If you’re in the hospitality industry then you understand the value of an online review. Great one’s get you customers, and bad ones chase them away. Reviews have become a key marker towards your success.
In todays connected and digitised world, a large number of people read online reviews before they visit your Hotel, Restaurant, Bar or Entertainment Establishment, and then make a decision as to whether they’ll visit or not?
HOW IMPORTANT ARE REVIEWS?
We manage 4 hospitality properties in South Africa who hold a number one position on TripAdvisor in their category and area from a ratings perspective. Each one of these clients is very sensitive to their reviews, and take a review under 5 stars very seriously. Holding the number one position is extremely prestigious and we go out of our way to remind current and future guests of their position. It’s a confirmation of the service and experience you can expect to receive during your visit.
We sometimes spend hours pouring over a negative review in an attempt to deconstruct what happened, and to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We then carefully write a response detailing what happened and why the guest can be assured it wont happen again. These are key elements for the contributor and future guests who will come across the review.
A quick search on Google results in more than enough evidence to show the importance of a review and its influence of purchasing behaviour.
As one example, according to Revain:
In the U.S., 68% of online shoppers are more likely to engage with businesses that have positive reviews (BrightLocal 2017), and 93% determine whether a business has a good reputation (or not) based upon the available reviews. In 2016, Fan & Fuel reported that 92% of consumers hesitated to make a purchase if there were no customer reviews, and a full 97% say customer reviews factor into their buying decisions.
Products with reviews are 270% more likely to be bought than a product without, according to Speigel Research Centre (2017). For a higher priced product, this likelihood increases to 380%.
FAKE ONLINE REVIEWS ARE RISKY TO YOUR BUSINESS
With reviews significantly influencing purchasing behaviour, it’s obvious that using fake reviews to enhance your status is a very attractive strategy.
Fake online reviews can include asking friends and family, or even go as far as using services where you can buy fake reviews.
According to an article on Harvard Business Review, as many as 4.5 million sellers sourced fake online reviews in the past year (2020).
These Fake reviews are fraught with problems:
The larger review sites are getting smarter at detecting them. As an example, in 2019 alone, Amazon spent more than R7.5 billion and employed more than 8,000 people to reduce fraud and abuse on its platform, deleting around 40% of these fake reviews. With this kind of investment fake reviews increasingly run the risk of being identified and your business being penalised for posting them.
While there may be a short term gain from fake reviews, you either need to continue to buy them, or grow your family / friend base in order to sustain them. Once they stop appearing on your platforms of choice, the real reviews begin to dominate, potentially leaving future guests confused as to what to expect from your establishment.
REVIEWS ARE YOUR FRIEND
Outside of Hospitality I can’t think of another industry that receives a similar amount of in-the-moment feedback. It’s my personal view that you can almost run your entire hospitality business by taking all your reviews and authentically responding and actioning them. As a Hotel General Manager you can be alerted to a broken shower before your housekeeping team have entered the room. As a Restaurateur you can know that someone had a wonderful meal before they even arrive at home after leaving your establishment.
Reviews allow you to see your business and staff from the most important perspective possible…. the customer. Your processes, procedures, quality, pricing, value, etc, etc.
By responding with care to each review, you illustrate your commitment to quality service and experience. Each review response is read by the contributor and multiple guests into the future. Even if an error was made, you have the opportunity to apologise and show your passion and commitment to your customers and your business.
By looking back each quarter at your collective reviews you can spot trends and themes in what people are writing and get a unique perspective on what’s going on.
Handled well, reviews are not something to be faked or afraid of. To the contrary, they are enablers of your business, as long as you are committed to listening, responding and actioning what the most important person in your business is saying to you. The bonus… they’re doing it for free and on their own time. Now that’s commitment worth matching, at the very least.
Photo by henry perks on Unsplash
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