You Can Turn Around a Bad Review

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Sam Elbandak, owner of a San Francisco restaurant, used to dread looking at his restaurant’s Yelp page. He would get frustrated and defensive about negative reviews and would respond in kind, according to a story from Nation’s Restaurant News.

Elbandak, who spoke at a Yelp-sponsored panel at the 2019 National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, noted that all foodservice operators want those five-star reviews. One way to get a five-star review is by responding to negative reviews in a new way, he discovered. In one situation, a delivery customer received an order from Postmates and expressed dissatisfaction with both the eggs and the slow service. That story ended up as a Yelp review.

Elbandak might have responded to say how Postmates was not a representative of his brand, but instead, he counted to 10 and commented on the review with more tact than he had in the past.

“Before you go back to where you are visiting from, stop by and have the full experience of dining, and it’s going to be my treat,” he wrote. The customer took him up on his offer and returned to the restaurant with a few other diners. But they did not want to be comped the meal, Elbandak said, perhaps because they had such a good time.

“That one-star review became five, and I got two other reviews from their friends, just from one comment that showed them that I cared about them,” he said. “I think this is really the way business owners should look at reviews ... Rather than just being upset about it and not being happy about Yelp or the customer. Just take it and make use of it and improve your business.”

Research has shown that a foodservice operator who responds to a one or two-star review within 24 hours has a 33% higher probability of that person coming back and upgrading that review—sometimes by as much as three stars. So, it’s important from a systemic perspective to consistently respond to those review in 24 hours.”