Succeeding in the food and beverage industry is no easy task. Every business needs to find a competitive edge to remain profitable. With so many restaurants and outlets dotting the landscape, apart from customer’s desire for fine dining; customer reviews have become an important factor in a restaurant’s success. Reviews are now essential to the success of the food and beverage industry.
Just like the old saying “The customer is always right”, restaurant and bakery owners have come to accept the need for reviews of their service and hospitality. Crafting customer experience needed for success includes understanding customer’s attitudes and opinions. Online reviews and opinions are considered valuable because of the insights success-seeking business owners can gain.
Research has revealed that because of food reviews, customer perception and loyalty are increasingly becoming a competitive advantage as customers begin to consider restaurants and outlets based on their reviews rather than going for the most popular brand. For the success of the once often run-off-the-milltype restaurants and outlets to stand the test of time, it is necessary to create the need for focused attention to be given to customer reviews. Increasing reviews can be hard for the F&B industry. Poor reviews can drop your ratings while positive reviews can rise to the top and rank in customers' minds – it’s all about customer perception.
Restaurant and bakery services go beyond offering patrons what even the most home-cooked culinary dish and treats cannot provide: A relaxed atmosphere, friendly chef, and motivated employees. Reviews can speak volumes about how businesses are enhancing their customer experience (CX). Good reviews thus mean happy customers and happy customers lead to a business boom.
Reviews affect not just how customers see your businesses, but also in the short and long-term improvement of the quality of service, and experience with each customer through feedback. As reports and reviews tend to be objective and subjective, supplementing it with personalized service can account for a better customer experience.
Malcolm Prescott PhD, Integral Customer Manager for Smiths Group had this to say: “Reviews contain both a rating and often a written message from the customer saying what their great experience was.” Furthermore, Smith advises food and beverage outlets to respond to negative reviews.
For the F&B industry, writing reviews can be a delicious savoury mouth-watering menu not just for the readers, but also for other food-loving foodies by way of recommendation. Reviews are gaining prominence as a powerful persuasive aspect when it comes to making customer decisions. Customers are investing time and energy in writing detailed reviews and it defines what is trustworthy about the food and beverage industry.
Management can gain valuable insight from how customers perceive their property. The review section provides resources to understand customer experiences and can provide ways to address customer issues directly. Technology is also playing a role in developing an interactive platform for customer reviews.
Knowing what satisfied customers are saying and unpicking customer issues gives businesses crucial insight into how to craft a more enjoyable experience for patrons. Reviews also serve as a platform for businesses in the F&B industry to heighten their services to make a competitive edge against their contemporaries based on the review generated.
In the food service industry, reviews count for a lot, from helping a business find new customers; deciding what type of business to open; to training employees. Again, there are a few rules that outshine the others:
Listening to customer feedback and using the reviews to help shape a dining experience is a win-win situation for both customers and the F&B business.
At the end of the day, the Food and Beverage Industry Requires continual efforts to position the customer as the hero, engaging him and incorporating them into the businesses’ decision-making processes. Customer reviews in the F&B business matter, and success stories, nevertheless, provide more business opportunities for one to savour if businesses learn to rise to the challenges that accompany customer reviews with an innovative strategy.