The Vital Role of Customer Reviews

• 92% of patrons read restaurant reviews
• 33% of patrons won’t visit restaurants with a rating lower than 4 stars
• 83% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
• Reviews have a direct relationship with revenue
• 89% of consumers read owner responses to reviews

The Facts About Reviews

92% of diners read restaurant reviews, that’s more than any other industry! And your review scores have a direct connection to revenue. In fact, 33% of diners won’t even eat at restaurants with an online rating lower than 4 stars. Even a half-star difference can swing restaurant business by a whopping 27%. This shows the power every single review has. If you aren’t making an effort to get more customer reviews, you may be missing out on an increase in revenue! Tría has proven methods that if applied can guarantee your restaurant additional positive reviews from satisfied customers.

The Most Important Review Sites

There are a variety of platforms that customers can read reviews on, including Yelp, Google, and Facebook. Yelp is the most popular and is commonly read by “foodies”, as restaurants are the most popular category on the app. This means that Yelp is where you’ll likely find some of your more passionate reviewers. Google stands out as well since your star rating is front and center when someone searches for your restaurant, or when you show up in a “near me” search. When you sign up with Tría we have analytics that clearly show the value of each platform and its primary use by customers. For example having more reviews ranks you higher in Google search results. Facebook doesn’t offer as many benefits from having lots of reviews, but restaurant guests are more likely to leave high ratings on Facebook than on any other review site.

The Value of a Review

When thinking about the value a review has, consider this statistic: 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. So 84% of people will trust a stranger on the internet’s opinion on a restaurant just as much as they would a close friend. Crazy, right? Well there is more: the average consumer reads 10 reviews before feeling able to trust a business. So if your restaurant is lacking in the reviews department or has a large number of negative reviews, you’ll want to focus more time and effort on building this up so you don’t miss out on the potential opportunity of bringing in more orders and more loyal customers. Remember, your reputation is proven by the service and quality that you provide!

Trust us when we say that we want your happy customers to post their glowing reviews of your business! That’s why at Tría we coach restaurant owners in strategies they can easily use to increase their number of reviews as well as handle them in a professional and responsible manner. We’ll show you how you can be alerted each time a new review comes in, and help you implement other tried and true methods that we guarantee will help your restaurant cultivate solid reviews from satisfied customers.

What to Expect with Reviews

Yes, we know there will always be reviews that are overly-critical. In fact, customers who have a bad experience are twice to three times more likely to write an angry review than customers who had a great experience are to post a happy review. Remember that statistic if you’re left wondering why your business doesn’t get many reviews or seems to only get negative ones. This is why it’s crucially important to encourage ALL of your customers to leave a review.

Consistency is key with reviews. It’s important to directly advertise to your customers to encourage written reviews from them. To this you might say, “I have a dozen great reviews from 2 years ago, why would I want to encourage more reviews when one might end up being bad?” Well, 85% of consumers think that online reviews older than 3 months aren’t relevant and 40% of consumers only care about reviews submitted within the last TWO WEEKS. This is good news, especially for businesses that are working at improving themselves. That awful review you received last year might not be as highly regarded as you once thought. Always focus on improving your business to encourage a steady flow of good reviews rather than strictly focusing on the old ones!

Plus, if you sign up with Tría and ditch those third-party services, you won’t have to worry about the bad reviews they bring from their delivery time issues, or their bad driver habits with eating customer food!

Always Respond

89% of consumers read local businesses’ responses to reviews, but only 23% of restaurants actually reach out to customers who leave negative reviews online; A representation of a sad reality that many restaurants are out of touch with their customers. At Tría we work hard to address this and implement a change. If this applies to you, don’t fret, the positive is that you have the opportunity to one-up the local competition by being the restaurant owner who actually communicates with their customers, by actively responding to feedback from their community.

By responding to reviews, you have a chance to redeem a negative customer experience or thank a pleased customer for taking the time to show you their appreciation. You may even be able to turn that one angry reviewer into one of your most loyal customers! It’s not as hard as you think.

Tría has created a complete reviews guide, for restaurant owners, featuring templates for a large variety of negative review scenarios. We also offer personalized coaching to provide restaurant owners with an even more in-depth understanding of their reviews and how to respond.

Over half of all consumers are influenced by reviews when choosing a restaurant. The data speaks for itself. There are plenty of tips and tricks you can use to get those five stars filled in, and that’s why Tría is here to help. In a time where restaurants’ reputations are on the line because of third-party delivery and the bad reviews they’ve brought them. Now more than ever it’s important to have hyper-awareness of customer feedback and responding in a professional and timely manner. You may not be able to get real human assistance from third-party delivery companies such as Uber Eats or DoorDash, but you can with us. Our goal is to provide training and one-on-one coaching to you so you can build and maintain your reputation and increase your revenue.