3 Ways to Protect Your Restaurant from Negative Word of Mouth Online

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December 15, 2009

3 Ways to Protect Your Restaurant from Negative Word of Mouth Online

By Andy Sernovitz

People are going to say good and bad things about your restaurant. In fact, it might already be happening. And while you shouldn't expect to be immune to negative chatter, there are some basic ways you can establish to protect yourself.

Three safeguards to fend off negative buzz:

1. Build credibility before you need it.
Focus on being a regular participant in key blogs or forums that your customers follow. You can't be everywhere, but by building credibility with a few local critics, it'll make it much easier to share your side of a story if and when you’re being attacked.

2. Bring it inside the tent.
If people can’t complain on your restaurant's Web site, they’ll do it elsewhere anyway. Instead, have your own blog or forum where your fans and critics alike can engage you. Your fans will likely help out, and you won't have to spend as much time chasing negative conversations around the web.

3. Get your fans involved.
If you’ve been successful in earning the love and respect of your fans, your talkers will be eager to help. It's OK to ask them for assistance in responding to negative reviews on sites like Yelp or GrubHub -- just be careful that your request doesn't come off as an organized attack on a particular critic.

Attention all National Restaurant Association members and fans of the Association's Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show and International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event (IWSB): as an added bonus, you can take $101 off GasPedal's Word of Mouth Supergenius: The "How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing" Conference in Chicago, taking place tomorrow (Dec. 16) by using discount code: NRASENTME

Note: You can follow the NRA Show and IWSB "tweet team" tomorrow at the Word of Mouth Supergenius conference on Twitter @nrashow2010.

Blogger Bio.: Andy Sernovitz is the author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking and is CEO of GasPedal, a company that teaches word of mouth to brands of all sizes.

Posted at 03:57 PM in Andy Sernovitz, Chicago, GasPedal, GrubHub, International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event (IWSB), National Restaurant Association, National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show (NRA Show), NRA Show 2010, social networking, Twitter, womm, word of mouth, word of mouth marketing, Yelp | Permalink

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If you’ve been successful in earning the love and respect of your fans, your talkers will be eager to help. It's OK to ask them for assistance in responding to negative reviews on sites like Yelp or GrubHub -- just be careful that your request doesn't come off as an organized attack on a particular critic.

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