To share or not to share, that is the question!

Every restaurant manager knows that online reviews can either seal the deal or seal your fate before diners even walk through the door. Capitalizing on consumers' desire to play critic for their own experiences, Yelp and other review sites are experiencing tremendous growth. With the added sharing functionality, users can easily rate and even post their reviews to their social network profiles.

While positive reviews are a wonderful pat on the back, what about negative reviews? Once they're posted, they're out there for all to see at only the poster's discretion. From what we've heard, there have also been problems with disgruntled former employees and their friends trying to sabotage businesses' online reputations with little mediation help from the review sites. However, if the negative review is truly a disappointed customer, what can be done to salvage at that point?


Often a business that is able to address guest concerns adequately can avoid alienating patrons and the subsequent spread of a bad reputation. This is easily done on Facebook or Twitter with an appropriate monitoring tool, but near impossible on a review site, in which no business rebuttal is allowed. What about using your social network(s) to address reviews? 

Case in point: local donut wonder-kids, YoYo Donuts & Coffee Bar, responded to the Star Tribune's restaurant critic, Rick Nelson, who capped his week-long diner's diary at the bakery. Rick writes, "I taste tested my way through a dozen treats, and while there were no ah-ha moments -- the raised doughnuts would benefit from a lighter, yeastier lift, and some of the cake donuts, which have a pleasant crumb, had a lingering butter-flavored-Crisco-esque aftertaste -- I fell head over heels for the fabulous long Johns dressed in a lavish layer of maple icing and topped with a crispy strip of bacon." 


Admittedly, not the most scathing review we've ever seen, but not quite a warm fuzzy, either. However, instead of burying their heads in the sand like frightened ostriches, YoYo posted the link to the review on their Facebook page. They included the comment, "A kind review from StarTribune's restaurant critic, Rick Nelson. (We're the last stop in his diary this week - read to the end!) Sad that we didn't give him an 'aha' moment -- maybe we had an off day?" 


They simply addressed the so-so review while also acknowledging that it's worth another try. Even after reading the review and YoYo's rebuttal, I am still not detracted from desperately wanting to try at least eight donuts there. (I will definitely be consuming one of those maple-bacon long johns as well)!


So, what do you think? How should restaurants handle negative reviews through social media? What about positive reviews? Should they be shouted from the rooftops or mediated out in modest increments?