As companies in the hospitality industry are centering key performance indicators and goals on online reputation, the ability to generate positive reviews is becoming more important. Even further, Trip Advisor’s popularity index uses average rating, freshness of reviews and quantity of reviews as a means to determine your ranking in your local market. In turn, having a numerous positive reviews has gone from a pleasant side benefit to a primary objective in daily operations. Here are a few tips on how to generate positive reviews:
Deliver Exemplary Customer Service
This may seem obvious at first, however the real time and instantaneous influence of social media has changed the current service standard. While online review sites have revolutionized the way customers go about selecting their destinations, interactive and viral social media platforms have also given hoteliers or restaurateurs the ability to create truly unique service experiences.
Whether it is thanking a guest at their check-in for their pre-stay tweet or booking a reservation for a customer through a Facebook post, social media has presented numerous ways to create a personalized and unique customer experience. By monitoring social media, analyzing reviews and implementing operational improvements from this information you will have the necessary means to deliver truly remarkable service. As you create this service, your customers will naturally wish to share this experience because it is attentive, unique and personalized to each customer.
Pay Attention to Customer Feedback
Actively monitoring, responding to reviews, and engaging with customers post and pre visit will develop a lasting relationship with these individuals. By interacting with customers through management responses to reviews and social media you will give customers the opportunity to really understand the service you have to offer. In addition, as you implement internal improvements to resolve these issues, new potential customers will be able to identify your improvements and in turn be encouraged to give you their business. Monitoring and engaging with customer feedback will give you the opportunity to improve internal operations and also properly represent yourself in the online spectrum.
Ask Customers for Reviews
Although some hoteliers and restaurateurs feel as though asking for reviews and feedback may be aggressive, the best way to generate customer feedback is to demonstrate value in the customer’s opinion. Training staff to ask for feedback at appropriate moments of service is a great way to generate customer reviews. If you properly demonstrate that your property values your customer’s opinion they will be encouraged to review your service. This customer feedback will then give you the material you need to analyze and correspondingly improve upon, thus generating more positive content.
Recognize and Reward Staff
Human Resource departments typically create incentive and merits based upon customer feedback. This rewards based system has created significant value in customer feedback within the work culture of the hospitality industry. Therefore when staff receives outstanding reviews or great mentions it is of the utmost importance to recognize their efforts. Creating a positive work environment is essential to creating positive customer service.
Respond Immediately to Negative Reviews
The importance of replying to reviews is undeniable, they are often the make or break detail that will push a potential customer to book a reservation or not. 78% of TripAdvisor travelers agree that seeing management responses to reviews “Makes me believe that it cares about its customers”. Quick responses to negative customer reviews will nullify uncertainties for potential clients and provide a last moment of service to implement some form of recovery for the unhappy customer. Be sure to always address negative reviews so that you can analyze the feedback, improve your service, and be the voice against the negative feedback.
Utilize Revinate Surveys to Increase Volume
Revinate Surveys is an outstanding strategy you can use to generate customer reviews. This feature allows you to create a survey sent to your customers post visit. You can tailor your survey to ask specific questions of interest to you and soon these surveys will be able to be published directly to TripAdvisor giving you the ability to generate live public content right to the review site. This feature allows your customers to provide their feedback in a simple and aesthetic format and gives you the opportunity to receive their feedback in a seamless report right in your Revinate account.