If you run a restaurant, getting a bad review is inevitable. No matter how good your services are, someone is bound to be disappointed in one way or another. If you get a bad review of your restaurant or the services you provide, you should resist the urge to overreact or delete the comment altogether. Remember that negative reviews will affect your business, so you want to handle it as professionally as possible to avoid the issue escalating.
Responding to Negative Reviews
- Act promptly: You should respond to the comment as soon as possible. Do not wait for too long after many other people have commented about it. You should clear the air before your brand’s name gets tarnished further. Ideally, you should have tools that monitor whenever your brand is mentioned online. You should also have a team of social media managers who update your pages and respond regularly.
- Acknowledge the complaint: Do not go into self-defence when you see a complaint. There are many companies that have gotten it right by apologising when customers complained. You can learn a thing or two about these companies. They did not defend themselves; instead, they acknowledged and apologised.
- Delete when too vulgar/troll: There is an exception to the “do not delete” rule. If you notice that you are dealing with a troll who has vulgar language and is taking the complaint personally, feel free to ask the administrator to pull it down.
- Ask to take discussions offline: If you realise that the negative review is based on something that requires further discussion, you can ask the poster to take it offline. For instance, if they are accusing your employees of theft or for treating them poorly, you may want them to expand on the issue further and possibly identify the people. In this case, ask for the discussion to go offline.
After you have responded to the comment, make sure that you reinforce your commitment to providing quality services. If you respond appropriately, you will regain the confidence of your customers.