Bad Yelp review? Here’s how restaurants should respond

The honeymoon is over for restaurants. At first, customers were just happy to dine out. Now that spending is tighter for many families, meals at a restaurant have taken on greater importance. They must deliver not only good food but also — and this is even more important — great customer service.

Customer service starts the moment someone walks into an establishment. If a greeter fails to acknowledge customers with a smile, that’s the start of a downward spiral that’s hard to reverse. Very often the greeter or host is doing many things (delivering drink orders, bussing tables), but the one thing they’re not doing is their main job. The minute the customer has to speak first, the restaurant is on the defensive and in the position of trying to win diners back.

Let’s say a kitchen and waitstaff have an off-night. It’s happening more and more because of the difficulty restaurant owners and managers are having to hire and retain staff.

But like I said, the honeymoon is over. And the next day there’s a scathing Yelp review complaining about customer service, the quality of food or both. You, the customer, didn’t receive the four things that all customers want:

To be heard.

To be appreciated.

To be acknowledged.

To be appreciated. I list that twice because that’s how important it is.

Should the restaurant respond to a bad review with its fight or flight mechanism? Neither!

“Flight” means ignoring that review and avoiding conflict. They do that at their peril. Not responding to a bad review is like running away and hiding, or saying to yourself, “That’s just a bad customer.” Are there bad customers out there? Sure. Should they handle them by ignoring them? No!

“Fight” means making excuses (“we were understaffed,” “the bartender didn’t show up”). The common denominator of failure is excuses instead of responses.

The simplest way to take an angry customer and turn them into a brand ambassador is for the restaurant to handle conflict. If they are not willing to have conflict, they should also be aware that they are willing to give up sales. Restaurants have to fight to keep every customer in today’s market.

In addition, the response is not for the person who had the bad experience, but for everyone else reading that review who will be looking at the quality and sincerity of the response.

Restaurants should respond to that bad review by saying thank you: “Thank you for taking time to write your review. I’m so glad you brought this to my attention. We want to provide great service and I apologize that we didn’t meet your expectations. Please direct-message me your phone number. I would love to talk to you further.” Positive reviews should be responded to as well.

In today’s world, every restaurant serves food and cocktails, but customers will keep going to the restaurant where they are shown appreciation.

• Izzy Kharasch is the founder of Hospitality Works, a consulting firm that has worked with more than 700 restaurants and small businesses nationwide. He is offering Daily Herald restaurant owners a free consultation by contacting him at Izzy@HospitalityWorks.com.