Restaurant chains have a unique situation when it comes to online reputation management.

One one hand, they're typically well established brands with food staples that keep loyal fans coming back. On the other hand, their large number of locations can lead to inconsistent brand experiences that wind up hurting them in the long run.

Take McDonald's, for example. Their website boasts over 38,000 locations. That's A LOT of McChickens to get right—or wrong, depending how you look at it. It's also an impossible number of locations to try and manage feedback and reviews without the right tools (psst…Akira).

And that's without the added salt (pun intended) from other restaurant chains online:

Long story short? Chain restaurants need to focus on online reputation management to keep their brand sentiment strong both on and offline.

In this blog, we'll examine three chain restaurants who are crushing online reputation management like Joey Chestnut crushes hot dogs.

So grab yourself a Big Mac and let's dig in.

But First, What Exactly is Restaurant Reputation Management?

Before we get into examples, let's take a quick moment to define restaurant reputation management:

Restaurant reputation management: The act of managing and responding to guest feedback and reviews—both offline and online. Good restaurant reputation management focuses on resolving guest issues effectively and incorporating feedback to improve operations and guest experiences.

When we talk specifically about online reputation management—it focuses on both managing and responding to online reviews as well as optimizing your online listings.

For this blog, we're going to focus on examples of solid online reputation management. But it's important to realize you need to manage ALL feedback—both offline and online—to truly take control of your restaurant's reputation.

3 Restaurant Chains Who Excel at Online Reputation Management

1. White Spot

White Spot is a beloved fast-casual Canadian chain known for their delicious burgers. With over 130 locations, there's no question keeping up with online reputation management is difficult—but they're doing a pretty bang up job at it.

Here are 2 different examples of White Spot crushing the online reputation management game:

1. Personalized, detailed responses to bad reviews

   

   Bad days happen to good restaurants, and the best thing to repair the relationship with your guest is to take responsibility as well as steps to make things right.

   This negative review White Spot received is very limited in details to explain what exactly happened but one thing is clear— the guest is very upset.

   The way White Spot handles the negative review is perfect. It's personalized, using the guest's name (Dave), and asks for 2 important things:

   1. More details so they can understand what went wrong and improve.
   2. Providing their email address info so the guest can contact them directly to take the steps needed to address and resolve it.

   Remember that review sites like Google and Yelp don't provide a way for restaurants to reach out to guests privately on the platform so responding to their review with a way to get in touch is a best practice.

2. Taking the time to respond to good reviews

   

   Restaurants know that a best practice is to respond to their negative reviews. But just how important is it to respond to your positive reviews?

   According to one study by Business News Daily, nearly 50% of consumers polled said they were more likely to consider buying from a business if it took the time to respond to ALL reviews.

   White Spot understands the assignment, and shows their appreciation to customers by responding to those who took time out to leave them stellar reviews.

2. Blaze Pizza

Blaze Pizza is a fast-casual pizza chain originally from California but now has locations internationally. Blaze's claim to fame is serving individual-sized made-to-order pizzas.

Blaze has a pretty loyal following and as far as chains go, their reviews are solid—like this location with 4.3 stars in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

A quick examination of their Google listing will tell you the owner is doing an exceptional job at managing their online reputation.

Here is a real-life example of how the owner responded to a guest who had a bad experience:

The important takeaway from the above is this guest is extremely unhappy, and there's nothing Blaze can do to resolve this online. But Elizabeth's response not only saves face to the online community—but possibly to Will, too since she's offering to take this situation offline to resolve it.

After doing some digging, we found that Blaze uses a reputation management solution which enables them to streamline response management and analyze review insights effectively.

They also give reviewers a chance to provide direct feedback by linking to their website form—a best practice that encourages others to do the same.

Blaze's investment in online reputation management shows they're committed and it's paying off for the pizza brand.

3. Triple O's

Triple O's is a fast-casual offshoot from White Spot who has clearly learned a thing or two about online reputation management from their cousin. Here are two great examples of how Triple O's is crushing the online reputation management game:

1. Why the 3 stars?

   Triple O's is very responsive to online reviews—the good, the bad, and the confusing. Take the below as a perfect response example when it comes to “the confusing” batch of reviews:

   

   C Pérez had nothing but good things to say about her experience at Triple O's. So why the 3 stars? Perhaps C Pérez made a typo, or perhaps there's more to the story. Either way, Triple O's handles this perfectly by asking how they could have made her visit a 5-start one and requesting additional information.

   Hopefully, C Pérez sees this response and is able to adjust her rating or provide valuable insights the teams can use to improve operations.

   The nuances of reviews can be tricky to navigate, but Triple O's handles it perfectly and it's on display for their customers to see.

2. Online feedback form

   As we've explored in the other examples, responding to reviews is only part of stellar online reputation management equation. The other part is encouraging direct feedback.

   

   Triple O's has an excellent feedback form that is easily accessible on their site. They also created an email address just for guest reviews that they use while responding to negative reviews.

   Not only is this great for taking the conversation offline, but it also lets customers know an alternate option to provide feedback.

Final Thoughts: Online Reputation Management Happens Online and Offline

As you can see, restaurant online reputation management is a labor of love for chain restaurants. It takes time and effort. But the biggest takeaway from the above examples is that online reputation management happens both online and offline. It's not enough to simply respond to a bad review. You then need to make it right, and the only way to do this (especially since many review platforms don't let you message the person directly) is to request to take the conversation offline.

For more insights into effective online reputation management, check out A Step-by-Step Guide to Responding to Bad Google Reviews.

If you're a chain restaurant looking for an easy, seamless way to see and manage all of your guest feedback and online reviews in one place and understand each restaurant locations' sentiment—you need Akira.