 U.S. Berkeley just conducted a study saying that half a star rating, just half a star rating can mean 30% to 40% uplift in your bookings. And this could easily mean hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a monthly basis. And that's the reason why today we're shooting a video to show you how you can manage your restaurant's online reputation. So make sure you guys keep watching. Hello friends, my name is Wilson, your friend in helping you build a profitable restaurant. Just want to give a major shout out to these two individuals for the love, support and just pure positivity. Because that's exactly the environment that I want to be able to develop. That's the community that we want to build. So if you do want to get featured, make sure you guys leave us a comment in the section below so then that way we can have a chance to feature you. Now without further ado, let's dive right in. The number one step in managing your online reputation is benchmark. Having a benchmark and knowing exactly how you stand within the marketplace is crucial for your success. So first of all, what you're going to do is just go online and search for your restaurant, search for your name and see what populates. Because it makes a difference to see where you are at and then how we can improve that and to bring you into a stellar review process. So after you Google to yourself up and searched on Yelp, Google, reviews, Facebook, all these different platforms. Look at what people are saying about you. What are people's sentiment about you? What language do they use? How is the quality of your food, your ambience and really be able to dissect that down and note that down? What are other publications saying about you? While you're at that, you would want to also dig a little bit deeper and look into your competitors. What are they saying about your competitors? What are some of their reviews? This is oftentimes a very, very good place for you to have more insight in the industry and why some of the customers would prefer your competitors over you. This also gives you the opportunity to improve and make sure that you are set up for success. The second step is to set up alerts because at the end of the day, we have 10 million things to deal with on a daily basis. How are we going to be able to go on these review sites and to make sure we always stalk ourselves? We can't do that and that's the beauty in setting up alerts. You would want to go into Google Alerts shown right here. Type in your name, type in your competitor's name, type in your restaurant's name. So then that way you get notified whenever there are publications, whenever there are reviews written about you. So then that way you can save yourself a ton of time with research, but yet you're still kept in the loop. You can respond to it right away. Or if it's a great article, you can actually promote it and cross promote it within your own demographic right away as well. Next up is setting up your Google My Business Review as well. So what that means is that whenever people are giving your reviews on Google, you get notified right away. So then that way you can respond quickly and swiftly. Because the last thing you want to do is having a ton of people leave reviews for you. You don't engage, you don't respond and people just think that you know what, you're ghosting them. There's no opportunity for you to actually rectify things. That's the reason why setting up alerts are super important. Next up is Yelp. You can set up alerts on Yelp as well and TripAdvisor. So any platforms that there are for your restaurants then you definitely want to set up your alerts. So then that way all these alerts are sent to your email and that would save you a ton of time and allows you to react to it in a swift manner. The third step is to take a breather guys. You know what? This is something that I personally struggle with as well. And this is something that was taught to me by my mentor saying that, hey Wilson, if you are to reply and to read reviews, take a breather. Why is that the case? It is because oftentimes there are good reviews and there are the negative reviews, the nasty reviews that really stir up your emotions that, you know what? I really got to reply right away. And when you reply right away, that's a big no-no because you're replying with your emotions. You're not strategic with it nor do you actually pay attention to how the world sees how you reply. Because at the end of the day, when your customer sees you in a very defensive mode and not really owning up, then it's very difficult for them to be on your side. The review platform is like a global place for you to see and that other people will judge you. So that's the reason why you need to take a breather, calm down and reply in a very logical and strategical manner. First up, if it is a good reply, great. Actually tell them that, hey you know what? Thank you for the great reply. Come in, try something else. Really promote them, engage with them, have that conversation with them. So then that way you can show your character a little bit and just have fun with the whole process. Second up, if it is a bad or negative review, within this there are two ways you can reply. If it is a warranted review, for example, if wait time was an hour long because your chef was sick, tell them, explain it to them and tell them that you're going to take care of them next time you come in. Because it is a warranted review. Food shouldn't take an hour long for them to be served. Own up to it and then rectify the problem. That's the key here. Own up and rectify. And because we're all humans, your audience and the rest of the customers, when they see you're taking this action, when you're owning up to it and taking accountability, they'll much likely have a brush by for that and understand that. Second up, if it's a negative review, that is not warranted. It is just purely criticism that is based on a very subjective view, something along the lines of, you know what, the owner is nasty or you know what, the place is gross. But at the end of the day, your place is sparkling clean and you're just a super nice person and they just had a bad experience. Then you know what, stand up for yourself. Tell them that, hey, you know what, I'm sorry. Like, don't even apologize. Just tell them that, hey, you know what, I'm sorry for you feeling this way. And the other 10,000 people who visited us never felt like this. And show your character, be witty with it. And at the end of the day, your audience can be the judge on who's right and who's wrong. Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself. That's the key here. If it's not warranted, don't be afraid to stand up for yourself. The fourth step is to stay committed. Guys, at the end of the day, it is important for us to know that this should be built into part of our process and our system. Just because of the fact that you have 10 million things to deal with, a lot of fires to put out doesn't mean you should neglect your reviews. It is an ongoing battle that you should be fighting every week, week in, week out. That's the reason why you should definitely set up a time on a regular basis to reply to all your reviews. Like I was saying earlier in the video, if you don't reply to the reviews, people will take it as if all the comments are warranted. And even the negative ones, the nasty ones, people will think that, you know what? They are really, really bad. Which is the reason why me personally, I carve out time once a week on a Sunday night, just be on my computer laptop for an hour-ish to just reply to them and really just take care of all the errands and reply to them and really engage with them in a human manner. Be authentic when you are replying to these messages because humans and your customers can see right through it. If you're just trying to be very corporate, just trying to be like all proper and stuff, no, just be yourself. Carve out the time, be consistent with it. If you generate a ton of reviews, then there are online softwares that actually compile all the different reviews from different platforms into one webpage, which you can just reply and just kind of spend the time to reply everything all at once. Or you can get your staff to do so. Nonetheless, it is super important for you to commit time for replying to reviews. Step number five is to be intentful with your reviews. Now that we set up the system to be alerted, now that we've set up a process to reply to them on a regular basis, we need to push traffic, we need to push people to review for us. And that's the only way you're going to get people to respond, to actually take action. And that's the reason why with all the YouTube videos, we encourage you to smash the like button because it actually works. So now pause the video, go and smash the like button. But nonetheless, you definitely need to be intentful with telling people to leave your reviews. Focusing on your service and focusing on the quality of your food is key. So make sure you have those down to the T first and then incentivize your customers to go and leave your review. Tell them that hey, you know what, it would mean a lot to us if you leave us a review, if they're really happy about the service. Tell your waitress and waiters to actually go and encourage that. Make sure that this becomes part of the process because it might only take one person's review to really blow up your restaurant into having lineups out the doors all the time. It just takes that one review and that one critic. So make sure you guys be intentful with this strategy. So there you go guys, the five ways to manage your online reputation. Yes, the half a star doesn't seem a lot, but it would seem a lot if it is profit in your pocket. So make sure you guys pay attention to it and intentfully manage your online reputation. It is especially crucial in today's world where everyone Googles and looks at online reviews. I really hope that you enjoyed this video. If you want more tricks, tips and hacks, make sure you guys go into the link below to check out our masterclass. This is a masterclass we go over from A to Z, from choosing on the food concept that you're building, to negotiating free rent, to marketing, identifying customers, to actually marketing strategies to get people to line up out the doors. This is a completely free training and hour long in-depth training. Make sure you guys go into the link below and sign up for it. Otherwise, I'll see you guys in the next video.