Useful tips to improve the reputation of a restaurant on TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor started his career as a hotels rating website. It’s informal and participative style called the attention a lot and it quickly became an authority website for a rapidly growing community of users. At last, the users and travelers had a quick and convenient place to find real information from other users about hotels they came to visit and TripAdvisor was placed at the head of the websites linking businesses with opinions.

But, eventually, TripAdvisor showed different kind of businesses allowing users rate public places, events, shows and restaurants. For years, his restaurants rating tool has grown 200% annual in the number reviews, ratings and number of businesses that are enlisted on the platform. Why this change? In Spain, during the last year, 76% of the booking of the restaurants were processed online and 98% of those users have consulted the online reviews on these restaurants before booking, TripAdvisor remain as the major source of information and also the most reliable.

Once users find on TripAdvisor the restaurant they are interested in, they rate positively number several factors in order to make a decision, because competition in the same city can be brutal and often they do not want unpleasant surprises. All data that will be offered to the user in advance are important, even more if they are on TripAdvisor. Therefore, if your restaurant is already in the database of TripAdvisor, you’ll want at all costs not only to be in the top of the table of ratings in your city, but offer a good image so your place is always full.

How to get this online reputation improve and have your fame increase in the social media grow? Next we’ll give you some tips to make your restaurant be top in your city:

1.- Show your restaurant before someone else does.

Upload photos to the page of your restaurant. But not just any photo. Use photos taken by professional photographers of the best points of your local. Do not upload photos taken with your mobile, anyone can do that. Let people notice that you really care about your business image. And of course upload photos of the dishes, so that people will be angry after watching them. Customers can also upload photos, but yours will always come first. A restaurant with 35 photos increases its success by 107% compared to one without them according to data from TripAdvisor.

2.- Answer fast. Answer well.

Your business lives of the customer ratings. The more reviews and ratings you have on the profile of your restaurant, the higher you will be on the list. But you have to answer your customers. TO ALL OF THEM. Whether the rating is good or negative. Do not let just anyone answer. Pick a person or company who knows how to address a critical mass, someone who knows how to serve objectively and convey the feeling of your restaurant. 
Customize your answers, address the users knowing their problem from first hand and thank them when they praise you. If the rating is negative, try to find a solution, convey your concerns and invite them to trust you again. The structure of your answers is critical. And if the words come from the head of the business, even better.

3.- Time is money

You must be aware of any comments in real time. You must act once a comment is left. There is no time to waste. If you are engaged in providing good service to your customers, delegating this in a person or company who understands your needs. To stay informed, active TripAdvisor notifications, or any other platform on which they can make judgments (Facebook, the holder ...) to reach you by mail or phone in real time. Every second that a rating is unanswered, your reputation TripAdvisor goes dawn.
 

4.- Ease and Happiness

You have to make your customers happy, before and after visiting your restaurant. If a user enters your tab on TripAdvisor convey him in everything you can. Inform your schedule and keep it updated. Let them book from TripAdvisor integrating with your system. Offer them deals or discounts on the menu for booking online. If a user is able to know when he can go to your restaurant, make reservations in less than 5 clicks so he will known in advance that he will save money in the final bill, you'll make him happy. And that will result in better comments.

5.- Not everything is on the internet

Once you've managed to convey the confidence for your customers to visit your business, you’ll have to worry about two things. The first and most important is to give them a good service. Be true to your principles and standards of quality and have them back. And the second is to have them rate their experience. For this you can ask TripAdvisor promotional material like their logo and insignia for people to see them in your business. If you achieve to be the number one in your city or make the best paella of your region, you can require TripAdvisor official elements to accredit you are the best and then place them proudly in your restaurant. You can also add a card with instructions to review your business along 
with the bill, or include a bidi code on the ticket to scan it so it takes the client directly to your restaurant tab. The more recent the comment is left, the better. One trick: facilitate the access to the information by offering free Wi-Fi in your restaurant and let them know it before they ask you.

6-. Do not cheat

TripAdvisor knows it. They know that acting outside the law is considered a choice by many people. They know it's easy to make fake profiles to rate yourself positively and negative rating for your competition. They know it's easy to offer gifts to customers to remove negative reviews. And as they know it, TripAdvisor has had for years one of the best algorithms to search and identification these behaviors to avoid muddying the good rating system. In addition, users can easily detect it and denounce. Not worth it. Play fair 
and triumph.

If you can carry this out on your own, or through a specialist company, all these tips we have given you, in less than a year you will notice how your business greatly enhances his reputation, and therefore increase your customers.

Main photo: Daniil Silantev