Zomato, a food discovery platform, lists about a million restaurants and food delivery businesses worldwide, with 52 million photos and 25 million reviews.
According to studies, 60% of restaurant-goers read customer-written reviews before deciding where to go. That’s why reviews are important for your business. They help potential customers decide which restaurant to choose.
However, just having your business listed on Zomato is not enough to get more reviews. You have to compete with other food businesses for visibility so that people searching on Zomato will find your food business.
More positive reviews help your business increase its visibility on Zomato. Reviews provide your business page with fresh content that search engines favor when choosing sites to rank high in their results.
Reviews also help a company gain the confidence, trust and loyalty of potential and current customers.
How to Get More Reviews on Zomato
Here some of the ways to get more reviews on Zomato:
- Ask Customers for Reviews
You can request for reviews through an e mail or a review request handout when the customers pay. Whatever method you prefer, don’t ask for a positive or 5-star review or offer incentives in exchange for their reviews. Zomato has implemented its Project Clampdown and the Review Bounty Programme to find violators of its policies.
Project Clampdown covers both the food businesses and the reviewers. Zomato will deactivate the user profiles of users who accept incentives or bribes for good or fake reviews. Food businesses which paid reviewers will get preliminary warnings, then a warning banner that will last for three months on their profiles.
Zomato Review Bounty programme will pay Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 Zomato credits to those who report with concrete evidence, paid or fake reviews. The credits can be used to pay for food purchased from Zomato-listed businesses. - Hang a Signage in Your Business Place That You’re On Zomato.
Post or hang a signage near the entryway to your business place to inform people that on Zomato. This will inform your customers where they can reach you and that you’re open to reviews or feedback about your business. - Display Zomato Widgets on Your Website
Zomato has business widgets that you can add to your website to inform customers that you’re on Zomato. Hopefully, some may check Zomato to read or leave a review. - Ask Customers to Participate in a Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey asks your customers this question — “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this company to a friend or a colleague?”The survey will help your team identify customers who are satisfied with your business and will most likely leave a positive review. So, you ask them for reviews instead of reaching out to all customers. This is one way to reduce the chances of getting negative reviews.
- Provide Customers With Great Dining Experiences.
The dining experience begins as soon as your customers enter your establishment. There are many components that contribute to a positive dining experience. They include outstanding customer service, cleanliness, special or trending dishes, entertainment or special events, consistency in food quality and more depending on your type of food business.
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- Outstanding Customer Service – You need well-trained staff to be able to provide outstanding customer service. For example, the servers should be familiar with the dishes on the menu and capable of answering questions such as the ingredients, preparation time and other relevant information from new customers. Customers include service as one of the factors considered in their reviews.
- Cleanliness – Who would enjoy eating in a dirty or disorderly restaurant? Cleanliness does not only apply to the tables, dishware, glassware and silverware but also on the floor, walls and the overall appearance of the establishment.
- Right Menu for the Target Customers – The best food served in a restaurant depends on the target market. That’s why it’s important to know your target market. Aside from their usual favorites, offer unique dishes as your specialties that will keep them choosing your place over your competitors.
- Reasonable Prices – Customers generally expect to get value for their money. Set prices that reflect the type of food and level of service that you provide.
It is also important to check your competitors. Higher prices will usually drive potential and current customers away. On the other hand, unreasonably low prices will deprive your business of the right profits and may cause suspicion about the quality of your food.
- Entertainment or Special Events – Providing entertainment or holding special events and other fun activities would give your loyal customers something to look forward to aside from good food. Potential customers will be interested to try your business and may eventually become one of the loyal ones.
Entertainment and holding special events will mean additional operating expenses. However, if the customers enjoy them, they will most likely talk about their experience. You attract more customers and more reviews.
5. Respond to All Customer Reviews
It’s important to show appreciation of the positive reviews and to settle the negative ones. Visitors to your page will know that you care for your customers.
Frequently check your reviews to make sure that you don’t have unattended negative reviews that all review readers can see.
Conclusion
Studies show that the best advertisement for any product or business is word of mouth recommendations. Reviews are the equivalent of word of mouth online.
Weekly, businesses that get a lot of positive reviews have the chance to be featured on Zomato’s homepage, which is a highly-coveted space.
