If you ask guests how everything was inside your restaurant, great. That is basic Hospitality!
Now extend that same mindset online. Google and Yelp are your digital doorstep and your digital dining room. The guests talking to you there expect and deserve the same respect, the same acknowledgement, and the same level of care.
Far too many restaurants ignore this. Independents. Multi unit brands. Operators who know better. They leave guests on Google and Yelp with the digital equivalent of a blank stare. It is a hospitality failure hiding in plain sight.
Ratings and reviews are word-of-mouth in action. It is your guests doing your Marketing for you.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Let’s start with the numbers. Real data, not vibes.
94 percent of diners read online reviews before choosing where to eat.
88 to 93 percent say reviews directly influence their decision.
A one star increase on Yelp can bump revenue 5 to 9 percent.
A half star improvement increases peak time seating likelihood by 19 percent.
49 percent of diners expect restaurants to respond to reviews.
58 percent say a thoughtful response to a negative review makes them less worried about that bad experience.
Do we really need more stats, or are you already feeling the urgency to take the right action?!?!?
Three Benefits of Reputation Management:
1. Higher Search Rankings
When reviews are strong, when you have high ratings, high volume, and recent activity, Google ranks your restaurant higher in local search.
When reviews go stale or unanswered, you lose visibility before you ever get the chance to earn the guest.
If you want to show up higher in relevant local search results without spending more money on paid search advertising, this is one of the simplest and most overlooked levers you can pull.
2. Outstanding Service
Hospitality is not something that starts at the front door and ends when the check drops. Hospitality shows up on the plate, in the dining room, and online. It is one continuous experience.
Online, a five star review is that exact moment. Letting it sit unanswered is like pretending the guest never spoke to you. You wouldn’t do this in store and you shouldn’t do this online.
Flip the scenario.
A guest tells you something went wrong. In person, you would jump into action. You would apologize, fix the problem, and try to recover the relationship.
That is a win back. And you can do it online the same way you would at the table.
3. Incredible Insights
Reviews are not just comments. They are a near real time operational feedback loop.
They show you patterns in service.
They reveal issues before they become real problems.
They highlight what guests love so you can double down.
They give you truth, not assumptions.
They expose gaps in training or re-training
The Winning Reputation Management Formula
1. Ask every guest on every order how it was.
This applies in-store, online ordering, and delivery. If they are happy, politely suggest they share it on Google.
The most important lesson my mother ever taught me was "don't ask, don't get." The most important lesson I learned on my own is "know when to ask."
If you don't ask happy guests to share their thoughts on Google and Yelp, you might need to talk to Momma Ciancio.
2. Respond to every review.
Guest expectation is that you're going to respond within a week, yet most restaurants don't respond at all.
If you respond within 6 days, you exceed guest expectation and out perform 50% of your competion.
Now that sounds easy, right!??!
This is just part of your service model.
3. Treat Google and Yelp as an extension of your front door.
If someone is talking to you, participate in the conversation. If someone has a problem, fix it. If someone praises you, acknowledge it.
4. Use reviews as intelligence
Reviews tell you what is happening when you are not in the building. They reveal trends before your managers do. They help you coach your team with real guest perspective.
5. Protect your search ranking by keeping reviews fresh.
Recency is a major ranking signal. A restaurant with a steady flow of new reviews beats one with a thousand old ones.
The Bottom Line
Restaurants do not win in search by accident. They win by treating online reviews with the same hospitality, attention, and intentionality they bring to the guest experience inside the four walls.
My friends .. this is not theory, this is not marketing fluff ... this is the work. The restaurants that embrace it are the ones that grow.
On a panel at FSTEC this year Jim Bitticks, CFE from Dave's Hot Chicken shared with me and Hamed Mazrouei from Vivant that at Dave's they can plot the success of a store based on their guest feedback and reviews .... powerful, right?!?!
If you want help with a reputation management plan, including how to respond, what tools will help and how to get more reviews ...
Email me: [email protected]
—Rev Ciancio
WHAT DOES REV DO?
I help restaurants build guest marketing programs.
I help hospitality tech companies with lead generation and content marketing.
