How Restaurant Reviews Need to Be Automated

It is important for a restaurant to have good customer reviews on their page. People will judge your restaurant by the number of five-star ratings it has, and by the feedback left by your customers on your site, social media, or even third-party platforms. In this online era, people will choose where to dine based on reviews. However, 90% of businesses have under 5 reviews on popular review platforms such as Google & Facebook because of lack of time and automated processes.


JoyUp makes it easy to automate the collection of reviews from your past customers. Our platform also makes it easier for the customer to quickly write reviews directly from their mobile device or computer.


Here's what you need to know.

Objectives

  1. What is the meaning of review automation and benefits of automating reviews.
  2. How to get more reviews?
  3. Review request template you can use
  4. What to avoid when automating reviews
  5. JoyUp: Best Review automation software

1.  What is the meaning of review automation and benefits of automating reviews

Review automation is the process of getting online reviews from your customers on relevant business listing review sites. Such sites include Google and Facebook, along with  industry-specific ones such as TripAdvisor and OpenTable.

Below are benefits of automating reviews:

Reviews build customer loyalty

Customers who leave a positive online review for your business have had a great experience and are more likely to remain loyal. Incase of a negative review, you can still build loyalty by responding to their review and addressing the issue. Seven out of 10 consumers changed their opinion about a brand after the company replied to a review.

Reviews increase sales

Reviews help businesses to bring about healthy changes, attract customers, boost conversion rates, promote their brand and take an extra leap to grow productivity and sales of their products and services. According to a study on how reviews impact sales, on average reviews produce an 18% uplift in sales.

Consumers do your Marketing for you

Positive online business reviews are more effective at attracting customers than a marketing campaign. They provide a constant positive image to potential customers and create a continual brand awareness that benefits the business for both the short and the long term.

Reviews increase your search ranking

Reviews are a top 3 ranking factor when it comes to local search results. Automating reviews gives search engines the ability to identify trends for your business over time. When star ratings are consistently high, it signals to Google that your business delivers a positive experience. When the reviews are on highly relevant review sites that consumers frequent, they will also be considered more trustworthy, and Google will prioritize your business in search results.


Also, when reviews contain comments that praise the products and/or services that you’re trying to rank for, this will also increase your relevance to search engines, and help to bump up your rankings.

Compete with customer experience to save margins

Reviews level the playing field for businesses, no matter your size or budget. Having a high volume of recent positive reviews allows you to stand out with more established competition, and potentially gain a positive niche in people’s estimation and expectations. Simply put, which company would you rather buy from one with 400 3-star reviews or one with 200 5-star reviews? Chances are you’d go with the latter. Positive reviews do your marketing for you. quisquam et deserunt, recusandae. here

2. How to get more reviews

1. Make the process as easy as possible 

Ensure the review process is as clear and straightforward. Include the appropriate link within the review request so that your customers don’t need to do anything more than click and respond.

2. Ask for reviews on the sites your audience

Choose review generation software that integrates with hundreds of review sites, to make it easy to get new reviews on any site where your customers are searching, along with your company website and social media.

3. Create personalized workflows 

Request reviews at scale with automation. Easily build intelligent and personalized campaigns to maximize conversions from your review requests. Send requests instantly!

4. Customize your review requests 

Personalize requests with your branding and messaging. Choose from several formats to ensure you get the most actionable responses and increase customer reviews.

5. Connect your apps and automate the process 

The right review generation software should integrate with your existing CRM so you can sync your existing customer database and start sending automated review requests right away.

6. Send review requests on multiple channels – not just email

You’ll reap the best results when you send a review request to your customers via text and email. Chances are that you have a lot of happy customers out there.


Turn text conversations into conversions. Leverage business text messaging software to connect with new leads and customers via text, Google, Facebook, and Instagram in one unified inbox to seamlessly request reviews in ongoing conversations. 

3. Review request templates you can use

Customers don’t like reading long texts or emails so don't complicate things when asking for feedback. When sending review requests, keep them short, simple, and to-the-point. 


Here are a few templates that you can use to request your customers for feedback

4. What to avoid when generating reviews

Waiting too long to request a review

Ensure you send your review requests the same day of a sale or customer interaction. The more time you wait, the less likely it is that a customer will remember the details of their experience or even bother to write a review.

Focusing on the wrong review websites

Avoid prioritizing the wrong review websites. For example, businesses in the restaurant industry almost equally split their review requests between Google (45%) and Facebook (43%) in comparison to vertical-specific sites such as OpenTable (1%).


While Google is the most popular site for customers to write reviews for restaurants (59%), a significant portion of reviews are written on other sites (20%). This reflects that people are writing reviews on industry-specific sites. For restaurants seeking to increase their review request conversions, there’s a clear opportunity to ask for more reviews on niche sites. This applies to most industries. Businesses often get caught up solely focusing on the popular general sites, while missing the opportunity to boost conversions by considering relevant niche sites.


Not requesting reviews from all of your customers

As a business, don't be selective when sending review requests. It may be tempting to only send review requests to customers that you have a great relationship with and are sure will leave a positive review. If you’re being selective, chances are that you’re missing out on sending review requests to customers who could also give a positive review but just aren’t as engaged or vocal about how much they enjoy their experience.


Also, even if you get a few negative reviews, you can change those negative reviews into positive ones. This will not only help to drive loyalty but will also show prospective customers that you actively listen to your customers and care about their experience. 

Buying reviews

Buying reviews is against both Google’s and Yelp’s terms of service. Earning positive reviews has short-term and long-term benefits. By simply automating your review requests you can quickly get more reviews, easily identify areas of the customer experience that can be improved, and build consumer trust for your star rating. The fact is most consumers don’t trust perfect 5-star ratings.

5.  JoyUp: Best Review automation software

It’s not a question of whether or not automation is possible, it’s a question of implementing automation in the most effective way for your restaurant. You could be missing nearly 50% of your potential new customers searching on Google & other business platforms such as Facebook, Yelp, Trip Advisor, Zomato, or OpenTable. 


Let’s improve your restaurants reputation online and help drive new customers. Sign up with JoyUp and get to learn more on restaurant review automation.