6 Killer Tips for Managing Your Catering Business’s Online Reputation

Warren Buffett — An American Investor & Business Tycoon — once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Reputation is breakable — especially for those in the catering business — therefore, time and efforts must be devoted to preserve it.

Here, in this article, we shed some light on smart tips to manage your catering and hospitality business’s online reputation. So, with no further delays, let’s find out:-

1. Prioritize Customer Review Sites

Review sites such as Yelp and Yellow Pages must be your principal concern, as these are places where your potential clients will check your company’s market reputation.

Yes, you’ve no control over what people post about your brand, but you’ve every right to respond to bad feedback.

Be gentle when replying to a negative review. Reply publicly to show your prospective customers that you positively welcome any negative comment. First, apologize & sympathize, then add a little marketing aspect in your response.

Finally, try to resolve the issue there, and convert the negative feedback into a good review for your business. Show the followers that you care about their feedback.

2. Encourage Happy Clients to Give Reviews

Here’s another vital step towards achieving robust brand reputation. If done respectfully, there’s nothing wrong in requesting a review. Try to explain to your happy client how much their review would mean to them.

Empower your reception manager to politely ask for a review, especially when the client seems fully satisfied with your catering services. Send them a link on your smartphone or email, where they can leave their feedback.

Once you’ve got the positive review, write a thank you reply as comment. Add something that suggests you hosted the event and review is not any marketing tactic, such as “the groom seemed overwhelmingly happy as soon the triple-layer wedding cake was bought.” Invite them to do something in your response, like “We’re waiting for you to hire us again.”

Don’t forget to promote the positive reviews over all your social media business profiles and incorporate it into your marketing and promotional emails.

In case you don’t have to take by your side to manage your brand’s market reputation. In that case, you have the option to hire a specialist agency offering online marketing services to bail you out.

3. Track Social Media

Yes, we said review sites must be your prime concern, but, should not overlook all the conversion happening related to your brand over social media.

These social channels can be a means to strengthen your brand reputation, but a negative review can hamper your image.

Carefully scrutinize for all the mentions via @, and # hashtags related to your brand. Always thank each positive review, and deal with the negative review appropriately, as discussed earlier.

4. Ask for an Offline Review

Besides requesting an online review, train your staff to politely ask your client to give offline feedback. It will allow you to get a better sense of the sort of things your clients are saying about your catering business.

And, in the longer run, it can help you plan your business’s long-term strategy with the identification of your areas of weakness so that your future online reviews don’t bring the same negative experiences or complaints.

5. Reward Loyal Customers

Make your top clients feel recognized and appreciated by sending them exclusive freebies and discounts on their next booking. Offer a referral bonus to encourage your loyal customers to bring more business.

6. Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

Last but not least, optimizing your site for top-ranked search engines such as Google and Bing is a crucial aspect of maintaining your catering business’s online reputation.

The higher and more often your site pops up, whenever your prospective client searches for catering services in your coverage area, the more likely they’re going to trust your brand.

First, invest in SEO to increase your site discoverability. Second, post original & engaging content to boost your industry authority. And, finally, improve relevancy by optimizing your site experience for your potential clients.

Final Thoughts

Don’t do it all by yourself; instead, sit down with your staff, develop a strategic reputation management action plan, and train them to follow it. Finally, hire Internet marketing experts who can make this easier for you.

Remain patient, as building a good market reputation for any business is not an overnight adventure, and it calls for time and genuine effort for desired results.

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