Connections, then Google.
What it brings
Once your listing is linked, Klarr can:
- collect your rating and number of reviews, and show them on your booking page — a guest who sees 4.6 from 214 reviews books more easily;
- list your reviews in Reviews, and suggest a written reply that you read, correct and publish;
- analyse your reviews: the Analysis tab of the Reviews page shows what your guests talk about, category by category (food, service, atmosphere, price, hygiene), what they like, what they hold against you, and the trend month by month. Klarr keeps every review it sees and reads it once. As long as Google hasn't opened access to your listing, it only sees a few a week; after that, all of them;
- keep your Google listing up to date: your opening hours, your description, your phone number and your website, entered once in Klarr, are copied to Google each time you save, and checked every morning. Your closures too. An empty field in Klarr erases nothing on Google. Categories are still chosen on Google: they follow a list specific to Google. The Google screen shows the date of the last update sent.
Replying to reviews
Klarr suggests, you decide. The reply is always read by you before publishing: a badly answered negative review does more damage than silence.
The tone adapts: a 5-star review doesn't call for the same thing as a complaint about an hour's wait. In both cases the reply stays short, concrete, and invents no excuse.
The most important thing, and it isn't Klarr
The "Booking link" field on your Google listing. Put your Klarr page's address there.
It is by far the action that brings the most covers, because that is where people look for a restaurant. Five minutes, once.
If the connection isn't available
The Google connection requires approval from Google on Klarr's side, which is in progress. As long as it isn't granted, the button may refuse to connect.
It doesn't prevent anything else: your bookings, your menu and your floor plan work without Google. And you can already paste your booking link into your listing by hand — that is the step that counts.