manner regardless of the comment's veracity. A well worded reply to a negative comment may do little to sooth an inconsolable arse but can often induce some empathy on the part of readers who may not have previously considered coming to your establishment but appreciate your humility and earnest interest in taking care of your guests by going above and beyond for them.
4. Claiming your business on Google is another imperative when it comes to online reputation management. As is maintaining some regular activity on social media channels and having a website that uses relevant wording and structure to ensure search engines can find you quickly and easily. The better your website and social media activity, the more likely search engines are to retrieve that instead of some negative reviews… Especially if you've got a lot of content out there. “Control the media and you control the narrative. Control the narrative you control perception.” - See Elon Musk and his curious purchase of Twitter.
5. Taking screenshot photos of your most complementary reviews and photos of your best looking dishes… And then tagging them with your business' name will also help drown out posts from disgruntled staff -like the couple who was terminated for inappropriate behavior at work by my client and, in no uncertain terms, promised to trash them online and brand them as "anti-gay". Remember, your job isn't to be defensive or combative or lower yourself to fraudulent reviews (or “reviewers”). The point is you need to rise above it and simply give people a reasonable cause to question negative, misleading or paid reviews.
Whenever I try to explain this to clients, there's always one or two who try to point out large companies like Burger King or Wendy's whose marketing department does a great job of putting people in their place and returning fire. My response to them is always the same: "You're not Wendy's... so:
Save the venting for more understanding friends. And never vent down. Not even to your managers and most especially not down to or hourlys. They need to see that returning fire is never part of the job description for any hospitality professional. Rise above and they will follow your lead. Anything else usually results in a trickle down of guests eventually encountering managers, servers and bartenders whose attempts to match wits with them invariably results in some guest being offended, dissatisfied or feeling some way that requires a visit or email from you personally - So do yourself (and your family who values what little free time you have) a favor by preventing these fires instead of having to spend more of your valuable time fighting them.
At the end of the day, fires will break out regardless of what you do. And some will continue to burn - and there's nothing you do can stop them.
Just remember that you can't control everything. Some things are out of your hands but you should be able to go to bed and rest easy if you know you did your best to avoid them from happening again and mitigating some of the collateral damage that people others may perceive as assholes will always cause.
If you have any other specific questions about workplace culture, online reputation management or off-line reputation management that aren’t answered here or in the Hospitality Helpline Library; please feel free to contact me directly as I always appreciate the opportunity to work with like-minded people who want their restaurant to be better than it needs to be.
Josh Sapienza