Hello everyone !
Today, I’m going to write a little how-to about posting comments on places. It is aimed at comments for restaurants, fast-foods etc… Every place in which you can enjoy food or drink, even though it can also be usefull for other places !
I often read comments on Maps before going to a place (or sometimes after I went.)
But for the major part, comments are not really constructive : people write only a few words for telling “Good”, “Great !” “Will come back!”
It’s a very good start, telling people that the place is great is an excellent way to make sure readers are going to want to visit it ! But let’s analyze another type of comment.
When browsing the reviews, sort them from worst to best. You’ll see here that the comments (usually) get longer and more detailed.
There’s a very easy explanation for this : people who write these comments want to make sure you do not want to have a meal in the place they went to, in order to save you from a bad experience (let’s be honest some of them are just never happy with anything and just leave 1 star reviews everywhere they go.)
So what’s different between good and bad comments are that bad comments actually explain WHY the place is bad, or what happened to the writer to justify the negative review. Even very great restaurants make mistakes, that’s why there’s always a bunch of 1 star/2 star comments. Consider reading them too, people who wrote them may have a good reason to say something negative about a place you usually enjoy a lot.
Thing is, when someone didn’t like a place, you’ll find out why pretty quick.
Why would it be like that ? Bad comments are being long and detailled and positive comments short and lacking any explanation ? You get my point, if you had a nice experience somewhere and you want to let everyone know it, you should explain to them WHY you enjoyed your stay. Wow that sounds complicated. “What do I like ? I don’t know, I suppose if I didn’t dislike the place then it means I like it !”
No worries, I will give you keys to write a super-duper comment about a place you enjoy. You’ll see, it’s easy as 1-2-3 !
That’s my personnal secret recipee to get a good comment. Feel free to ad anything you may find usefull! Don’t worry about your comment being long, people who are interested will read everything.
Start with a short introduction : say if you were on a business lunch, if you were on a date, or out with friends. Context is important !
Let’s proceed in a logic way. When you go to a restaurant, what’s the first thing you see ?
It’s the place itself. Ask yourself : does it look nice ? Does it make you feel relaxed ? Is there a romantic atmosphere filing the air ? That’s the kind of thing you can describe to begin with. Do you see something particular this place has that you’ve never seen in any other places ? Mention it ! Did you like or not ? Tell us ! But please, note that a comment should always try to stay objective, or, if you are being subjective, make sure you’re expressing an opinion, and not trying to tell a truth. Let’s give an example for this, as it might be tricky.
There’s a huge bell hanging from the ceiling.
You can write “In the center of the dinning room, there was a huge bell hanging from the ceiling.” Yep, description, that’s easy.
Now let’s admit you didn’t like this bell at all. YOU SHOULD NOT WRITE “The bell was ugly, it doesn’t belong in a restaurant, it ruined the atmosphere.” Instead, consider writing “To me, the bell seemed ugly. I didn’t like it’s presence, and I think it does not belong in a restaurant.”
Yeah, it’s the same, expect the first one is someone trying tell a subjective truth, and the second one is an opinion. I think you start seeing how to write a proper comment !
Lets’ give you some more clues about what you can criticize in a restaurant :
- The menu
- The quality of service
- The quality of the food served
- The price
- The location
- The noise
With all those elements in a single comment, you’ve got a pretty solid one, waiting to be read by curious people. Sometimes, there’s nothing to say. Service was ok ? Write it down ! “Service was ok.”
People want to know how it was, so if it was good, tell it. Not mentioning it is disavantaging the restaurant, especially if you enjoyed it a lot. Then, even consider saying WHY you enjoyed it that much. Justifying is the key !
Use all this information to write a good review. At the end, do not forget to conclude your comment. You enjoyed your meal ? You can say “We had a great time here, we will come back and we recommand this place.”
Feel free to comment and tell me if you agree with me, or if you do not. I hope this will help some of you !
Enjoy your new reviews !
J-C.