When we are looking for a new bar to go to, we don’t care that Karen didn’t like the bartender. But it’s still better than nothing.
Lots of business owners brush off reviews especially negative reviews. The simple fact is If your competition has reviews and you don’t you are losing business.
Good reviews are better than no reviews, but bad reviews are setting you up to fail. You need to manage and understand how to use reviews to help your business.
But first of lets figure out how to get more reviews.
Simple answer is be good at what you do. But this is not normally enough to get people to use their valuable time to write a good review, so beg for them.
When you do a table check ask if they say they are having a great night ask them. “Hey can you jump on BarAdvisor and tell people” Offer a free drink or discount.
Even if you do not have any reviews this is losing you money.
First: search engines look at review sites and businesses with more engagement and positive reviews move higher up the list.
The higher you are on the search results more people are bound to stumble across your business.
Second: when you do get a negative review it will be washed out by all the good reviews.
Third: read above, 67% of people read reviews so you need to have some for them to read.
Beg for them
Ok you don’t need to get on your hands and knees and beg, but ask your customers. Make sure they are happy before you ask. It can be as simple as “Hey you enjoyed for food would you mind writing a review about it? Thanks.”
Ask your friends and family
It sort of sounds like cheating, but it is not. I am sure your friends and family have been to your business. They most probably liked the service and food so ask them to write a review.
Discounts for reviews
This is not our favorite, but it does work, if a customer is happy with their service, offer a discount if they write a good review before they leave. The good thing about this is you can qualify the customer and if they are happy with their experience already then with the extra discount they would love to write a great review.
Cheat
We do not support this, but it happens and if your competition is doing it and taking your business maybe you need to consider it. There are people online you can hire to leave positive reviews. Lots of bigger platforms like baradvisor.com monitor this type of traffic and it gets placed as spam, but some of the others might allow it.
Getting more GOOD reviews is not as easy as it seems. Remember it takes time to write a review so why are people going to waste their time. Plus where are they going to write it. This is why planning can help.
Where do you want the reviews
Plan where you want them to add the reviews. Make sure you have reviews on all the different websites, you don’t want one site with hundreds and then others with nothing.
One week target Baradvisor, the next week Google and so on with other review sites. Rotate weekly or monthly.
You want to cover them all, the are 1000’s of people looking at all different sites to find the best place for them to go, make sure your listing is there.
Also if you know where you are sending your customers to review you can also understand what method works best.
What do you want to push
This is the part that everyone forgets, this is free advertising so take advantage of it. Use reviews to push profitable menu items or happy hours. To read more check out reviews that make profit.
How to make it easy
You need to make it easy for them to write the reviews, don’t complicate things. If you have a plan where to send them and what you want them to say. Just communicate with the customer to place the review.
Have the links on your site to the places you want the reviews. Baradvisor icon, Facebook icon, Google business icon. Make it only one click away.
Go above and beyond for your customers. Make sure they are happy with everything. Check the quality of service and food all the time.
Once again it takes time for them to write a review. If you make time to make sure that the customer has had an amazing experience, they will make the time to write a review.
Let us know your fav bar games below.
This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. Full Disclosure Policy Here
Find All The Best Canva is a tool to help you to create impressive visuals for social media platforms, presentations, posters, and other promotional material.
Support As a bar or nightclub owner, you know how important it is to attract customers. One effective way to do that is by creating
Tips For Running Google Ads Tips to get you more ROI from your Google ads Trending Now Running a profitable bar requires a lot of
Setup Google My Business You need Google My Business if you want to get to the top. Trending Now Google “My Business” is a free
Breaking Ground The first couple of days in your new bar is exciting yet quite a nervous time. So, what to consider? Trending Now What
Get More Regulars How do you get them to come back again and again. Trending Now Contact is Key. These days people have so much
How to spot “the tool” at the bar A comprehensive guide to help you figure
Trending People to avoid when out We all love going out and having some fun.
Planning hens party ideas Check out the greatest hens Party ideas to make it the
BEER DIET Man lost 20KG and has never felt better. Trending Now Ohio man drops
