A customer, regardless of whether they’re right or wrong, wants to be heard and wants to be acknowledged. As a business, when you are prompt with your responses, you are invariably showing them that you care. And caring about customers’ experiences is a key aspect of hospitality. A positive review or not, by responding to them, you get to express gratitude, share your side of the story, or even apologize if needed. Customers come on to Zomato to share their experiences, and as the ones who are a part of those experiences, you get to engage with them.

Responding to a positive review is a piece of cake. But here’s a pro tip – do away with those canned responses, because customers can smell it from a mile away, and it loses the effect. Take that extra minute to personalise the message, and thank them. Little things like these go a long way in keeping those customers coming back for more.

Negative reviews, however, are a slightly different story. Here are a few handy tips on how to handle them…

Don’t ignore them

One thing you mustn’t forget is that an interaction between you and the customer, about a review, draws plenty of eyeballs from other customers who are reading reviews. If you choose to ignore a negative review and respond to only positive ones, it shows you in bad light. It will look like you don’t care about your customers and their feedback.

Don’t take it personally

Don’t take it personally. It isn’t about you, it’s about your restaurant. Someone dined at your restaurant and had a bad experience. Sit back, take a deep breath and look at it objectively. Read the review thrice if you need to, and address every single problem. The only way to get rid of any negativity is to face it. The more you let it linger, the more it’s going to affect your business.

Treat this as real-time feedback

Negative reviews more often than not, is feedback. Particularly, when it’s about service and specific experiences with food – like if a diner found something in their plate, or if their food was served cold, and the likes. As right as you may be about being extremely cautious of how food is served at your restaurant, give the benefit of doubt to the customer. Acknowledge, apologize, and ensure that feedback makes its way to your staff.

Look at it as an opportunity

Look at a negative review as an opportunity for conversion. When someone’s complaining, they want to be heard and even pacified. And when you do address their issues, there is closure – for them, and for you. When they see your concern for them and how you value their feedback, there is a high possibility of them returning to give your restaurant another chance. Now, it’s up to your staff to ensure the customer has the best experience.

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All reviews are subjective opinions. You can’t possibly believe that every single customer that walks into your restaurant has had an amazing time. Someone won’t like the food, there will be another who didn’t like the music, and another who thought the staff wasn’t friendly enough. It’s a given that you can’t please every palate. If a customer didn’t like your spaghetti alla carbonara because it wasn’t spicy enough, you can respond by telling them that a carbonara isn’t meant to be spicy. If they aren’t convinced, it’s alright. Let this one go.

There’s another side to negative reviews as well. The kinds that aren’t genuine. For most of such cases, Zomato has checks in place.

• Tracks each user’s activity by their ratings and reviews pattern
• Assigns a Credibility Score to users based on their activity and followership
• Users with low credibility score have little impact of your rating
• Only reviews by high-credibility users will appear on the popular reviews tab

Either way, your safest bet is to respond to reviews without dwelling on them. You have a restaurant that needs to be run. Don’t let the negativity take up your time and peace. You can’t control what one says online, but you can salvage the situation with damage control. Since all good end things on a sweet note, here’s an example of good responses to a negative as well a positive review.