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 review sites are helpful in removing these posts (as long as you don’t try to start posting fake reviews yourself).
The thing is there is no quick fix for the problem of a low score on sites such as Urbanspoon.
Sure, you can pay people to vote your venue up but the important review sites such as Urbanspoon and Yelp! have algoryths that can detect this. If there is a sudden surge in voting for no reason those votes, even if they are from legitimate customers, are often dumped.
Really, the comments are what people take most seriously. And for all the positive ones you post, unless you act to change what customers perceive to be a problem, you are fooling yourself. Plus you may attract the unwelcome attention of the ACCC which is taking the issue of fake reviews seriously.
In the ever changing world of social media review sites Yelp! and Urbanspoon are most important though Google Places reviews and reviews on Facebook are growing in importance (and don’t yet vet who is voting so are easy to fake).
I believe that if you want to manage your online reputation it starts with educating your audience. It starts on your website (designed so the 40%+ of your visitors on a smartphone can access it) with professionally taken photos of your food and menus published in html than as a pdf to download.
This is one of the few places on the web where you own and can control everything. If you aren’t doing this right you are missing a huge opportunity.
If you have let your reputation slip, it is a long climb back up. We are talking up to a year depending on the number of votes and frequency of voting on a venue.
Enjoy the podcast.