One of the best parts about running your own restaurant is that you don’t have to wait for a year to know how you’re performing. Your restaurant goes through ‘appraisals’ almost everyday—thanks to customers. Feedback today is shared everywhere – in person, online, written. With this kind of openness, you can expect a wide range of comments from your customers. And with them going online, it can go either way. If something’s a hit or a miss, they will make sure others know it. With Zomato and Facebook, restaurant goers everywhere share their experiences for others to read.

As we know it, it’s more likely for people to share their bad experiences as opposed to their good ones. For a good review you need top scores in most aspects of their dining experience. It’s a no-brainer that you should provide great service and amazing food to your customer. However, sometimes you may miss out on small yet crucial points leading to a bad review from a customer. You know it was an off day, but the customer doesn’t. The customer also wouldn’t care for it. That’s why it’s important to keep a few things in place at all times to win that good review on all platforms.

Consistency

It’s a cliche for a reason. Consistency comes with time. It comes with an in depth understanding of what works and what absolutely doesn’t. Your early days are when you invariable end up testing various aspects like certain dishes, service, music and the likes. But if you aren’t tracking what what’s working and what isn’t, you’re bound to continue doing things that you may not need to. For example, if red velvet pancakes are a part of your specials menu and over the span of 3 months you’ve sold about 5 plates of them, you can easily replace the dish or simply remove it. If you want to be certain that it doesn’t work, talk to customers. Ask the ones who do order it if they liked it and ask others why they wouldn’t order it. Similarly, if you’re selling more of say, hot wings, lock down that recipe tight and make sure it goes out of your kitchen the same way every single time. Nothing more off putting than going back to a restaurant for a particular dish and being served a slightly altered version of it because you were one ingredient short. Don’t let that happen. It’s easy to lose a customer this way. Consistency is key. Write that down somewhere.

Specials

A commendable special menu in a restaurant is like a pleasant breeze on hot day. People remember it. Using special ingredients or even seasonal produce gets people’s attention. For example, many restaurants across the country are doing mango special menus. Focusing on a fruit that is a favourite among almost everyone means customers coming in just to try something new out. And when they like what they eat, you’re sure to get a good review because it isn’t something they’ll get to have all year. And with a special menu or dish, people want to be the first ones to try it out and tell the world. It’s a great chance for you to have them try out what you have to offer.

Trends

If you’re not up for a specials menu, be sure to have a few stand out signature dishes for people to look forward to. These days freak shakes are in the trend and many cafes and restaurants are incorporating in this in their menu and even making them stand out. There are people who go to such places just to try out the latest trend so they can share it on social media. Remember the Starbucks unicorn frappuccino craze? It was all over the internet. Likewise, today there’s the black ice cream. The trend most likely started in New York a couple of months ago and today it has made its way into Icekraft in Mumbai. There are articles about it, people are taking pictures and sharing reviews on the internet, and since they’re the first movers in India at least, they’ve made quite the mark for themselves.

Entertainment

One way to get people talking is to give them a show. And not just any other gig, but rope in folks who are relatively popular in your city. There’s a lot of talent in almost every city. Music, comedy, art, poetry and so many more genres for you to explore. Entertainment and food at one spot gives customers a wholesome experience. When it goes well, they will share their experiences and spread the word. It also pays off to have something unique at your restaurant to catch attention and for people to talk about it. Like, slam poetry for instance. There are many budding young poets in the country and they need a platform to give voice to their work. Customers are more likely to talk about anything new if they’ve already talked about the food and other aspects at your restaurant.

Service

This is a given and has been spoken about multiple times. Impeccable service earns the staff and your restaurant brownie points. Your wait staff should know how to provide personalized service yet know where to draw the line. Simple things like talking to the diners about what’s special at the restaurant, learning how the diner likes their food – spice levels, allergies, etc, keeping a tab on the turn around time from when they take the order to when the food gets on the table, the works. Customers almost always include service in their reviews. Even if the kitchen is having an off day, service can save someone’s dining experience.

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These are just a few things to keep you focused on what you should be doing anyway to keep your restaurant on top of people’s minds. Good reviews will follow when you’re doing everything right while serving a customer.