Is It Important To Respond To Reviews? It Absolutely Is!

As someone who spends a large chunk of their life responding to guest reviews (mostly for Hotels and Restaurants), I’m often asked if it’s really important to reply to reviews?

By golly YES IT IS!

It’s massively important for some and all of the following reasons:

IT SHOWS YOU CARE

• About your guests / customers / clients. That you’re interested in what they have to say. Both the good bits and the bad.
• About your business. Enough to invite the people who spend their money in your business to contribute their perspectives and their experiences of whatever it is you’re offering.

IT GIVES YOU A HUGE ADVANTAGE

• Over your competitors who aren’t engaging and listening to what their guests / customers / clients have to say. The more relevant you are regarding what your guests / customers / clients are wanting, the better your business is always going to be.

IT SETS YOU UP FOR THE FUTURE

• Future guests / customers / clients gain confidence that they’re about to engage with a business who cares and is interested.
• Future guests / customers / clients develop a sense of who you are, or who the business is, before they engage with you for the first time. How you respond to good and not so good reviews says plenty.

THE IMPORTANCE OF REVIEWS DURING A TRIP TO A CITY I DIDN’T KNOW

This past weekend I visited a city I didn’t know. All I had was transport and Google Maps to get around, and decide where 20 plus people were going to eat for lunch and dinner. For the 3 Full days we were there we required 6 different dining establishments. They needed to be above average.

Here’s how I made the decision on where we’d go:

1. Ratings help to sift through the large number of options.
2. A quick glance through the reviews (arranged by most to least recent) help to get an idea of the current state of affairs.
3. Menu items and prices.
4. Photos of the environment and the food.

GETTING UNSTUCK ON SIMILAR SPOTS

The most interesting part was that there were times where we were stuck with a few options for the next meal. Ratings were equal. Reviews were as good. Menu items and prices looked similar, and pics didn’t make a difference.

In the end it all came down to owner / manager response to the reviews. Did they bother to respond? If so, what was their tone, and how did they go about it? In fact, it proved to be really easy making decisions with that last piece.

When all was equal, the response won! Every single time.