Think of the last new restaurant you visited. Was it recommended to you by a friend, or did you search for it on Google? These days, Google reviews are the gold star (really 4+ gold stars if you're a high achiever) for seeking out new restaurants to try—as 81% of consumers use it to evaluate local businesses.

The problem? Google reviews are a fickle beast. They can be your best friend or your worst enemy, and negative reviews will cost you:

• 92% of consumers polled won't visit a restaurant with less than 4 stars
• One negative review can cost a business up to 30 customers

Google reviews are an essential part of your restaurant's marketing strategy. But managing them effectively is hard.

Cue, restaurant reputation management software. It's the easy, seamless answer to managing all of your online reviews. In this blog, we'll break down everything you need to know including:

What is Restaurant Reputation Management Software?

4 Major Problems Plaguing Google Reviews and Listings

How Restaurant Reputation Management Software Works

Why Restaurants Need Reputation Management Software in 2024

What Is Restaurant Reputation Management Software?

As we mentioned above, managing guest feedback and online Google reviews—and restaurant reviews across all online channels—often feels like a full-time job. One that gets increasingly more difficult with every new social channel that foodies frequent (TikTok food critics, anyone?).

Restaurant reputation management software is software that aggregates direct guest feedback and online reviews for easy response management and actionable insights to improve customer experiences and boost online reputation.

A streamlined approach to guest feedback, online reviews, and your restaurant listing

Any person in the restaurant world understands how critical managing guest feedback and online reviews is to the success of their business. And their significance only continues to grow. When handled well, they can restore reputations and favorable resolutions. But left unaddressed, they can be an unmitigated disaster.

The major problem restaurants face when it comes to reputation management is that it goes well beyond Google reviews (Yelp, OpenTable, etc.) and is continually expanding.

Between both guest feedback and online Google reviews, a typical restaurant can have 10+ different channels they need to actively monitor. And if you have more than one restaurant location, the review management process can seem impossible to get your arms around.

Plus, it doesn't just end at reviews. You also have to ensure your online listings are accurate. And what about direct guest feedback? Someone needs to manage that as well.

All of these problems are why restaurant reputation management software is a game-changer.

It streamlines all of your guest feedback, online reviews, and local listings in one place so you can easily manage it and resolve matters offline when necessary.

With restaurant reputation management software, you'll not only maintain but improve your brand reputation.

4 Major Problems Plaguing Google Reviews and Listings

Some of you may be wondering why you can't just respond to all feedback directly in Google. There are a few reasons why this strategy isn't effective:

1. There's no way to contact a guest: Let's say a guest leaves a less than stellar Google review. While you can respond to it, Google gives you no option to contact them and resolve the matter offline beyond asking them to email you. Plus, you can only respond one time.
2. Keeping track is tedious: Even with one location managing Google reviews can be difficult. But for larger restaurant chains? It gets exceptionally difficult, and is easy to miss things.
3. Google is just one source for restaurant reviews: While Google reviews are incredibly important, they're not the only review listing site. On top of managing Google, you also need to keep track of every other place guests can be leaving feedback and reviews.
4. Automatic updates to Google listings: Google uses algorithms to automatically update business listings in an effort to keep them accurate. The problem? It's causing inaccuracies and creating headaches for restaurants trying to keep up with it.

How Restaurant Reputation Management Software Works

Restaurant reputation management may sound too good to be true but it's not. Our team at Akira have been working hard to build a product that keeps your online reputation thriving, so we're familiar with the inner workings of one.

This is exactly why restaurant reputation management software is a game-changer. Here's a breakdown of how it makes your job easier, and all it helps you accomplish:

• Easily streamline and manage multi-channel feedback and reviews: Restaurant reputation management consolidates and streamlines all of your guest feedback and online reviews—from website forms, social media, email, online ordering apps, etc.—into one place so you have a holistic view of everything to easily take action and gauge brand sentiment.
• Aggregate and respond to feedback & reviews: Once you have a holistic view of your guest feedback and online restaurant reviews, you can start to put a plan in place to effectively respond. Strategize which (if any) get managed by the restaurant or at corporate level and prioritize which need immediate attention and how to best respond. Some restaurant reputation management software even uses AI to craft personalized responses for you in a timely manner.
• Leverage actionable insights: Using automation, you can easily understand the online reputation of each restaurant including key insights to address problems with operations or customer service, and if sentiments are trending positively or negatively over the past 90 days.
• Optimize your online listing: Another key feature is centralized listing optimization to ensure accurate and consistent business information across multiple platforms. Online directories (Google, Yelp) use algorithms to continually update restaurant listings. Unfortunately, this often leads to inaccurate information that can hurt your restaurant's reputation. Reputation management software allows you to centralize and schedule everything from one place (even if you have multiple restaurants!) and will override the automatic changes.
• Take control of your online reputation: By having an active and responsive presence to guest feedback and online reviews, you can continually improve and optimize your restaurant’s online reputation overtime.

Why Restaurant Reputation Management Software Matters in 2024

If the statistics at the beginning of this blog didn't convince you that you need restaurant management software—take a look at the following graphic from our friends at Popmenu:

Pretty scary stuff, especially when you have no strategy in place to manage these negative reviews day to day.

Now consider the following:

1 in 3 guests polled had a negative experience while dining over the past 30 days. But when the issue was resolved to satisfaction by the guest, 79% said they'd return.

Bottomline is that mistakes happen. There are so many factors at play when it comes to customer experiences and you can't control all of them. What you can control is how you deal with them.

In today's hyper competitive landscape, restaurants need to be proactive—not reactive— when it comes to their online reputation.

Ready to invest in a restaurant reputation management software and take control of your online reputation?