While you may not always like what your customers say (or how they say it), the feedback they provide about your business is priceless.
You’re the expert on running your business, but your customers are experts on using your business. They can tell you what’s working and help you figure out how to improve the things that aren’t.
All you have to do is follow this simple process to collect their feedback, and then know what to do with it (and we’ll of course tell you how).
Unless you’re Jean-Georges himself, you probably could more customers coming in the doors.
The restaurant business is one of the most competitive industries there is, and if you own or manage a restaurant, you already know that.
While slashing your prices or revamping your menu might attract new customers, it may also tank your business altogether.
There’s a better way of improving your bottom line, one that doesn’t require you to change a single thing about how you cook and serve your food.
Money can buy a lot of things, but it can’t buy you a good reputation… at least, not on Yelp’s watch.
That may seem like a shame at first glance. After all, wouldn’t things be simpler if you could just pay for some positive reviews to appear on your company’s Yelp page or even give your regular customers discounts or free stuff in exchange for writing reviews? Those posts would get new people to come in, and they would be so impressed by your service that they would go home and write their own real reviews, right?
Not so fast, cowboy – it doesn’t work that way.
Because while it’s possible that paying for a few Yelp reviews could go undiscovered, and the resulting reviews could help you improve business, it’s much more likely that this strategy will cause huge and lasting damage to your reputation.
Lucky for you there’s a better way.
Maybe they just got some bad news.
Maybe they spilled their coffee and hit all red lights on their way to your business.
Maybe they woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, or maybe they’re just impossible to please.
Whatever the reason, when you’re faced with an unhappy customer, it’s an opportunity to improve (even when the customer is completely wrong).
Humans are social creatures, and we’re easily influenced by the behavior of others.
Knowningly or not, we choose clothing based on what others are wearing. We adjust our opinions based on what our friends post on social media. And when it comes time to make buying decisions – about everything from sandwiches to cars – we look to see what others are doing first.
As a business owner, you should celebrate this particular feature of human behavior.
That’s because people’s tendency to make decisions based on what others are doing gives you the power to influence the way your customers (and potential customers) see you. If you can satisfy a vocal group of customers, you can get them to work for you and bring others to your doorstep.
That’s the beauty of a concept called “social proof.”
Reputation matters in every industry. But for hotels, a bad or even mediocre reputation can be disastrous.
That’s because hotels are one of the things consumers are most likely to use online reviews to find, and research shows that the lodging industry is one in which reputation matters most to consumers.
So in this competitive field, when Airbnb is eating up an ever-growing chunk of the lodging industry’s profits, setting yourself apart from your area’s other hotel options should be an essential part of your business model.
How do you do that? If you’re picturing an expensive marketing campaign and months of strategy meetings, think again. Improving your reputation is as simple as getting more online reviews, and with the right programs in place, getting those reviews might become one of the easiest parts of your job.
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