Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast! We appreciate you joining us today. As always, we value your time and are grateful for your presence. In this episode, we introduce Shereen Qumsieh, co-founder of Akira, a revolutionary product in the restaurant reputation management space. Shereen joins us to discuss the significance of online reputation for restaurants and how Akira is making a difference. Here’s a closer look at what we talked about.
The Importance of Online Reputation Management Shereen emphasizes that a restaurant’s online reputation is critical in determining its visibility in local search results, customer perception, and responsiveness to guest feedback and reviews. In today’s digital age, everyone relies on online platforms like Google, Yelp, and Apple Maps to decide where to eat, buy, and engage. Managing this aspect effectively can lead to better business outcomes.
Streamlining Reputation Management with AI Akira leverages AI to streamline reputation management efforts, making them easier and quicker to perform with less manpower. The product integrates prescriptive insights, turning complex data into actionable nuggets of information that restaurant operators can use to initiate conversations and improve their operations. For example, identifying frequent complaints about incorrect orders at a particular location helps in addressing specific issues directly.
Guest Engagement and Recovery A critical part of managing online reputation is not ghosting your guests. Shereen explains the necessity of showing up consistently on review platforms and responding to customer feedback. This engagement demonstrates a level of care and can significantly enhance brand perception. Akira aids in managing this process by offering tools to collect and respond to guest feedback efficiently.
Consistency Across Platforms Maintaining consistency in basic information like name, address, phone number, and hours of operation across various platforms is essential. Discrepancies in this information can frustrate customers, cause negative reviews, and ultimately harm your reputation. Akira ensures that these details are accurate and up-to-date across all relevant platforms.
Insights from Multi-Unit and Multi-Brand Operations For operators managing multiple units or brands, consistency is a key issue. Akira helps measure consistency by identifying discrepancies and highlighting conversations worth having. For instance, comparing sentiment and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) across different locations can reveal critical insights, helping operators focus on maintaining or improving guest satisfaction uniformly.
The Impact of Ratings on Revenue The data shows that higher online reputation scores are directly linked to better revenue performance. Shereen shares that aiming for a rating between 4.1 and 4.5 is ideal, as ratings that are too high can be perceived with skepticism. Akira’s goal is to baseline where a restaurant currently stands and help it achieve this optimal rating range through continuous improvement and strategic insights.
How Akira Can Help If you’re interested in learning more about how Akira can enhance your restaurant’s reputation management efforts, you can visit their website at helloakira.com. Shereen also welcomes direct conversations and can be reached via email at shereen@helloakira.com.
Final Thoughts Shereen’s insights on the importance of restaurant reputation management and how Akira is addressing these challenges provide valuable lessons for any restaurant operator. The goal is not just to collect data but to use it effectively to drive business value, enhance guest satisfaction, and ensure consistency across all locations and platforms. Thank you for taking the time to join us on the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast. We hope you found these insights as enlightening as we did. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our show on your preferred platform. For more information about our work, feel free to contact us. Have a great day!
