In this post, I’m going to show you a smart way to get more 5-Star Reviews. Getting more positive reviews is a critical marketing component your independently-owned restaurant (or whatever business you’re in). Want to make ALL your advertising and marketing work better and pay a bigger return on investment? Read this post. (Video Posted Below)

More Positive Reviews Helps Your Ads Draw More Customers

More positive reviews will make your ads pull in more customers. Do you advertise?

Every time you spend money on advertising, many of the people who see your ad will check out your reputation. They’ll go to sites like Yelp, Google, Trip Advisor, and Facebook to find out what people are saying about you.

The technique recommended in this article will help you get more positive reviews while also helping you build customer loyalty.

Who Are The Best Customers to Ask for a Review?

The best customers to ask for a review are the ones who join your “Specials & Coupons” email newsletter. How do you get people to sign up for your “Specials and Coupons” newsletter?

Make sure every adult patron of your restaurant receives the opportunity to fill out a form like this one. You can leave a small stack of them in a tray or a business card holder in the table, or you can have your server set some on the table with a pen toward the end of the meal. You may want to have the cashier bring up the subject if your customers pay at the cash register. Th point is:

If they fill out the card, it’s because they’ve had a satisfactory experience. If this is the case, then they’re a good candidate to leave a positive review.

You’ll need to get an assistant (you can get someone for minimum wage or less) to send out an email the same day (or the next day-sooner is better) and send something like this in an email:

Dear Mr. Smith, thank you for signing up for our “Specials & Coupons” Newsletter. There’s a coupon waiting for you at the bottom of this message! We’re looking forward to serving you again soon. Mr. Smith, as a family-owned restaurant, it’s especially important to have a good reputation on the internet.

Every 5-Star review we get on Google, Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Facebook can meaningfully help potential customers find out about our restaurant. If you would spare 5 minutes to leave us a positive review on any of these websites, it would be a huge favor to us. We’ve made it very easy.

Just click on any (or all) of the links below to leave a review. If there’s any reason you think we don’t deserve a positive review, please reply to this email and let us know so we can address the situation. -Respectfully, Joe & Josephine Owner

Get the link to your profile on each one of these popular “review” sites and link directly to them right from your email. (I also advise you to create a Review Us page on your website.)

How to Eliminate Negative Reviews

Eliminating negative reviews from the sites listed here ranges from difficult to impossible. The best remedy for bad reviews is 10 times more great reviews. More great reviews will raise your average review rating. They will also bury negative reviews.

Equally important is, lots of great reviews will generally push you up in the search results so people will find your restaurant online even if they don’t already know you exist.

Benefits of Building a List of Customers

While you’re in the process of improving and building an incredible online reputation, you’re also building a permission-based contact list. You have fans, and you have friends. These folks have freely given you their contact information in return for a promise. The promise that you will keep in touch to let them know about your specials and coupons! Imagine…a giant list of people who have raised their hand and said, “Yes. Send me your advertising!”