The 5 types of online reviewer

This is a reprint of an article I wrote for LiveBookings in November 2011

It’s one thing trying to get your restaurant out there on the internet by tweeting, blogging and facebooking, but there is a point at which guests realise you have a physical location. Once they have sussed out you are open and sell meals, they come and visit. Every so often, one of them has a polarised view of how they perceived their experience and the next thing, it’s on the web. Now once this happens, the paranoia of the restauratuer takes over. Every day you will be checking multiple sites to find comments, twitter will never be the same either. When it comes down to it, how much truth is there in a review? On balance, reviews should reflect how your guests feel about you. If this was the truth, why would someone who is consistently at the peak of their culinary perfection get very poor reviews? I would like to introduce you to the 5 types of online reviewer.

Genuine
The vast majority, >85% of your reviews, fall into this category. If you took the average of this population, you would get an idea of how you are really doing. Occassionally you get a review that lands at the other end of your expectations, but thats a reflection of life, we don’t have average people, with average views. If someone has made a show of appreciation, let them know. If they have had a below par experience, see what you can do to fix it and reply with that too.

Critical
We can’t deny there are a number of respondents who like to display their foodie finesse by contradicting everything good about a place. “I cannot understand how the citrus did not cut through the rich dairy of this paltry poultry” can be translated as pretentious tosh for “chicken kiev sucked”. There is no merit in arguing with these comments, they make themselves look daft enough and you really don’t want them to reply with more bilge.

Fake
One of the more entertaining aspects of the hospitality industry is watching the numerous public fibs that come about from DIY reviews. A new restaurant in my home town tried this very thing. They talked themselves up in a most grand manner and then gave negative votes to a few establshed venues. An aggrieved customer spotted this deceipt and blew the whistle on the same review site. Then came a few threats of legal action, on the same site, from the owners of the falsely maligned eateries. Anyway, 6 months later, the place closed it’s doors against the onslaught of their creditors. The moral of this story is that the internet is the quickest way of spreading both lies and the truth, but each come with a correct and very public label.

Defense
If you get a bad review, don’t cook up a counter to it, firstly it is bad form, secondly, see Fake reviews above. When someone genuinely has a go at you, deal with it. Other customers will spot the detailed countering in the fake review that has been written, especially if you quote from the one with the low votes. One of the worse aspects of this is that trust crumbles. In the casino industry, surveillance teams have an acronym, JDLR, just doesn’t look right, for suspicious behaviour. Fake or defense reviews set off alarm bells in most readers, JDLR.

Malicious
Every so often, there are underhanded individuals who post blatantly nasty reviews. Sometimes they are competitors, sometimes they are after your crown, sometimes you never gave into blackmail, an unpaid creditor or an ex-employee trying to get revenge. If you work with a booking service that allows only reviews from booked diners, this can get even more sinister. Imagine the scene when a diner turns up, at your expense, walks away and writes a foul review. You next spot a glowing review for a competitor from the same person and a sudden flurry of other top scores for the same venue. The result is that you have paid for someone to raise their profile above yours. Most of the time, malicious reviews will be removed, but sometimes not. If they bother you that much, ask the site to remove all mentions of your restaurant and walk away.

A good or a bad review can be a bonus for your restaurant, all depending on how you respond. Both want to be listened to and recognised. If you have a row of perfect scores, this does look suspicious. Take a look at some of Gordon Ramsay’s feedback, even a 3 Michelin star location gets terrible scores from time to time. You need average or bad reviews from time to time to help you understand where improvements can be made. If you score consistently lower in one area of measurement than the others, for example ambience or value for money, this is a clear flag to do something about it.