Apr 12, 2024 2 min read

Why You Should Be Thankful For Negative Feedback

By harnessing the power of real-time reviews with Marqii and guest feedback through Ovation, Handcraft Burgers and Brew turned salt into satisfaction. Find out how these tools are not just game-changers but essential lifelines for restaurants navigating today's competitive dining landscape.
Why You Should Be Thankful For Negative Feedback
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Let's start by generating a state of gratitude ...

Dear Ovation and Marqii,

Thank you.

If we were not using Marqii to monitor our reviews on Google with real-time notifications and Ovation to help us get feedback from every single guest and reply to reviews at Handcraft Burgers and Brew, we would still be serving the saltiest Burgers in midtown.

March was coming to a close, and despite market conditions being tough, we had a pretty good month. We took some advice from friends like Gregg Majewski, Julie Wade, Christopher J. Ramirez and Josh Halpern to run some big top line revenue drivers and it worked! Yay

More on that later ...

But then one after another, we started getting feedback via Ovation like this:


I'm thinking it's a one off. Not everyone likes the same level of salt on their food.


And then another. Notice Fred made the effort to use ALL CAPS


OK, 3 in a row? I sent a message to our GM to look into it. And then this happened ...

Oof. a 3 star stinger. Even when we try our best, sometimes the negative reviews go public.

I sent a note to our GM and both my partners, Chris Delmond and Chad Gaudet and guess what we found out?

We ran out of our signature Burger seasoning so a team member went to make more. They used regular, not Kosher salt in the mix.

So yeah, for a few days .... extra salty Burgers.

Our bad, big apologies .... public ones.


If it wasn't for these 2 tools, we would still be serving extra salty Burgers. I'm so glad we have these tools!

Actionable takeaway from the story:

  • Ask EVERY guest for feedback
  • Monitor all feedback, public or private
  • Respond to 100% of your reviews
  • OWN your mistakes
  • Watch for negative patterns and take corrective actions
  • Use tools that make the whole process easier. We like Ovation and Marqii

Hit me up if you have any questions!

-Rev Ciancio

WHAT DOES REV DO?

*I help restaurants to build guest marketing programs.

*I help hospitality tech companies with lead generation and content marketing.

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