May your Rahs greatly outnumber your Boos...

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You are here: Home » Blog » May your Rahs greatly outnumber your Boos...

publication date: Jun 2, 2008

author/source: Robert Bickell

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Bickell's Blog
June 2, 2008

I'm not a fan of the ever-popular public review process that defines the likes of CitySearch, Zagat, AOL, and so many others. I've always felt that if one could bash a restaurant without the need to actually dine there, then the system is flawed by definition. I don't trust it, and I wish it would go away.

I just discovered a new site that tells me this insanity is not about to cease anytime soon. BooRah.com has regurgitated over one million online reviews from the bloggers, professional critics, and members of the dining public in twenty metro-markets. This means that if you are amongst those who post a false review (pro or con) on CitySearch (or wherever), we get another opportunity to read your work on yet another major restaurant site.

The concept is somewhat simple – if a given restaurant gets 3 Boos and 7 Rahs, they receive a score of 70% Rah'd. If restaurant number two gets 8 Boos and 46 Rahs, their score is 85% Rah'd. Needless to say, you choose restaurant #2. It's almost like a Zagat rating.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's sad to report that there is no end in sight. I have a feeling that the folks from BooRah have only just begun.

Talk Back:
What's your take on user reviews for restaurants?
Post your comments using the feedback box below.

1960 Comments Posted Leave a comment

Guest: If you could wave your magic wand and banish these sites forever, you'd still have a problem with people posting anonymous and sometimes inaccurate and unfair comments at the millions of blogs out there.

That said, these user-review sites aren't going anywhere. In fact, they will be multipying because that's part of social networking. But restaurant owners can play the game too. Here's how:

--Go to http://www.Google.com/alerts and set up a Google Alert for your name and a separate alert for the name of your restaurant. Tell Google you want a comprehensive listing of all material on the web that mentions you or your restaurant, including videos.

--As often as you like (once a day, once a week or as it happens) Google will email links to you that lead to places on the web that mention your name or your restaurant. Some of these will be blogs. Some will be reader forums.

--Join the conversation. If somebody said something unfair or inaccurate, state yoiur case. If they said something complimentary, thank them. ALWAYS correct the record. If they're talking about you and you aren't joining in the conversation, you're missing a valuable opportunity to become part of the discussion.

Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound
PublicityHound.com

Guest: Robert - Thanks for the mention about BooRah. To clarify a bit on how the Boos and Rahs work, our system analyzes the actual text of what people write on reviews sites, blogs, and also by professional restaurant critics to determine the "Boo" and "Rah" votes based on the author's specific comments about the food, service, and ambiance. It's actually a very advanced algorithm that takes into account the length of the review as well as the relevance of the comments in the review.

Joan's comment is right on -- review sites should not be looked at as just a negative forum for restaurant bashing. No lesser than the NY Times' restaurant critic Frank Bruni writes about how one owner has successfully used reviews sites to engage his good customers online (in this case, Citysearch) here

BooRah provides a number of tools as well for the restaurant owner to "get involved", including a free service that tracks your restaurants reviews (similar to what Google does, as Joan explains, except that we focus on tracking just your reviews). We also allow the restaurant owner to tell their own story, for free, by uploading menus, pictures, and a short restaurant description. More info here

Eric Moyer, CoFounder
BooRah.com

Jaime Oikle (Miami): Believe me when I say that Bob is passionate about this topic -- I have the phone bills with cell phone overages to prove it!

But seriously, it's an interesting topic. Bickell came across and sent me an article later in the week about a restaurant owner who openly sent a memo to his staff telling them all to post positive review experiences about his restaurant(s) at a number of these social posting sites.

Not that that was news, because I know it's been happening for years, yet the blatent nature of it was a bit striking.

I guess what it comes down to for me is "how can you really trust any of the reviews you are reading?"

There is just no proof that the person actually dined there -- and furthermore you have no idea what their motivation is in writing their "review".

Yes, there are altrustic folks out there just sharing for caring's sake -- and that's cool I guess.

But the fact that any dude can slam (or praise) a place from any computer is just crazy and unfair.

My take is that as restaurant operators you need to stop supporting (or advertising with) the media sites that have this sort of public reviewing forum. It's that simple.

There will always be forums like this now -- it's web 2.0+ forever -- but put your foot down where you can and vote with your dollars and speak with you're voice that you won't support a company that won't support you.

I need to hear more from readers in the trenches dealing with this -- post more comments to the blog page...

Best,
- Jaime
Owner, RunningRestaurants.com

Guest: Well ... I think I have a solution for this problem . I will soon launch a site that will take some of the pain away and empower restaurateurs .
I can see why it could be frustrating especially since a restaurant operator is invested in his business and his life depends on it .
Social media is not going away - A site like yelp has about $30 Million in VC money to do what they want to do .
You have to remember that internet access is getting cheaper and more common,
you can go online from your phone now and ll the young people are growing up with computers .
Let me tell you the next thing I see happening .. Well I will leave that for another day ..

Email me at unclebond555+yahoo.com if you want to find out more about my site .

Guest: I'm a food & restaurant writer NOT a critic - just the facts, ma'am about the business, been doing it near 16 years. I follow as many of the blogs and chat forums in my area (and pro-sites like this) to keep up with the business. I have developed a negative image as a "gadfly" on several of the forums. How? By pointing out that when someone posts something positive about a restaurant, they're accused of being the owner or a friend og the owner. BUT, if someone posts something negative about a place, no one even says the poster was a competitor or friend of a competitor! Why IS that? Of course, I've never gotten an answer to that question. I then close with what's become my catchphrase: "Never substitute someone elses opinion for your own!" Go to the place and decide for yourself.

Like with newspapers and TV before it, the attitude of too many is if it's on the Internet it MUST be true. Unfortunately, it is not easy to "cure" that lazy attitude.

I believe that the best thing restaurant owners can do to combat is to remember this: There are so many blogs and so many discussion forums, no one can keep up with them all and each one has DIFFERENT targets - Restaurant A might be dumped on by lots of posters on forum 1 but turnout to be the darling on Forum 2. The other thing owners can do is what they do best: offer quality food at a fair price with friendly service in an inviting atmosphere

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