Remember when you first created your Google My Business and Facebook listings? You were probably super excited to know people could do a quick search online and find everything they need to know to get to your restaurant.
But after that, what happened? If you’re like most restaurant managers and owners you probably completely forgot that you have any online listings. In fact, you might not even remember your URL. That’s ok. We see it all the time.
It’s one of the reasons we advise all restaurants to do quarterly online presence health checks. This allows you to know how effective your listing is and ensures anyone searching for you can not only find you, but also gets accurate information.
Check Your Hours and Phone Number
Your hours might vary based on the time of year, holidays, etc. Regularly update your restaurant’s listing with updated hours so that people aren’t showing up when you’re closed. There’s nothing more frustrating than looking forward to a meal and showing up to a restaurant and finding their hours weren’t listed correctly and they’re closed.
Make Sure Ordering Options Are Up-to-Date
Whether you have an online ordering system or utilize a 3rd party delivery service, make sure your customers know how they can order from your restaurant.
In addition to listing ordering options, share how they can get their food: carry out, dine-in, curbside pickup, and delivery are a few popular options.
Watch Reviews
Good and bad reviews alike deserve attention. Watching and responding to all reviews is something that you should be doing regularly (weekly, if possible). Your patrons are going to provide the most honest and critical feedback. Use it to your advantage.
Make a point to thank people for positive feedback and use any negative feedback (it happens to the best of us) to grow as a business.
Don’t ignore feedback. It might be tempting to diminish the idea of negative reviews, but by responding to them you’re showing the person who posted it that you care. It’s a great way to build repeat business and establish a transparent presence.
Keep Your Menu Up-to-Date
93% of people view menus online before dining out or ordering take-out. Keeping your menu updated on all of your listings is probably the second most important thing you do (second to keeping your hours updated).
Save your patrons the frustration that comes from expecting something to be available when they arrive and finding that it was taken off the menu months ago.
We all know that at certain times you might run low or run out of something. Do your best to update your social channels to let people know so you limit the chance of someone showing up with the expectation of getting a specific meal and enhance your transparency.
So, how is your restaurant’s online health? Ask yourself these questions to get started with making it the best it can be.
- Is my menu up-to-date on all of the platforms I’m established on?
- Does a quick search for restaurants of my type bring my listings up?
- Is my website informative and helpful to customers?
- When searching for my restaurant, is the correct business information available?
- Can my restaurant be found on all social channels?
- Do I have a plan for responding to positive and negative reviews?