Having a first class online presence is a must for every cafe in 2017. You’d have to be living under a pretty massive rock to not know the impact that social media and review websites can have on a cafe or any business for that matter. This is where our customers communicate and explore. So creating and maintaining a prominent presence is vital for digital exposure.
Despite the obvious benefits the flip side of this exposure can rear its ugly head when we encounter a negative review.
Let’s face it. There’s nothing worse than staring down the barrel of an ugly 1 star review. It’s a bitter pill to swallow for a small business owner. There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears that goes into a business – so when you see someone putting it down it can be seriously heartbreaking, particularly if it feels like unfounded criticism.
Often owners are put off by these experiences and come to the conclusion that the risk ain’t worth the reward with review sites and avoid them all together. This simply isn’t the case – let’s find out why.
THE NUMBERS
How often do people search for local business:
According to a consumer study done by Bright Local in 2016 53% of consumers search for local businesses online at least once per month, which is up form 43% in 2015. On the flip side of this the number of consumers who don’t search for local businesses online at all is down to 5%. These figures are telling – but not surprising. Bottom line – it’s important to be online!
Do consumers read online reviews to judge if a business is good or bad:
Bright Local found that only 9% didn’t read online reviews when searching for local businesses. With 50% of the review readers reading them more at least once per month. More customers are reading online reviews and on a more frequent basis.
It is a double whammy – more on line searches and more review of reviews.
This ties in with the increase shown above in consumers searching online for local businesses. When they search they often see reviews and review sites included within the search engine results. So there is a natural correlation between more searches and greater attention/consumption of reviews.
Which types of businesses do customers read online reviews for:
Folks – it is a triple whammy!
Even though people could reply that they reviewed multiple categories, a massive 60% of respondents review cafe/restaurant local businesses with the closest category being Hotels and BnB at 40%. If this isn’t incentive enough to start ramping up your online review presence as a cafe owner I don’t know what is. With this much opportunity out there online it makes having a first class online review presence not just a “nice to have” it’s an absolute must for cafe owners.
What are the most important factors customers look for in a review:
It’s no surprise that the study found the number 1 factor is the star rating of a business with 58% of consumers seeing it as important. Second place was the sentiment of the reviews with 47% of consumers seeing this as important. In third place however was the recency of the reviews with 41%. This highlights the importance of keeping reviews current and relevant to hold consumer confidence.
Other interesting findings from the study:
– 87% of people say that a business need a rating of 3-5 stars before they will use them
– 59% of consumers look at 2-3 review sites before they make a decision about a business
– 73% of consumers think that reviews older than 3 months aren’t relevant
– 84% people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation (vs. 80% in 2015)
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CAFE’S ONLINE REVIEW PRESENCE
Encourage and Reward customers to review:
Sadly 91% of customers read reviews but only 6% write them. Happy customers don’t often write reviews. They’ll say they forgot to, never thought to do so, got too busy or that it’s just too difficult. Make it easier for them.
A super simple and effective method is put signage up in your cafe, try placing signage near your customer waiting area. People often sit on their phone when they wait for their coffee, with nothing better to do this can be the perfect place to get a review from that happy but busy customer.
Another approach for the cafe that’s looking for some more accelerated growth with their reviews is to run a competition. Make the method of entry to leave a review on social media or any of the top review sites. The big benefit in using this tactic is you can choose to focus on a particular platform that might be lacking. Say asking for all review to be done on google.
Respond to Reviews – Both Positive and Negative:
It’s super important to be active in responding to all reviews that your business encounters online. People will feel a lot more confident about a business who has reviews coming in regularly and reviews being responded to regularly.
This is particularly true when it comes to negative reviews. Like all challenges in life negative reviews are best tackled head-on and with honesty. Most of the time a person who leaves a negative review simply wants to be acknowledged. So making sure this happens is priority, after that it’s important to be polite and respectful, no matter how outrageous some of the claims might be (kill them with kindness).
Also make sure you don’t use a ‘pre-prepared’ response for negative reviews, this can come across and very disingenuous for both the person who wrote the review and more importantly for other customers who read the reviews. These interactions can make or break an online presence – they demand attention.
Build relationships:
Might sound old fashioned but far and away the most effective way to get positive reviews is to make your customers like you. Duh?!?. Keeping your coffee and food perfect as well as going the extra mile with amazing service helps get customers to place where they feel compelled to share their experience. You might even find yourself asking some of these more regular customers first hand if they’d like to leave a review.
Images and Statistics Courtesy of Bright Local – you can find their 2016 Local Consumer Review Survey here
