Making Customer Comments Work for You

According to the National Restaurant Association’s blog, most restaurants and pizzerias in particular, need to get up to speed with the social media revolution on the Internet today and the fact that restaurant customers can now post their own comments and reviews. The Association advises putting together an online response plan before a negative situation occurs. All venues receive both good and bad reviews at some point and savvy restaurateurs should look at every comment as an opportunity to have a conversation with their customers. Any time people give you negative feed back it’s an opportunity to turn the situation around and make it positive.

No pizzeria is perfect all the time and a few less than stellar reviews alongside several positive reviews can actually make your customers take all of your reviews more seriously because the Webpage in question isn’t full of fake positive reviews. In most cases, business owners can respond both privately and publicly to customer comments. A prompt and diplomatic response will let you respond to problems and keep customers happy. If your establishment is receiving multiple negative comments on the same facets of your operation, interactive social media presents an opportunity to examine your situation and identify new ways to address the problems.

The old saying about “the customer always being right,” might better be interpreted today as “the customer might be wrong, but it’s up to you to make it right.”  There is a lot you can learn from listening to your customers and much to be gained by implementing their suggestions into your daily operation.