5 Great Ways to Get Customer Reviews and Feedback

Customer reviews and feedback are an integral part of almost any business today. That said, compared to many other industries, restaurants certainly lead the way in terms of how online customer reviews and feedback affect customer decision making. Actually, 60 percent of individuals read reviews before they choose a restaurant, bar or café, compared to forty percent for hotels, and 33 percent for healthcare experts and professionals.

In today’s competitive marketplace, which both restaurants and takeaways share, it is important to keep customers happy. Not surprisingly, a majority of restaurants and cafes will claim that they aim to achieve this. However, how can an eatery or restaurant be certain that they’re doing it right? The best way to figure out whether or not your customers are happy with your establishment is to solicit customer reviews and feedback from them.

Online customer reviews and feedback are not only crucial when it comes to developing and sustaining a positive reputation. They also impact your bottom line. A research study conducted by Harvard Business School indicates that an increase of only one-star rating on a platform like Yelp can lead to a nine percent increase in revenue for a restaurant.

Here are five great ways to get consistent and high-quality customer reviews and feedback from your customers:

1. Social Media

Nowadays, social media is a brilliant tool for getting customer reviews and feedback. All you have to do is inform your customers of your restaurant’s pages on different social media sites. Hence, they could easily get in touch with you and leave reviews or feedback. Many diners will leave feedback and reviews on social media due to the centrality or importance of these websites to their lives and, obviously, their accessibility.
According to a survey, restaurants and cafes are the most searched business online. Moreover, more than 80% customers read feedback and reviews in order to determine the quality of a restaurant. Therefore, restaurants can’t defy or ignore the influence of customers’ views expressed on various social media platforms. You may conduct polls or ask relevant open-ended questions regarding your food, services, atmosphere or ambience.
In addition, you could keep a tab on feedback and reviews your customers’ post. The popular platforms are Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Zomato, Burrp, or Mouthshut.

2. Face-to-Face Feedback

Note that your waiting personnel are the best people to talk to your customers, develop a rapport, forge a relationship and gauge their expectations, reactions, likes and dislikes. You should train them to inquire about how their meal is going and if there is anything they can do that will improve the experience for customers.
This is a great and instant way that your restaurant can get reviews and feedback from your customers and it also gives an opportunity to rectify or resolve any problems. Although sometimes diners might be too polite or reserved to express every little concern that they may have at the time, your waiters can help facilitate more detail in several other ways.

3. Feedback Forms

Many restaurants prefer collecting customer feedback via a printed, detailed and structured questionnaire. Feedback forms are circulated in this method to the customers while they are waiting to make the payment.
If your restaurant has a website, it is an ideal point of contact for your customers. Offering a feedback box on your site is a convenient option. Hence, your customers can contact you easily. An effective feedback box on your website is also extremely useful for encouraging one-time visitors to your restaurant. Moreover, you can compel regular visitors to leave their feedback
Your feedback form should be simple and easy to fill out as well as easy to find on the website. In case it seems like hard work, you are likely to miss major or minor feedback from your customers. Keep in mind that this feedback can help you improve your business or even your website.

4. Mobile POS System

Mobile POS systems have become more prevalent in restaurants and cafes and could be very useful for gathering customer feedback. When you have a tabletop ordering system (another name for POS), it could give an opportunity to complete the feedback survey right at the time of payment.
In this method, the server hands a tablet or some other handheld device to the customer at one or more customer interaction points. Because of its convenience and speed, this method has gained a lot of popularity among many restaurants.
This also helps create a no-fuss and convenient option for your customers to leave feedback. Hence, they don’t need to complete any additional steps in order to give their opinions. You can make this feedback method fun for your customer by presenting it as a kind of mini-game. Similarly, you can use incentives in order to urge them to complete your surveys and reward them for the effort.
In addition, another excellent way technology is now being used for encouraging customers to provide feedback is the great use of specially-designed kiosks close to the exit of establishments.

5. Online Customers

You can upload a questionnaire on websites, such as surveymonkey.com. Next, you can send emails to your customers requesting them to answer your questions. That said, keep in mind that many respondents usually skip the survey. This is where a promise of a gift card or discount coupon on completion could encourage them to complete the survey!
This type of survey is particularly useful for online food ordering as well as takeaway eateries. They can benefit from this method as they have limited face-to-face interaction with their customers.
Although it is important not to overwhelm your customers with too many or persistent requests for feedback and comments, it is clearly vital for any successful restaurant or café to know what its diners are happy and unhappy about. This is where setting up a wide variety of feedback channels is important. This step can ensure that you can collect detailed customer feedback and reviews on a timely basis.

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