Ted’s Montana Grill Supercharges Its Brand Reputation Through Successful Review Management

Supercharge Reputation to Attract New Customers

As the post-pandemic economy comes into focus, the restaurant industry is finding innovative ways to bounce back and attract new customers. For Ted’s Montana Grill, an Atlanta-based restaurant chain and classic American kitchen serving gourmet burgers, hand-cut steaks, and locally sourced produce, one of the ways forward is to establish and strengthen a compelling online reputation. 

“One of our post-pandemic goals has been to increase our online reviews and maintain a positive public scorecard,” says Paige Shearer, marketing manager at Ted’s Montana Grill. “With 92% of consumers using online reviews to guide their purchasing decisions, our public online reputation score has never been more important to our future success.”

As part of the company’s effort to supercharge its reviews and online reputation, Ted’s Montana Grill has partnered with ReviewTrackers.

A Positive Brand Reputation Starts with Efficient Monitoring and Measurement

When it comes to reputation management, tracking success is essential to achieving it. ReviewTrackers makes it easy for Shearer’s team to monitor and measure the performance of the Ted Montana’s Grill brand. 

Within the company, a total of 61 users — including 4 regional managers — are on the platform, tracking reviews of 41 Ted Montana’s Grill locations across 466 online listings and business pages. To keep the fingers of stakeholders and decision-makers on the pulse of the company’s reputation, 173 custom review and keyword alerts have been set up, delivering timely email and SMS notifications to the right people at the right time. 

“The marketing team provides weekly reports showing each restaurant’s score for the week, period, quarter, and year to date,” shares Shearer. “Each restaurant also receives all reviews via email so that they can identify areas of improvement from an operational perspective.

“We also summarize the company reviews on a weekly basis and share these with the leadership team.”

As part of its online review management solution, ReviewTrackers also provides Ted’s Montana Grill with the review and reputational data of a selection of top competitors. This includes detailed analysis and visualizations of competitors’ rating scores, customer experience metrics, and popular keywords found in reviews. 

Shearer says, “To ensure we have a competitive advantage in each individual trade area, we provide each restaurant their competitors’ online reputation scores.”

The data helps Ted’s Montana Grill zero in on locations that require attention, as well as build a local strategy tailored to each market.

Drive New Reviews Through Custom Campaigns

Ted’s Montana Grill is also using ReviewTrackers to drive a steady stream of positive reviews, with the goal of improving its locations’ online visibility and acquiring new customers. This is increasingly crucial in the post-pandemic economy, as restaurant customers look to step up their patronage and spending patterns, consulting reviews from other consumers in the process. 

Using the ReviewTrackers Ask Tool, a feature that powers customizable review request campaigns delivered via email and SMS — or implemented in in-store kiosks, printed receipts, QR codes, and online landing pages — the company has been able to grow its reviews by 22% in the last 6 months. 

The majority of these are positive: 69% are rated 5 stars and 15% are rated 4 stars. A major factor for the company’s success in generating positive feedback is its ability to conduct guest surveys, identify brand promoters, and engage with existing customers. Shearer’s team also works closely with regional managers to ensure that these review request tools are accessible to team members in each Ted’s Montana Grill location.

Also notable is the percentage of reviews posted on Google, one of the business review sites prioritized by Shearer’s team. Out of all online reviews of Ted’s Montana Grill, 3 in 4 are found on Google (76%). 

Shearer says, “ReviewTrackers has allowed us to boost our star rating on Google and effectively get more traffic to our website from our Google My Business listing.”

Empowering Locations and Team Members to Deliver Results

Shearer’s team makes sure that teams across all of Ted’s Montana Grill locations are actively engaged in managing their reviews. 

“At a corporate level, the marketing team responds to all reviews, positive and negative,” Shearer says. “For any review under 3 stars, we request the guest’s contact information so we can personally recover them and invite them in for the experience that they deserve.”

In the last 6 months, the percentage of locations that have at least a 70% review response rate has increased to 61%. Overall, out of 3,959 reviews across all Ted’s Montana Grill locations, 3,186 have been responded to by Shearer’s team. 

The company is also harnessing online reviews to elevate its operations and set standards for each location, ensuring that the Ted’s Montana Grill brand can deliver experiences that reflect the lives of its customers. 

“We have set an online reputation score goal for all locations of 4.3 stars or higher,” Shearer says. “This is one of the metrics locations need to hit in order to receive a quarterly bonus. We also use positive reviews that reinforce our company objectives to publicly recognize individual restaurants and team members.”

Learn how many 5-star Google reviews you need to increase your overall rating by using our free Star Calculator.

To thrive in a post-pandemic economy, operators must keep customers’ needs at the forefront in order to acquire new guests and build a community of loyal patrons. 

ReviewTrackers is Ted’s Montana Grill’s customer acquisition tool of choice. By adopting technology that simplifies the management of online reviews, customer feedback, and brand reputation, the company has positioned itself to recover and be more successful in the long run.