Reputation Management
In the competitive landscape of the restaurant industry, maintaining a stellar online reputation is crucial for success. Otter’s product, Reputation Manager, is designed to simplify and enhance the way restaurant owners manage their online presence.
Reputation Manager consolidates reviews from all major platforms—whether it's delivery services like UberEats and DoorDash or review sites like Yelp and Google—into one easy-to-use dashboard. This powerful tool enables restaurant owners to efficiently monitor, respond to, and analyze customer feedback from a single location. They also had an AI aspect that would free up user time by automatically responding to reviews.
Problem Statment
This project aimed to gather customer insights related to their experience with reputation management, including handling ratings, reviews, and listings before using Otter's Reputation Manager.
We sought to understand how restaurants manage third-party review platforms and off-site reviews, as well as their experience with Otter's reputation management product.
To achieve our objectives, we conducted in-depth interviews with restaurant owners to gather detailed insights into their current review management practices and challenges. This qualitative approach provided valuable feedback on how the Reputation Manager tool could be enhanced to meet their needs more effectively.
Methods Used
Date
February, 2023
Role
Global UX Researcher
Company
Cloudkitchens
Deliverables
Google slides (reports and presentation)
Davinci Resolve (video clipping)
Tools
Recruitment
Digital - Google contacts (housing user emails)
Internal Sources - Salesforce (data base to get customer emails)
Research Operations
Calendly (Scheduling)
Zoom (User interviews/Recording)
Dovetail (Transcription)
Analysis
Figma Jam (Virtual affinity mapping)
Research Repository
Google Drive
Research Process
Throughout this study, I managed the end-to-end research process and data collection/analysis phases. I conducted a total of 7 in-depth interviews with Otter users who hired Otter POS and Otter users who used Toast, Square and Clover. I owned data analysis and used Figma’s program with affinity mapping techniques to uncover patterns and themes in the data.
Research Methods
For this study, I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews as the primary research method. This approach involved conducting one-on-one interviews with participants, guided by a flexible discussion guide that includes both predetermined questions and the opportunity to explore topics that arise spontaneously during the conversation.
Challenges
The main challenge was finding and recruiting participants who. Another challenge was coordinating schedules with busy restaurant owners who are constantly putting out fires in their business. Many participants availability was limited due to peak business hours and varying shifts. This led to a tremendous amount of no shows extending the time frame of the project.
Key Findings
1. Participants unanimously felt reviews and ratings are a priority for their business.
Participants emphasized the importance of customer reviews as a critical component of their business success. They recognized that without customer feedback, they would struggle to identify areas for improvement in their restaurant operations and services. One participant specifically highlighted the significance of 5-star reviews, noting their impact on visibility and attracting new customers. Overall, Yelp and Google were identified as the most valuable third-party review platforms due to their widespread visibility and influence, making them essential tools for enhancing their restaurant’s online presence and reputation.
“Reviews give us exposure for expansion and for scaling. So we always try to make sure we provide the best service to get these reviews. They do help out a lot, especially when people are first comers. They just look us up and see what people thought of us. And we do a lot of deals for people who give us positive reviews. Just kinda stay active.”
“Customers are the engine of everything. If I don’t have customers, I don’t have sales. So we need to know what the customers think about us and what we’re doing right or wrong. So that information is valuable and we can us it to serve us and improve.”
“Reviews give us exposure for expansion and for scaling. So we always try to make sure we provide the best service to get these reviews. They do help out a lot, especially when people are first comers. They just look us up and see what people thought of us. And we do a lot of deals for people who give us positive reviews. Just kinda stay active.”
2. Most participants found reviews valuable; good reviews were used to identify strengths and bad reviews to uncover areas of improvement.
Participants identified both positive and negative reviews as having significant impacts on their business, influencing internal operations and external perceptions. Good reviews were seen as a dual motivator: internally, they boosted staff morale and reinforced a sense of pride in their work, while externally, they served as a testament to the quality of service customers could expect. Conversely, bad reviews posed challenges, with participants acknowledging the risk of losing customers or damaging the trust they had built. However, they also recognized that legitimate negative reviews could provide valuable opportunities to coach staff and improve services. Participants expressed frustration with illegitimate reviews, noting that unfair ratings could unjustly lower their overall score, which in turn might misrepresent the true quality of their offerings.
“[Bad Review] I do appreciate some customers leaving [Bad] reviews on Uber Eats, for example, because we are doing shipping program only on Ubereats, which is actually ending at the end of the month, we were able to detect some issues that we were never aware of, thanks to those reviews that customers left. So I was very grateful that we had that channel.”
“[Good Review] Internally? Just motivation for the staff and you know, hype them up for how good we did. And for the public it will just show them the kind of service they would expect coming in if they’ve never been to our company before.”
3. Participants wanted the following features: coupons/discounts, progress reports, choices for response representation.
Participants expressed a strong desire for additional tools and insights to enhance their engagement with customers and improve their business outcomes. The ability to add coupons or discounts directly within the platform was a popular feature request, with participants highlighting its potential to drive revenue. For example, one participant noted that a $5 coupon for a future order resulted in $2,900 in sales from $500 spent, demonstrating the clear financial benefits of incentivizing repeat business. Participants also wanted access to progress reports, including metrics such as the number of reviews, average ratings, and details on how reviews were being handled. One participant specifically inquired about responses to 1-star reviews, emphasizing the importance of transparency and accountability in customer interactions. Additionally, another participant noted the value of previously receiving emails soliciting their input on responses to specific reviews, as it provided them with a greater sense of control over how their restaurant was represented. The absence of this feature was felt as a missed opportunity to maintain alignment between the restaurant and its customers.
“I feel like Uber Eat is completely nailing it. I like how we can see how many times the customer has ordered from us. Obviously if someone has ordered from us over a hundred times, it’s just like, wow, we probably should give this person like $10 gift card or something, you know? So that’s something that Ubereats lets us
us from like $5, $10, $25 or something like that”
“[Uber Eats] already has a template set up for us to respond, whether it’s positive or negative. And then they also have like a coupon saying like $5, $10, $15 for us to just click and send. So it gave us a lot of convenience, time saving.”
“On Uber, let’s say I respond to like a hundred reviews, I can respond to a hundred reviews and say, Hey, here’s a $5 coupon for your next order. And the $500 that I spend ends up converting into like, you know, I don’t know, $2,900 in sales or whatever based on just us responding to reviews.”
4. Some participants had issues responding to OFOs and 3rd party review platforms for manual responses and response service.
During the review process, participants highlighted significant gaps in the platform's response capabilities, particularly for delivery platform reviews. Two participants noted the absence of responses to reviews originating from these platforms, indicating a missed opportunity to engage with customers. One participant expressed frustration at being unable to respond to Yelp reviews within the platform's review management (RM) tool and was unaware of how to activate the response service. As a result, they continued responding to Google reviews manually while lacking a streamlined way to address feedback across all channels. Additionally, while this participant could access reviews from Google and Yelp, they could not access or respond to reviews from off-premise ordering (OFO) platforms, further limiting their ability to maintain consistent customer engagement. These insights underscore the need for improved accessibility and functionality within the platform’s review response tools to enhance user efficiency and customer relationship management.
“When it comes to all my delivery apps, as far as I can tell, nothing has been replied to yet”
“Right now it says there’s no reviews on delivery apps and I have one review expiring soon.”
Report Process
After synthesizing the insights from the interviews, I created a detailed Google Slides presentation capturing all user feedback and findings. To ensure all stakeholders, many of whom worked from home, were kept informed, I scheduled a Zoom meeting to present these insights. Post-meeting, I documented all findings in our UX Research Google Drive and shared key points in our dedicated UX Research Slack channel. This included the Google Slides and allowed team members to ask questions and stay updated on the research, ensuring comprehensive visibility and collaboration across the company.
Here is the link to Reputation Management Findings and Insights - Otter 2023
Impact and Outcomes
These research findings highlighted the significant time and effort restaurant owners spend responding to customer reviews.
This insight influenced the decision to continue building the reputation management product and adding features that customers needed in order to boost their business.
By providing a solution that automates the review response process, businesses have saved valuable time and resources while still engaging with customer feedback effectively.