AI-powered tools for managing customer feedback

On average, around 92% of people check restaurant reviews before deciding where to eat. So, it’s safe to say customer feedback is pretty important. It’s more than just helpful for understanding your audience; customer feedback can have serious implications for your business. But no need to fear, we’ll take a second to stop Googling “best pizza near me” to go over how you can get a better handle on customer feedback. 

Customer feedback is a central part of your restaurant’s reputation and appeal, with 42% of people saying they trust reviews as much as a personal recommendation. And with big names like Google and Yelp topping the charts for most-viewed consumer review platforms, it’s easy to get caught up in endless opinions with no measurable value. How can we review customer feedback on a larger, trackable scale? How do we differentiate one-off opinions from constructive criticism that can lead to real change? And where do we find time for all this amongst the dozens of other tasks on our plate(s)? This is where the help of AI comes in. 

Before we get into our top tips for automated customer feedback tools, we'll go over a few of the basics. Why is customer feedback so important to begin with?

Reasons customer feedback may be more important than you realize:

• It impacts decision-making - getting a grasp on what’s working or not working at your restaurant can help you to identify trends and plan strategically around them. Lots of repeat customers? It may be time to start a loyalty program. Glowing reviews on your carbonara recipe? Maybe it’s time to promote it on social media to get more people in to try it and create some buzz on your socials. 
• Identifies areas for improvement - Customer reviews can often be home to constructive criticism. We know not every opinion demands a change, but being receptive to critique can help you create a positive business reputation and make significant improvements. Think of customer reviews as a pair of “fresh eyes” on your business, who may be able to spot details you may miss when you’re busy handling all the tasks of restaurant management. Feedback on long wait times may be a sign that you need more staff or additional training for current staff. Repeated comments on ambiance details like lighting or music volume may allow you to tweak these things to appeal more to your audience.
• Increases your brand visibility - Google’s algorithm-based recommendation system ranks restaurants by top-reviewed, meaning more reviews equal more exposure. Well-reviewed restaurants can also drive website and social media traffic. Being responsive to reviews drives brand visibility, even with unhappy customers. According to a study by Toast that surveyed 850 respondents on how often they leave restaurant reviews, 66% of respondents said they would consider returning to a restaurant after leaving a negative review if the restaurant responded and demonstrated genuine care. 

Now that we know why customer feedback is so important, it’s time to figure out where exactly AI fits into all this. How can AI-customer feedback tools give your business an edge? 

To answer these questions and more, we asked one of our very own current [me]ople (that’s our MarginEdge staff) and former restaurateur, Larry Blevins, for his opinion. A chef and now [me] IT Specialist, Larry spent over 12 years working in restaurants, starting as a server at 18 before moving on to bartending, culinary school and eventually ending up as a head chef for multiple restaurants. 

Let’s dive into the best AI-powered tools for customer feedback. (And we’ll learn a little more about Larry along the way.)

From [me] to you: 4 AI-powered tools for managing customer feedback 

1. Maintain a customer review database

Like many restaurant folks, Larry’s early days in the industry were spent wearing many hats, from inventory to accounting to everything in between. He spent 6 years working front of house before transitioning to chef roles. “In the kitchen, I was a one-man show,” he recalls. “Most of the restaurants weren’t high-tech. You’d get the customer feedback straight to your face. It really toughened you up.” 

With so many moving parts, tracking, retaining and applying customer feedback was a recurring challenge. “I wish there had been a way to log reviews or keep customer feedback in a database that you can refer to over time.” Luckily, now there is. 

AI-powered solution✨: Using automated customer feedback databases, track customer feedback from multiple sources, from online orders to in-person visits, social media and websites. Get automated customer experience scoring. 

For multi-unit restaurants, analyze reviews by location for an even closer look at how your stores are performing. The best part: it’s all stored in a centralized database, allowing you to track trends and have a comprehensive view of customer feedback.

2. Identify trends with AI-powered feedback analytics

At one of Larry’s restaurants, one of the most popular menu items was chicken wings. “We had this mango habanero wing. One day, a handful of people came in saying they didn’t like it, it was too spicy. So we changed it immediately. After changing it, we started getting complaints from people who kept asking what happened to the really spicy wings.” 

Larry learned a valuable lesson. Listening to customer feedback and making adjustments is great, but it’s important to look at the broader context and make decisions based on larger sample sizes. “Changing the menu was horrible,” Larry said, “But we had no data to look at and prove we should bring it back. The mango habanero became my mildest wing.”

How can we avoid axing popular menu items or making rash decisions? The key: understand the difference between anecdotal customer reviews and long-term trends. With AI-powered tools, no more need to “wing” it when it comes to customer feedback. 

AI-powered solution✨: using automated feedback analytics, identify recurring themes in customer feedback. AI-powered natural language processing identifies keywords, with data grouped by sentiment to identify customer tones and feelings. This way, you can make smarter decisions based on real insights. With AI, tweaking your menu or offerings feels a lot less like guesswork.

3. Personalize your review requests

Eventually, Larry opened a wine bar, Revel, with a business partner who liked his gumbo recipe. By this point, Google reviews were huge in the restaurant industry. “The owner used to give her email to every person.” But similar issues kept coming up. There was no way to track reviews and no method for comparing the input (request for a review) with the output (how many customers actually ended up reviewing). 

Luckily, now there’s an easier way to get the word out about your business and encourage customer reviews (without handing out your email).  

AI-powered solution✨: using personalized AI review requests, create requests tailored to each customer. Asking for reviews can double your review volume, and this number only increases when customers feel heard, remembered and appreciated. Automating and personalizing review requests has a ripple effect, with 31% of diners willing to pay more for a restaurant that has positive reviews. Including aspects like the customer’s name, reference to a particular menu item or the date of their visit seem like small details, but can help your business in more ways than one.

4. Use reviews to boost customer retention

With 6 years of working front-of-house, Larry knows plenty about regulars. “Regulars are more vocal. They’re more invested than other customers might be. At Revel, we were really good at turning customers into regulars just by being attentive. The best thing to do is listen to their feedback.” 

Larry’s point holds true, with recent studies showing that 60% of restaurant revenue is driven by repeat customers. That’s a pretty big bite. How can we use customer feedback to sustain regulars (and create new ones)?

AI-powered solution✨: Using AI-driven loyalty program tools, show customers your appreciation and encourage repeat visits. Integrate this with your customer review database to create personalized and engaging rewards based on the customer. The key is to be receptive to feedback and build reward systems around recurring themes found in customer responses. Loyalty programs have a big payout, with 78% of customers saying they're more likely to visit a restaurant where they can earn points, regardless of convenience.

Customer feedback may not always be warm and fuzzy. It’s like a really dense milkshake; tough to get down, but worth it in the end. Whether you’ve spent years in the industry or are the new kid on the (cheese) block, there’s a lot to gain from being receptive and appreciative of feedback. Using AI tools to track and apply feedback in real, actionable ways will never go unnoticed. We’re putting the customer feedback guessing games away (and hopefully, the mango habanero wings back on the menu).