How Extraction of Restaurant Reviews Data is Beneficial to Firms

September 12, 2023

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Introduction

A French novelist, Gustave Flaubert, quoted, ‘There is no truth. There is only perception.

In this global digital village connected by strands of enterprise & communication, how people perceive things holds significant weight for businesses to make informed decisions; it unquestionably underlines the relevance of scarping data coming into play.

Talking of businesses, one sector which holds a significant share and expectations hold that it will grow at quite a decent pace is the restaurant industry. Facts suggest that the global food service market will grow from $2,540 billion in 2022 to $5,194 billion by 2029.

In this blog, we will trace the various aspects of how scraping restaurant data benefits the industry.

What are Customer Reviews?

Customer reviews refer to the opinions of customers concerning a company’s products or services for others to gain insight.

The data indicates that before engaging with a business, 90% of clients typically review online feedback, and 88% hold online reviews in equal regard to personal recommendations. Businesses boasting “excellent” reviews may witness a 31% surge in customer spending, while positive reviews are a key factor for 72% of consumers before taking action. Furthermore, negative online reviews have the potential to discourage 86% of people from making purchases from a specific business.

After this bombardment of data, this is clear that reviews are important. To list the reasons, they are as follows:

REPUTATION: It affects the company’s reputation and the perception of people about the product and service the company provides. Positive reviews stimulate the customers to trust your business; while negative reviews refrain them from doing so.

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: the option of writing reviews provides a platform for customers to engage themselves with the business in a productive manner; thereby increasing brand loyalty.

BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT: this can serve as a feedback mechanism for companies to improve their products or services.

BOOST YOUR SEO: reviews can improve SEO [search engine optimization]. When specific keywords are being used frequently related to your product, it’s more likely that they would appear in relevant searches.

FRAUD DETECTION: In this era of e-commerce, fake reviews pose a potential threat. Analyzing online reviews, while looking at unusual activity patterns, could serve as a caution.

What is Restaurant Review Scraping?

It refers to the act of extracting data from various. Few businesses do it themselves, while some outsource it. Data extracted is in a form that is easily analyzed. It’s vital to ensure that the terms of service of the review website are being followed. Today, about 90% of the data generation happen via extraction in the past two years.

When data about restaurants is scrapped from review websites, and reorganized in forms to enable further analysis, this is called restaurant review scraping.

What are the Types of Extracted Data?

The Data Extracted Concerns Information like:

Name of the Restaurant
Location
Estimated Delivery Duration
Operating Hours
Special Deals

What are the Sources of Data Extraction?

Some of the popular platforms for scraping restaurant reviews include Google, social media, and kitchen software. They offer a plethora of information that may help to decipher choices and make informed decisions.

GOOGLE: It is a popular platform to source data for restaurants. By looking at the keyword list, one can learn a lot about the key selling points, like the time restaurant opens, the menu, or the view.

SOCIAL MEDIA: One can use it to collect publicly shared client reviews. Facebook lets people know which posts reached the greatest number of people and which ones were most engaging. Instagram, too, provides information about how well the content performs. This information is analyzed to deduce customer interest in menu items. If the posts get more likes or shares, one can extract what type of presentation of dishes appeals to customers, or the tastes that people often prefer.

KITCHEN SOFTWARE: Order accuracy tracking and inventory management are two of the most common ways restaurateurs use kitchen software to improve operations. A set of questions is prepared. Like, what are the dishes you hardly sell, or the dishes you sell out often? Or is there a difference between what guests receive dining in or taking out an order? The answers are then analyzed so that the menu design will lead to optimal results.

What are the Advantages of Restaurant Reviews Scraping?

The reason why scraping is in vogue is due to the benefits it offers.

Understand Customer Choices: It helps businesses to understand customer preferences.

Feedback Mechanism: It provides a feedback loop, whereby the loop offers insight to recognize their loophole and thus improve them.

Track Performance: Today restaurant market has grown by leaps and bounds. Scraping data helps them track the review and helps them gain performance insights into their product and that of their competitors. It is a way to update oneself in this fast-changing world.

Draft a Dynamic Market Strategy: scraping information could help devise a new market strategy by analyzing the budget and predicting the trends. It will lead to an increment in the profit.

How to Overcome the Complexities?

Use of Web Scraping API: where the need to login appears, one can use a web scraper. It will simulate a human login or use cookies while making requests. But, in this case, too, the challenge is some sites block web scrapers. Here, one can use web scraping API.

Use of Ready-made Scraper: The issue of dealing with web page formatting is another challenge. The use of HTML tags & CSS class names by review websites makes data extraction difficult. Here, ready-made scrapers designed particularly for specific websites help.

Conclusion

Data is the new currency. By analyzing the data, one can chalk out the way forward. when it comes to the restaurant business, customer reviews are not meager some phrases or applauding words, or critical comments; they are a valuable resource for both customers and business. By Scraping This Data, one can gain insights, make alterations and keep an eye on competitors to maximize their profit, with minimal effort.