What can a "Positive Review Machine" do for your Restaurant or Bar in the Next 2 months?
(Press Play to Learn More about Building this Machine for Your Business)
Welcome Restaurant/Bar Leaders!
Hi there! My name is Lauren, and I’m thrilled you’ve found this post. It’s exciting to see it's gained so much popularity recently, so I wanted to add a quick introduction and video overview above for all the new readers.
I run a digital agency that focuses on helping to create new patron engines through automated marketing (simplifying tasks we're already doing manually). I’m excited to share a proven strategy that’s been making a huge difference for restaurants, bars, breweries, coffee shops, etc...when it comes to gaining and retaining loyal customers.
The strategy involves building a "Positive Review Machine".
Let's dive in and talk about how it works.
The biggest challenge for many businesses is attracting new patrons. Building a machine that makes getting 5-star reviews easier, but also leverages them as marketing asset to fuel search, social, and the website, can more than 2x sales.
What we're going to cover in this post...
(click to skip to any section)
The good news is that a "Positive Review Machine" can be put together in about a week to keep new and repeat patrons coming back and you can achieve similar results for your business too.
Let's Get Started...
Why Google Reviews are so vitally important to Restaurants and Bars right now.
Online reviews have become an essential aspect of consumer decision-making. For small businesses, the impact of customer feedback on platforms like Google cannot be overstated. Google Reviews, in particular, play a critical role in establishing credibility, boosting visibility, and driving growth for local enterprises.
Here's why these reviews are so important to small businesses.
A) Building Trust and Credibility
Consumers are more cautious than ever when choosing where to spend their money. With so many options available, they often rely on the experiences of others to guide their decisions. A business with numerous positive Google Reviews signals trustworthiness and reliability.
These reviews act as social proof, showing potential customers that your business delivers on its promises and provides value. Conversely, a lack of reviews—or an abundance of negative feedback—can deter customers from engaging with your business, even if you offer superior products or services.
For small businesses that may not have the same brand recognition as larger competitors, Google Reviews can help level the playing field by building trust in the community.
B) Boosting Search Engine Rankings
Google Reviews are a significant factor in local search engine optimization (SEO). When users search for businesses or services in their area, Google takes into account both the quantity and quality of reviews.
Businesses with more positive reviews are more likely to rank higher in local search results and appear in the coveted "Local 3-Pack" that appears at the top of search pages. This increased visibility can lead to more website traffic, foot traffic, and ultimately, more customers. For small businesses, competing with bigger brands can be challenging, but Google Reviews offer a way to stand out in local searches by enhancing SEO efforts without significant investment.
C) Enhancing Customer Engagement
Google Reviews provide a platform for direct customer feedback, creating an opportunity for meaningful engagement. When restaurants and bars respond to reviews—both positive and negative—they demonstrate that they value customer opinions and are committed to improving their service.
Engaging with reviews helps businesses build stronger relationships with their patrons, encouraging repeat business and loyalty. Responding to negative reviews in particular can showcase your customer service skills, demonstrating your willingness to address issues and resolve problems promptly. This kind of transparent communication fosters goodwill, and customers are more likely to forgive occasional missteps when they see a business taking corrective action.
D) Influencing Purchasing Decisions
The power of word-of-mouth marketing cannot be understated, and Google Reviews amplify that effect. Studies have shown that consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Positive reviews can push undecided customers toward making a purchase, while negative reviews can have the opposite effect. In essence, Google Reviews serve as an unpaid marketing tool, helping to attract new customers based on authentic experiences. For small businesses with limited marketing budgets, this kind of organic promotion can be invaluable.
E) Providing Insight for Business Improvement
Beyond attracting new customers, Google Reviews offer valuable insight into customer preferences, pain points, and expectations. By analyzing reviews, small businesses can identify trends in feedback and adjust their offerings accordingly. Whether it's tweaking customer service practices or improving product quality, reviews offer a direct line to understanding customer needs. This data-driven approach can lead to better decision-making and operational improvements, giving small businesses a competitive edge.
Ok...
But how do we guarantee that our restaurant is getting consistent 5 star reviews so the competition can't close the gap?
The Steps we take to Build your Restaurant's Custom "Positive Review Machine" so the Competition Can't Catch Up
One of the most important things you can do in your business is to build systems that ensure important tasks are carried out correctly. This is just as much true for your marketing as it is for how your business gets cleaned, how your staff answers the phone, to how you pay your bills.
In this case, our team builds a "positive review machine" for your Restaurant that does the following:
- Step 1: Intelligently captures reviews by creating a friendly server "leaderboard" competition that encourages patrons to leave a review immediately after they consume our product/service.
- Step 2: Constantly fuels Google search to improve our search engine optimization and visibility every day (without paying thousands each month for SEO).
- Step 3: Constantly fuels social media by turning each positive review into a piece of content that we can upload as a story or post to attract more customers and boost our social search rank.
- Step 4: Constantly fuels our website with fresh reviews using a social proof conversion tool which will turn more visitors into an actual foot traffic and loyal customers.
When we build a system with all of this marketing "fuel", we have effectively built a "feedback loop" that will generate new reviews as well as turn those reviews into content on the web that will drive new business.
Let's Dig into each step of what the "Positive Review Machine" does.
Step 1:
Our "Positive Review Machine" intelligently captures reviews by creating a friendly server competition that encourages patrons to leave a review immediately after they have a good experience at your business.
Frist, there are two main ways to encourage a customer to leave a review at the right time.
We pull this off by arming your Waiters/Bartenders with a Smart Review Card.
It starts with the bond the server or bartender builds with the patron. You would have them ask how their experience was and, if positive, ask them to leave a review.
To make this simple, we have NFC enabled cards that instantly links to the Google Review capture page.
Each NFC cards is linked to a server or staff member and their review requests are tracked on a leaderboard that is texted out to the team and/or managers frequently so that everyone sees the impact.
This effortlessly sparks a friendly competition which can 10x the number of reviews you're getting, leaving the competition behind. The restaurant can optionally incentivize winners to add more fuel to the machine, but it's not required for this to work.
Cards like these eliminate the need for a customer to fumble around online trying to find the right spot on Google. They instantly get patrons to the right spot where they can leave their feedback.
There are several companies out there like ours that can create these special cards for you and your staff. So whether you work with us or not, arm your staff with these for a big impact.
Step 2:
Our "Positive Review Machine" makes sure that the review shows up on Google to improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
When you lead the customer directly to the Google Review page, instead of making them search out the business and potentially get lost on the way to leaving their review, you insure that it gets posted directly to Google.
When Google sees the "frequency" of your reviews go up, it will start to rank your business higher for relevant search keywords. This is easily the most critical strategy for ensuring your competitors can't catch up to your "review velocity" so your restaurant comes out on top.
This in turn generates more relevant traffic for your business online, which turns into real world business if you're generating positive reviews.
Step 3:
We turn positive reviews into a piece of social media content that we can upload as a story and post to attract customers and boost social search rank (by posting even more frequently).
The problem with Google Reviews is that Google doesn't make it easy to use those reviews for marketing purposes off of their site. We want to fix that and make sure that every review on Google also shows up on our social media profiles like Facebook and Instagram.
One of the main things that we understand that helps our restaurants is that turning that review into social media content is one of the most powerful things that we can post in terms of converting a casual browser into a customer (or repeat customer).
Here's an example of what that content looks like when we turn a review into a social post or story.
Step 4:
Our "Positive Review Machine" makes sure that our latest reviews shows up on our website so that we get instant social proof which will increase the conversion of a website visitor into an actual customer.
Once again, the problem with Google Reviews is that Google doesn't make it easy to use those reviews for marketing purposes off of their site. We want to fix that and make sure that every review on Google also shows up on our website.
That extra social proof helps convert your website visitors into actual paying customers.
Below is an example of what a "Social Proof Badge" looks like when it gets instantly updated with fresh Google Reviews every day.
Below is an example of what a "Wall of Review Love" looks like when it gets instantly updated on your home page or review page, each time a new review is posted live on Google.
What stands out in this screenshot highlights the problem of "freshness". We want the "recency" of those reviews to be "this week," showing potential patrons considering you right now that things are awesome, right now. Studies show that consumers disregard reviews older than 3 months so fueling the machine with recent reviews is key.
Why this works so well to create a continuous loop of more reviews and new patrons
Once your Google Review Machine is up and running, this is the kind of strategy and technology that can 2-3x our business. This is what happens (new reviews = higher rankings = more traffic = more sales = more reviews).
It works so well because it continues to feed itself with a powerful feedback loop:
How to guarantee you double your business in the next 2 months by letting us build a "Positive Review Machine" for Your Restaurant.
Everything that we just covered above can be built for your establishment in under a week and then turned on right away to start working for you all the time.
The key is to get the "Machine" live so that it starts feeding itself with positive reviews captured by motivating the staff with a leaderboard competition and generating marketing assets for search, social, and your website.
After those first 2 months of getting it set up, the effects just continue to compound and deliver bigger results for as long as you have the system working for you.
So how do you get started?
Just click the button Below to Sign Up.
Lauren has over 20 years of experience in marketing. She is the founder of an agency focused on helping restaurants and bars grow through strategic marketing automation and a resource website that showcases exceptional teams in the industry. With her expertise, Lauren has helped customers implement systems to increase visibility and drive growth.
