You hate and love them. But review sites are a fact of life and are here to stay. In Melbourne, the biggest of them all is Urbanspoon, which is about to be relaunched in a few weeks as Zomato with local community managers and content creators on the ground. And the team looks to be improving some of Urbanspoon’s shortcomings by ranking trusted reviewers and changing the point scoring system. A history of review sites Yelp! was the first review […]
online reviews
How Big Huey beat the trolls
I was tempted to call this post “Meet the troll wrangler”. I’m not talking about Iain Hewitson or myself but an astute watcher of social media. More about this Caped Crusader of the digital world later. Online restaurant reviews are a serious business. Bad ones cause restaurant owners anxiety and they can spend a lot of time – and money – dealing with them properly. Nobody wants a bad review to go viral by handling it badly. And some owners […]
A 3D view of your business
View Larger Map Google maps for business, now known as “Google My Business” is a tricky one. Not only is verification a pain in that you have to wait for a postcard that sometimes doesn’t arrive (although you can sometimes get someone on a phone to help), but it can also be difficult to get right. The difference between getting your listing right or wrong is the difference between your business showing up in local and map search or not. […]
How to manage your online reputation with Ken Burgin
You’d be amazed the number of people who contact us problems with online reviews. It seems to be the problems are split two ways. Either somebody has got drunk and is randomly posting negative reviews or a venue’s review score falls below their expectations, especially in Melbourne on Urbanspoon. I recently talked to hospitality consultancy Ken Burgin on this issue for his podcast, which you can find here. The first problem of drunken trolls is relatively easy to solve and […]
ACCC to tackle online reviews?
One of the biggest gripes among and hospitality or tourism-based business is the anonymous online review. We’ve helped many people over the years with trolls who have defamed venues and individuals just because they were refused entry or kicked out for being drunk – or just because they are competitors. It’s a real pain and emotionally draining for owner operators who care about their businesses. Now Restaurant & Catering Australia is in discussions with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission […]
The truth about online reviews
PeopleClaim.com I was handed this inforgraphic by Matteo Pignatelli in a conference session I was involved in on online reviews. It shows why it is important to pay attention to them and use them as a feedback mechanism.