For all the fine dining restaurants out there that think that they don’t need to pay attention to social media marketing, this post is for you. It doesn’t even matter if you have a Michelin Star…
I was recently in Italy for my honeymoon. In Rome we stayed at the Aldrovandi Palace, which was a decent hotel. I say decent only because our previous 2 hotels were marvelous: the Il San Pietro when in Positano and the Golden Tower in Florence. The Aldrovandi was rated at 5 stars, I’d confidently give it 3.5 stars while the previous two could’ve gotten a 6.0/5.0. While in Italy, my wife and I dined in some spectacular restaurants. Most of them we found out about from the concierge or recommendations from friends (word of mouth) or the mighty Rick Steve’s. On our last night in Rome we decided that we wanted to celebrate our last night in Italy on our honeymoon and go somewhere really nice.
One thing that the Aldrovandi hotel had going for it was a Michelin star restaurant called baby. Michelin stars are not easy to come by, this place had one. In spite of that, when I turned to the Internet to learn more about it, I saw mixed reviews. We wound up going because we trust the Michelin system and it was in our hotel and we were feeling lazy. The meal was great, but the point is that we almost didn’t go because of the mixed reviews, which were mostly positive laced with a few mediocre ones.
Another factor in our decision to try baby instead of an alternative was the the difficulty in finding a well reviewed (more than 3 recommendations), or highly recommended alternative. I spent 2 hours in our room, on the internet looking for an alternative. Imagine if another fine dining establishment encouraged their guests to go online and gush about the fabulous meal they’d had. What if their business cards on the back gave the URL to leave feedback? We probably would’ve eaten elsewhere.
There are really two sides to this coin:
1) By getting involved online, other fine dining establishments can jump into the space that others have yet to recognize as an opportunity
2) Negative reviews can be managed. Don’t read that as deleted or argued, instead I mean extending your service outside of the restaurant walls. Ensure that people are happy with your restaurant and that if you mess up, you at least get a second chance. People are going to write negative reviews, there will be haters and sometimes people write something so negative that it could deter others. Luckily your biggest critic can often become your biggest fan with a little smart thinking and proper actions.
That is the opportunity, it out there, you just need to think creatively. This whole idea is even easier in the USA where we have foursquare, yelp, fodors, google local, OpenTable, citysearch and tripadvisor. It doesn’t stop there though. People have blogs and just like I called out the Androvaldi Hotel, there’s someone out there who may love your restaurant or hate it, and they are willing to tell others about it publicly.