84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they would a recommendation from a friend. As review-based travel websites continue to increase in traffic and usage, members of the hotel, resort, and restaurant communities are left to wonder how to best manage these valuable booking channels.
When You Reply to Feedback, You Convert Happy Guests into Returning Guests
One of the first steps to effective online reputation management is to ensure that your business is engaging with its online audience. Your team should make it a point to reply to feedback for multiple reasons, the first of which is to further evolve the relationships with your past guests so they will hopefully remain loyal, repeat guests. We should not make the mistake of assuming that a guest who leaves a high-rated review on behalf of our business is a loyal consumer. The loyalty of that guest may lie with their online community and as such, that positive review may simply be reflective of an enjoyable experience, but not suggestive of a commitment to return.
When you reply to feedback left for your business online, it illustrates your desire to continue a relationship after an on-property guest experience and will help foster a greater sense of loyalty with your customers.
What Replying to Feedback Says to Prospective Guests
Making a commitment to reply to feedback left online must be a part of your greater Reputation Management strategy as it allows your business to showcase to the hundreds or thousands of consumers who are on your review pages each week that your business appreciates and values the feedback shared by past guests.
Consumers want to see that a business has appreciation, empathy, and a desire to improve when needed. Studies show that seeing management reply to feedback significantly influences a consumer’s purchasing behavior and we must recognize that those consumers who are reading your reviews are likely far along in the buying process. Clicking the “Reserve” button might be the next step so, as a business leader, you must ensure that timely engagement occurs.
Here's How You Can Revolutionize Your Online Reputation and Skyrocket Your Business
Online reviews are here to stay and they are the new marketing channel for our hotels, resorts, and restaurants. If your business does not have a strategy in place that includes a commitment to reply to feedback and a mission to elevate your online reviews, scores, and rankings, a critical mistake has been made.
At The Reputation Lab, we work with hotels and restaurants to facilitate a reputation management strategy aimed at increasing online visibility, engaging your customers, and converting more shoppers to future guests and revenue producers. New for 2023, we offer our restaurant partners a drive-it-yourself reputation management dashboard (My Review Concierge). The My Review Concierge software aggregates reviews from all of the major review websites. Once the reviews land in the dashboard, one can respond to Google and Facebook reviews right in the app. For those who face writer's block, our AI integration allows you to generate such responses.
If you are interested in learning how reputation management strategy can benefit your business, we invite you to email us via our secure contact form to set up a no-pressure consultation or call us at 855-979-6800.