Do you remember that show, “You Gotta Eat Here”?
The premise was a traveling foodie, who went to different restaurants to try their food and talk to the chefs and often-drooling customers.
It wraps up with a big stamp of approval when the host, John Catucci, exclaims “You gotta eat here!”
You may not have access to John Catucci, but...
What you do have is the ability to get the “you gotta eat here” stamp of approval from your own customers!
The secret sauce is reviews. Reviews are a restaurant’s best friend.
In the case of Birdhouse Wingerie & Bar, automating their review process and racking up testimonials from happy diners was the key to bringing new customers through the door.
Here’s a look at how they did it, and how you can implement the easiest way to bring new customers to your restaurant with reviews.
How do I get more reviews for my restaurant?
Reviews are such an important part of running a successful restaurant, because your potential customers want proof that you offer good food and good service.
This reason alone should have you implementing a reputation marketing strategy, however, you can also explore this full list of benefits of getting reviews for your restaurant.
Birdhouse Wingerie & Bar knew reviews would help their business, however they faced two common challenges that many restaurants have:
- The logistical and technical side of getting more reviews: it's hard to ask for reviews and follow-up with diners once they’ve left your establishment.
- Nobody has time to manually collect reviews one-by-one and remember to follow-up with customers who don’t leave a review after the initial ask.
Unless!
Unless you have this one-two punch of softwares lined up.
Birdhouse Wingerie & Bar implemented Libro for their reservation services, which connects seamlessly with NiceJob, their reputation marketing software.
Cue the fireworks, the lightbulb, the click, the giant AH-HAH!!!
Because you see, the reservation software allows you to collect customer data and know when the reservation has closed. Two very important ingredients in the review-collecting recipe.
Then, once the reservation closes on Libro, it tells NiceJob “the diners have full bellies and are happy now, please send a review invite.” NiceJob automatically enrolls the customer into a review request campaign, which will make up to 4 attempts to collect the review from the diner(s).
And just like that, Birdhouse Wingerie & Bar was rolling in reviews from happy customers.
But just how well did this work?
The 5-Star Results
Birdhouse Wingerie & Bar is killin’ it!
In one month, they:
- Gained 91 new reviews across Google, Facebook and TripAdvisor
- Saw a 300% increase over the number of reviews collected the previous month
In 4 months, they:
- Generated 210 new reviews (and counting) using Libro and NiceJob
And the best part:
“Reviews are a major factor in acquiring new customers for Birdhouse Wingerie & Bar.” — George Massouras, Co-Owner at Birdhouse Wingerie & Bar
Your restaurant’s action plan to rolling in “you gotta eat here” reviews and new customers
- The foundation of this action plan rests on two things: The first is offering good food and the second is offering an exceptional experience - from the moment your customer(s) arrive to their steps walking out the door.
- If you’ve set the foundation, the next step is to systematize your reservations. This will allow you and your team to control the entire reservation system, encourage reservations from your Google Business Profile and on your website, manage waitlists and server-to-table ratios, collect customer data and so much more.
- Trigger a review invite once your customer’s reservation has closed. This is possible if you’re using a reputation marketing software. The customer will be prompted to leave a review through a series of smart follow-ups (increasing your chances of winning those stars).
- If you choose to connect Libro and NiceJob, like Birdhouse Wingerie & Bar, you can go on to do SO much cool stuff with your reviews! This is where the marketing part of reputation marketing comes in: You can automatically share your reviews to social media, adding photos, backgrounds and more. You can start a referral campaign, so that once a customer leaves a review they can automatically recommend your business to their friends and family. You can use the leaderboard function to know which of your restaurant staff are driving the most “you gotta eat here” reviews from a service perspective. The list goes on!
- Watch the reviews roll in and your tables fill up!
Being the spot for good food and a great time is totally within reach. Hope this 5-step action plan helps your restaurant bring in more 5-star reviews and lots of new customers!
If you want to learn more, check out how to how to manage your restaurant's reputation online.
