Bad reviews is a pain that almost every restaurant has suffered from at some point of time during their operations. With everything getting digitized, the reviews have also moved on from being confined to certain print publications to everywhere on the web. Before making a reservation, people consider the online reviews first and word of mouth later, hence the damage negative reviews can do to your business’ reputation is tremendous.
But when there’s a problem, there’s a solution. Or at least a way to mitigate the peril that a certain situation can put your restaurant business in. We talked to Dubai-based restaurateur Sanjeev Nanda to seek some tips and tricks that might come handy to businesses that are clueless about what to do every time a dissatisfied customer goes on to post a very public rant on the web. If you are a business owner suffering from bad reviews, scroll on to know some golden tips on dealing with negative reviews.
Why deal with negative comments at all?
With increasing negativity in the virtual world, some business owners choose to turn a blind eye to whatever badmouthing their business is getting subjected to. However, letting negative comments linger on can only be harmful for your restaurant business. According to Sanjeev Nanda, not responding to negative comments tells prospective customers that you don’t care about your customers or your own reputation at all.
This can be a deal breaker, since most people like to visit restaurants which not only offering you great service on-site, but also off-site. The Dubai restaurant maven suggests acknowledging each comment irrespective of its nature and expressing your gratitude towards the customer for giving you a chance to serve them. This not only calms down the angry customers, but also tells thousands of potential customers that your business adopts a reasonable approach to dissatisfaction.
Crafting appropriate responses
While addressing negative comments about your business, it is important to be mindful of the words that you are using. “Sort negative reviews based on their intensity. The shorter, low-intensity reviews usually stem from one-time bad experience, which is something that can easily be resolved by acknowledging the problem and assuring the customer that they won’t face it when they visit your restaurant again,” suggests Sanjeev Nanda.
He adds that lengthier, angrier reviews need more attention, and should be responded to with care, without showing any disrespect to the customer or their opinion. Avoid engaging in an elongated altercation by replying in a matter-of-fact manner. Getting agitated by a customer’s badmouthing can and will have an adverse effect on your business. It is better to own up to the issue through simple language and work on a possible solution for the same, rather than engaging in an online brawl.
