Protecting your online brand reputation

WHITE PAPER - PROTECTING YOUR ONLINE BRAND

Ready or Not, Restaurants MUST
Proactively Manage
Their Online Brand Reputation
Authored By: Heather Meng – Senior Strategist

INF ORM • ENGAGE • INS P IR E • M O V E P E O P LE T O A C T IO N

Introduction
Society’s adoption of an “always connected” lifestyle has created a new
context in which a restaurant’s online brand reputation can rise
and fall as the result of a few keystrokes. This connected lifestyle
has manifested itself through technological advances (mobile
devices, notebooks and laptops) and the evolution of the
interactive Web (rapid growth of social media; viral nature
of social networks; and the search engines’ (SEs) high value
of fresh content).

The paradigm of managing your restaurant’s brand and
interacting with customers has changed. Socially networked
and active, customers now hold a level of influence
regarding how your restaurant’s brand is perceived in today’s
marketplace. As a restaurant owner/operator or marketer,
that means you have opportunities to Inspire Advocates to
Influence your brand across the social networks. It also means,
you need a strategy to protect your brand’s online reputation when
negative comments are poised to make a damaging impact.

Recent news articles indicate this new phenomenon:

“Scammers are making some restaurants an offer they can’t refuse: A payoff or discount, or they’ll
post a nasty rating on online review sites like Yelp or Angie’s List. There’s no real data showing how
often it’s happening, but anecdotal evidence suggests cyber-extortion is on the rise: scammers know
online reviews carry a lot of weight, and can affect a company’s bottom line.” (June 2012)

“The lawsuit essentially alleges that the heavily funded startup runs an “extortion scheme” and has
“unscrupulous sales practices” in place to generate revenue, in which the company’s employees call
businesses demanding monthly payments in the guise of advertising contracts, in exchange for
removing or modifying negative reviews.” (February 2010)

“Mayugba (Restaurant Owner) said it was impossible to prove whether the man got food poisoning

from the restaurant but offered to give him a $60 gift card to a restaurant of his choice. The man
said he deserved $100. If the restaurant did not pay up, he said he would write a bad Yelp review
and report him to health authorities.” (May 2012)

All of this points to the fact that Ready or Not, Restaurants MUST Proactively Manage Their Online
Brand Reputation.

Summit Marketing | 1

K A N S A S C I T Y • S T. L O U I S • W A S H I N G T O N , D . C . • W W W. S U M M I T M A R K E T I N G . C O M

The Reality – Restaurants are Facing 3 New Burdens Custom t
er
Shif
The reality for restaurant owners/operators/marketers is today’s interactive Cultural
Web has created a platform from which customers are demanding attention.
While several factors are contributing to the intensity of this environment,
Engine
we will focus on three: Customer Cultural Shift, Search Engine Algorithms, Search
ms
and the Underbelly of Social Media. Algorith

1. Customer Cultural Shift lly of
Customer expectations have changed as a result of the Underbe ia
ed
“always connected” lifestyle. First, they prefer more than one Social M
communication channel to reach your customer service. This
includes a desire to make those reaches through social media.
Second, they highly regard online reviews and social media posts
when deciding where to dine out.

An Oracle social media study regarding the preferred form of
communication released in March 2012 titled, “Consumer Views
of Live Help Online 2012: A Global Perspective” showed that those
polled anticipated companies would provide customer support
through the following social networks:
Facebook 46%
Company blog 29%
Support forum 26%
Twitter 17%

Additionally, when consumers post questions or concerns on a company’s social network, more than
50% of those who use Facebook and more than 80% who use Twitter expect a response within a day
or less.

Search Engine Land’s 2012 Consumer Review Survey revealed a growing trust of online reviews. Of
note, 72% of consumers trust an online review as much as a personal recommendation. When looking
for a local business to use:
27% regularly read online reviews
49% sometimes read online reviews
24% never read online reviews

The survey also found an overall increase in the number of online reviews read by consumers –
67% read 2-10 reviews; 7% read 20+ reviews.



Customer Use of Online Reviews

30%

2012
25%
25% 2010
22%
21%
20%
20% 19%
18%

16%
% of
Respondents 15% 14%

10%
10%
8%

5% 5%
5% 4%
3% 3% 3%
2% 2%
1%
0%
0%
0 1 2-3 4-6 7-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 50+

Number of Reviews Read

These studies highlight the cultural shift of consumers preferring social media communications with businesses
and their reliance on online reviews in their local business decision-making process. Have you met these shifts
with evolving communications strategies?

2. Search Engine Algorithms
When your “always connected” customers and potential customers use search engines (SEs) to find information
about your restaurant, it is important that the Page 1 search results reflect positively on your brand. In order to
influence the Page 1 results, you should have a fundamental understanding of how the SEs function.

Search engines use technological algorithms commonly referred to as spiders, that “crawl” through websites,
identifying website elements, determined by the latest algorithmic formula, to rank URLs. Current formulas
prioritize fresh content thereby increasing the importance (rank) of recent events; regularly recurring events and
frequent content updates. Because of the prioritization of fresh content, to optimize your SE rank restaurants
must create their own fresh content; and engage in two-way conversations.

3. The Underbelly of Social Media
With the rise of activity in social media, we are also seeing an emerging presence of online review websites.
Unfortunately most of the review sites do not validate customer reviews of businesses. (A snapshot of their
policies taken directly from their respective websites is included in the Addendum.) We have divided some popular
review sites into two different categories:



Neutral review sites that capture both positive and negative reviews
— Yelp (71 million/mo), Citysearch (7 million/mo), TripAdvisor (40 million/mo)
— Neutral review example:

4/23/2012

The food was very good! The wait staff were very friendly but the wait time on the food was
very slow. We had to wait for our food for 1 hour at least or longer. This is not acceptable.
We had a party of five one of our people left because the wait was so long. A person can
only eat so much bread water or drinks lol. The food was great but the wait time has to
improve.

Negative review sites that capture only disparaging reviews
— RipoffReport, PissedConsumer, CompanyNameSucks, ComplaintsBoard

IS TOO CHEAP TO GIVE AWAY A PEPPER Comments (4)

Complaint by

on ASU Tempe campus refused to give me a side of hot
Review #: 312809
peppers. They always have in the past but now say it's corporate policy to
Posted by:
not give away sides. Yeah they can put it on the sandwich, but not as a side.
From: Phoenix, AZ
Well I don't like them leaking onto my sandwich, but I do like eating them.
Posted On: 2012-04-17
Too bad, they say. No sides. Well cram it with walnuts . I'm
not coming back. Cheap jackpipes. And their sandwiches aren't as good as
they pretend anyhow. I'm just mad about the peppers.

A frightening reality of negative review sites is on one hand they do not validate the accuracy of
their content while on the other hand for a fee they offer reputation management services. The
ethics of their business practices is troubling – as is their steady monthly traffic.
RipOffReport.com
Estimated Monthly Website Traffic PissedConsumer.com
ComplaintsBoard.com
4,500,000

4,000,000
3,500,000

3,000,000
Traffic 2,500,000
2,000,000

1,500,000
1,000,000

500,000
-
APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEPT AUG NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR
2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2011 2012 2012 2012 2012



The review sites are sure to affect restaurant reputations one way or another in that:
The user generated content (UGC) primes them for high SE rank
Unsubstantiated customer comments are posted
They generate high monthly traffic

The Result – Restaurant Owners/Operators/Marketers Feel the Pressure
Your responsibilities have increased. In addition to all of the “business” responsibilities, you also have to
meet the demands of today’s interactive Web.

MANAGING THE RESTAURANT TODAY'S INTERACTIVE WEB

Customer Interaction Restaurant Customer Cultural Shift
Vendor Relationships Owner/ Review Sites
Operator/
Customer Service
“The Books” Marketer
via Social Media
Menu Changes
Inventory Trip Advisor
Food Costs Facebook
Economy Twitter Yelp
Employee Retention Hiring
Search Engines
Sales: Daily, Weekly, Monthly
City Search
Promotions Fresh Content
Franchise Expectations Unvalidated Reviews

The result of the Customer Cultural Shift, SE Algorithms and rising Underbelly of Social Media is
the generators of fresh content can impact restaurant brands and reputations. Brands are now
influenced by conversations and information shared online, but largely out of their direct influence.
Long gone are the days when planned annual, quarterly or monthly marketing/promotion plans set the
course for a restaurant’s brand positioning and marketing strategy. Rather – to be effective – marketing
strategies must include ongoing online engagement.

Where to Start
Knowing all of this, where should you begin? Is there a correct approach? What if you say the wrong
thing? When should you respond and when should you not respond? Should you seek legal advice
as you determine your approach? How do you balance taking care of your customers and not giving
comps to everyone who complains? How vulnerable are you to false complaints? How long do customer
comments and your responses stay posted? You have limited time and resources to dedicate to this, so
how do you prioritize?



These concerns are all legitimate and very real. This white paper serves as a starting point for you as you
determine your online brand reputation strategy.

The Solution – Summit Marketing’s Perspective
Summit Marketing recommends businesses – especially restaurants due to the high volume of user
generated reviews – proactively monitor and steer your online brand reputation.

Step 1 – Know Where You Stand
Before you map your online brand reputation strategy, you need to establish a baseline. The baseline
should capture your current SE rankings and your current reputation on any customer review sites
that show up on the Page 1 results.

Search Engines
Conduct searches on the major search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo!) using your restaurant’s
name. Make a list of the Page 1 (top 10) results for each SE. For any review sites listed, read
through the reviews to get a sense of your restaurants’ brand reputation on the site. Then
categorize the URLs by content that is positive, neutral or negative towards your business. Look
for trends across the SEs.

Analysis
Combine the findings from the SE rank and customer review sites and tier the results.
Level 1 URLs are your assets (social media assets, website, blog, etc.)
Level 2 URLs are relatively neutral, where you can legitimately influence the information

(local websites, neutral review sites, etc.)
Level 3 URLs are the negative review sites.

Below is an example of an analysis of Page 1 search results on Google:

Google Page 1 Search Results

Rank URL Posts Notes
1 Client Website: Home Page N/A SEO efforts are working
2 Client Website: Blog N/A Could optimize
3 Yelp 8 4 reviews in 2012; 4 in 2011
4 Trust Link 130 40 in 2012; reviews skew negative
5 Client Website: Contact Us N/A SEO efforts are working
6 Client Twitter Page N/A SEO efforts are working
7 Client Facebook Page N/A SEO efforts are working
8 PissedConsumer 70 33 in 2012; several on same day; all negative
9 Yellow Pages N/A Company profile page
10 Client Asset: Dated Blog N/A Forgotten outdated blog



A key component of Summit Marketing’s approach to managing online brand reputations is to deploy
strategies that maximize the search rank of green and blue URLs, thereby mitigating the influence
of the red URLs by pushing their search results to Page 2. Step 2 (Develop Execute Your Action
Plan) describes how to:
Optimize green URLs through search engine optimization and content creation.
Maximize blue URLs through customer reviews and establishing local presence.

Step 2 – Develop Execute Your Action Plan
The analysis from Step 1 (Know Where You Stand) will guide your brand reputation strategy, the
sense of urgency, level of effort and scope. Your plan of action should be categorized by what you can
directly affect, what you can influence and what you want to leave alone.

Attention Multi-Site Restaurant Models
A cohesive online engagement plan must be applied across all locations
to maintain brand voice while also balancing local specific messaging to
engage local customers. This means providing communication processes
and policies and activating social monitoring tools to minimize brand risks;
while enabling local restaurants to employ their own LSM tactics.

Your brand reputation plan should begin with maximizing the online assets you can directly affect.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Strategies that organically increase website and web page ranking with the search engines are
SEO strategies. Summit Marketing starts with a SEO analysis to determine if your website
– the cornerstone of your online presence – is performing optimally. We conduct a Barriers
Analysis that identifies issues that hinder your website’s SE ranking. Recommended solutions
are provided for each identified barrier.

Summit Marketing then creates a Keyword Report listing words that align with your business.
The keyword report is critical as these words should be used as you write anything that goes
online, i.e. website copy, blog updates, social media updates, etc.

You will predictably notice a lift in the SE rank of your online assets by overcoming your SEO
barriers and incorporating keywords in your online copy.

Content Creation
Your content should take the form of planned and two-way conversations. Planned content may
include press releases, blog updates or social media posts. To help guide your content, Summit
Marketing recommends creating an editorial calendar with dates and content topics outlined in
advance. This disciplined approach sets the tempo for your content creation.



To engage in two-way conversations, you need to know where your customers are and what
they are saying. We use a social listening platform that tracks conversations on 25+ sites. Our
tool shows us who is saying what, their Klout score and where they made their comment. This
knowledge allows us to immediately engage with customers to thank them, provide clarification
or to mitigate a situation. A timely, friendly response shows others our commitment to our
customers and to customer service. Are you “listening” in an organized and full-coverage fashion?

If This Seems Overwhelming
Know that Summit Marketing can manage your online social presence or train
you and your staff how to build relationships with your customers via social
media interactions. We teach you how to recognize and Inspire your Advocates
to Influence, leading to Improved Revenue, Retention and Reputation.

Review Site Participation
As you plan your strategy, reference the SE rankings from Step 1 (Know Where You Stand) to
prioritize on which neutral review sites to focus your efforts. Now, go to the sites and read the
reviews. Look at your ratings, review dates for recency, number of reviews and the reviewers’
intent (constructive or malicious). This will determine your scope and level of effort.
I
f the reviews are negative, but low in quantity and dated – with a focused effort, you
should be able to turn the situation around by encouraging customers to post reviews
that reflect current comments.
I
f the reviews are negative, high in quantity and fairly recent – they may have
some legitimacy.
— Look for trends in the negative comments.
— Consider making adjustments in the areas identified by your customers.
— nce you’ve made the improvements, re-engage your customers, asking if they
O
could post reviews about their most recent experience.
I
f the reviews are positive, but low in quantity or dated – engage your customers and
ask for online reviews.

How should you approach customers to encourage online reviews? Simply ask. To focus your
effort, specify to your customers the desired review site for them to visit. If you already collect
customer surveys or feedback, reach out to those happy customers and ask if they can post an
online review about their experience. One innovative strategy to consider is making a tablet
computer available to your customers during their visit. Train your front-of-house staff to inform
your customers of the tablet’s availability for sharing their experience with friends, review sites
and other social sites.



Review Site Responses
Join in the conversations about your restaurant and respond to both negative and positive
comments. When responding to a negative review:
B
e timely and concise.
M
aintain a sincere, unemotional tone.
Th
ank them for being a customer and for their feedback.
O
ffer to have them contact you directly.

Here are some examples of responses to negative and positive reviews from
ProfitableHospitality.com:

“Thanks for alerting us to this. We work hard to offer good food and friendly service, and
I’m sorry that we didn’t meet your expectations. I hope you will give us another chance in
the future. If you’d like to contact me directly, please call the restaurant and ask for Ken.’”
“It’s very disappointing to receive a comment like this. We work hard to offer good food
and friendly service, and will investigate the concerns you have raised [or you may like to
address the specific complaint in a non-defensive way]. I hope you will give us another
chance in the future. If you’d like to contact me directly, please call the restaurant and ask
for Ken.”
“

Thank you very much for the positive comments. It’s always encouraging when
customers acknowledge the good work of our team. We look forward to seeing you
again soon.”

What Not To Do
When responding on review sites, it is important that you do not:
— ake a review, for you or for a competitor - Site visitors are likely to
F
see through this, which will reflect negatively on you.
— espond negatively to a review about you - Just remember you
R
have no control over how long your negative comment will be live
on the Web.
— gnore the information - If the negative reviews are showing a trend,
I
investigate the matter and adjust as necessary.



Activate Your Restaurants’ Presence on Local Sites
Create business profiles on geography-specific sites, such as Citysearch, TripAdvisor, Yellow
Pages, Google or Yahoo! Local. Because SEs favor localized search results, this simple step can
influence your Page 1 results. Take advantage of these opportunities.

Negative Review Sites – What To Do
Ultimately it is your decision how you respond to certain negative sites whose business models
thrive on negative comments. Some suggestions we have provided our clients include:
S
can them, but largely ignore them. People will see the sites for what they are.
A
ddress your commitment to providing excellent customer service on your website. Perhaps
point to a company policy about addressing customer complaints. You may even state
that it is unfortunate some review sites exist for the sole purpose of degrading company
reputations – and that it is your policy to not interact with or through those types of
businesses.
Actively apply for awards or accreditations that build your restaurant’s reputation, such

as accreditation by the Better Business Bureau. Be sure to show those achievements on your
website.

You could also respond to complaints posted on the negative review sites, but we don’t suggest
that. It creates risk as your brand could get tangled up in their web.

If you have considered taking legal action against negative review sites or against a reviewer,
please consult with your legal counsel and conduct online searches regarding others who have
taken this approach.

Step 3 – Measure
As you execute your Action Plan, periodically track your search engine standings and compare them
to your baseline. As you track, note which actions have resulted in a lift in SE results.

Continue listening to the social conversations and look for upward trends in positive discussions
and increased levels of “passion” (observed by word choice) in the discussions. Adjust your tactics
as necessary, and continue your social media engagement and proactive online brand management.

The Time Is Now
In June 2012 alone, there were two significant changes that underscore the growing trend and
significance of customer reviews. First, Bing and Yelp announced a partnership. This further
emphasizes the value SEs have for fresh content. Second, Foursquare announced it would soon be
adding a review element to its widely used app.

In Closing
Know that you do not need to be a social media expert. Learn what you can, do what you can
do, and if you need extra bandwidth or guidance to help take your restaurant to the next level,
let’s talk.



References:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/07/03/scammers-threatening-restaurants-with-negative-
reviews/

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/24/yelp-class-action-lawsuit/

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/25/4515556/restaurants-decry-yelp-extortion.html

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/6/comScore_Releases_
May_2011_U.S._Search_Engine_Rankings

http://searchengineland.com/study-72-of-consumers-trust-online-reviews-as-much-as-
personalrecommendations-114152

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1009097R=1009097

http://searchengineland.com/google-search-algorithm-change-for-freshness-to-impact-35-of-
searches-99856

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405873,00.asp

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/technology/in-app-overhaul-foursquare-shifts-focus-
torecommendations.html?_r=1

http://profitablehospitality.com/news/index.php/social-media/how-to-write-a-quick-reply-to-a-
bad-onlinereview-of-your-restaurant-or-bar



Addendum
Snapshot of online review sites’ content policies.

WEBSITE CONTENT POLICY

Accuracy: Make sure your review is factually correct. Feel free to air your opinions,
Yelp but don't exaggerate or misrepresent your experience. We don't take sides when it
comes to factual disputes, so we expect you to stand behind your review.

We have no control over, and make no representation or endorsement regarding the
accuracy, relevancy, copyright compliance, legality, completeness, timeliness or quality
City Search of any product, services, advertisements and other content appearing in or linked to
from the Properties. We do not screen or investigate third party material before or after
including them on our Properties.

TripAdvisor takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any Content posted,
stored or uploaded by you or any third party, or for any loss or damage thereto, nor is
Trip Advisor TripAdvisor liable for any mistakes, defamation, slander, libel, omissions, falsehoods,
obscenity, pornography or profanity you may encounter.

Opinions, advice, statements, offers, or other information or content made available
through ROR are those of their respective authors and not of Xcentric, and should not
Rip Off Report necessarily be relied upon. Such authors are solely responsible for the accuracy of
such content.

Xcentric does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any
information on ROR and neither adopts nor endorses nor is responsible for the
Xcentric accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made. Under no
circumstances will Xcentric be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from
anyone's reliance on information or other content posted on ROR

Online Content: Opinions, advice, statements, offers, or other information or content
made available through PC are those of their respective authors and not of PC, and
should not necessarily be relied upon. Such authors are solely responsible for the
accuracy of such content. PC does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or
Pissed Consumer usefulness of any information on PC and neither adopts nor endorses nor is
responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made.
Under no circumstances will PC be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from
anyone's reliance on information or other content posted on PC.

No conclusions are drawn by ComplaintsBoard.com, as to content validity.
Complaints Board ComplaintsBoard.com does not edit or censor posted messages or investigate them
for accuracy.

IN NO EVENT WILL Company Name Sucks BE LIABLE FOR (I) ANY INCIDENTAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INDIRECT DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF PROGRAMS OR
INFORMATION, AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE
Company Name Sucks
SERVICE, OR ANY INFORMATION, OR TRANSACTIONS PROVIDED ON THE SERVICE, OR
DOWNLOADED FROM THE SERVICE, OR ANY DELAY OF SUCH INFORMATION OR
SERVICE.



CONTACT INFO

CHIP TOLLIE
Director - Commercial Accounts
Direct: 913-562-3421
Mobile: 913-220-6636
Chip.Tollie@SummitMarketing.com

HEATHER MENG, PMP
Senior Strategist
Direct: 314-447-3515
Mobile: 314-619-0857
Heather.Meng@SummitMarketing.com



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