Blog / February 24, 2020
3 Rules for Replying to Negative Online Reviews


Lenny DeFranco
Whether you’re a budding local restaurant or a luxury dining destination, you’re going to deal with your share of negative online reviews. Don’t worry. It happens to everyone. Ever since websites like Yelp and Google My Business have emerged and expanded the traditional notion of word-of-mouth marketing, online reviews have changed the way restaurants do business with customers. A staggering 93% of consumers use reviews to determine if a local business is good or bad before they even set foot in the door. And considering most of these online review platforms don’t let you delete comments, you’re stuck with one option: responding to them.
How to respond to negative restaurant reviews
Step one of managing your online reputation is gathering all the positive and negative reviews in question into one place. It’s one thing to peruse Yelp and Google My Business, but with new review websites popping up every day and with many regional variations to monitor, it can feel like you’re fighting a losing battle. One option is to use online reputation management software to track, measure, and respond to customer reviews. Once you’ve set alerts for your company’s name you can get started on replying to your bad reviews. Another option is to implement restaurant software that offers built-in review aggregation. However you decide to go about it, engaging with negative reviews is an important part of showing the online community that you take all feedback about your service seriously. Here are three things to keep in mind.
1. Every negative review is a chance to shine
Online complaints about your restaurant typically fall into one of two categories: problems with the restaurant service or problems with the food. That’s rough, considering service and the quality of food are two of the biggest reasons people would patronize your restaurant. The good news is that you can even the playing field by replying to your negative reviews. In fact, 7 out of 10 consumers changed their opinion about a brand after the company responded to a review. The key to responding to a negative review is to follow this simple formula:- Apologize for the negative experience
- Empathize with the customer
- Offer a further audience
- Ask for the chance to make it right.

2. Not all customers review are 100% truthful
You’ve probably encountered a customer who exaggerated or lied outright about a situation. Sometimes they do it because they’re looking to take advantage of you; sometimes it’s a genuine disagreement with your staff member about how an event transpired. In the controlled chaos of dining service, many versions of the truth are possible. If a bad review seems a bit off, do some investigation.- Talk to your servers and staff who dealt with the situation or look into your guest data system to see if you can identify any apparent issues.
- Ask yourself if this situation sounds plausible.
- Decide how you’re going to respond.
