Restaurant Ratings and Your Bottom Line

The restaurant industry in the Middle East is becoming increasingly competitive.

With over 9,000 restaurants in Dubai alone, restaurant owners and managers looking to beat the competition must offer not only tasty cuisines, but also excellent customer service.

And, did you know the majority of internet users now search the online ratings of local businesses, including restaurants, before making a physical visit? This inevitably means your ratings can impact your business.

In this article, we're telling you the relationship between restaurant ratings and your bottom line. Keep reading!

Excellent Ratings Mean More Customers

Obviously, when your restaurant is getting the best ratings, you'll see more people walking in through your front door.

Here is how it works.

Potential customers go online and search for the best restaurants near them. Your website will likely show up in the top search results. Sure, other restaurants (possibly your local competitors) will also show up, but a good share of these potential customers will come to you.

Or, when you have good ratings, it won't be too long before your restaurant is featured in local and national restaurant or travel magazines.

Some of these magazines have wide circulations, meaning thousands of people in Dubai and beyond will read about your restaurant. This is essentially free marketing, and the net effect is more customers will show up in your restaurant.

At the end of the day, more customers translates to more sales, and more sales mean a fatter bottom line.

How to Get More Excellent Ratings

Now, how do you accumulate lots of positive ratings and increase the number of customers visiting your restaurant?

Hire an Experience Management Company

An experience management company specializes in offering solutions that will improve your restaurant's customer experience. To do this, the company will first need to assess the quality of services you provide, using tools such as mystery shopping.

Here is how it works.

The company will send mystery consumers to the restaurants - you typically won't be aware of this. These consumers will dine in the restaurant like normal patrons, ask questions and generally have a feel of the experience.

Once the mission is complete, the mystery consumers will head back to the experience management company and give their honest feedback. If the experience was excellent, they will rate your restaurant accordingly. Gradually, this will lead to better ratings.

Another tool the company can use is customer satisfaction surveys. It will identify areas - like quality of meals, restaurant ambiance, etc. - and conduct a survey targeting those areas. Customers will be able to give feedback on their satisfaction levels and even offer suggestions on areas to improve on.

With the feedback, you can make changes to improve customer experience levels and enhances your restaurant's chances of getting positive ratings.