NB: This is a guest article by Edwina Dendler and Josiah Mackenzie, industry analysts at ReviewPro, a customer intelligence tool for hotels.
As we look back on the past year of reputation management technology for hotels, there were a number of important developments to consider as we head into 2011.
Customer service goes public as a marketing tool
Many hotels we see have set up accounts on social media networks by now, but too many still see them as exclusively an advertising and promotions channel.
The problem with this is more and more guests instead view social media as a direct communications channel to the hotels they’re staying at. These people are posting questions and complaints on public websites like Twitter or the hotel’s Facebook fan page. And they expect a public response.
Responding quickly, in a way that shows you care and will do what it takes to solve problems, is critical for your online reputation. The opportunity exists for you to provide answers that meet not just the needs of one customer, but also answers questions for whoever else comes across that issue.
To manage this area of your online presence effectively, it’s crucial to have tools and systems that alert you of mentions as they happen. Not responding sends negative impressions about your service. Appoint one of your staff members - a concierge or someone else with knowledge of your hotel and surrounding area - to monitor and respond as needed.
Reputation becoming increasingly personalized with social graph integration
Travelers are looking for advice from within their existing social network, friends and family. Websites such as TripAdvisor are using Facebook integration to bring a person’s personal connections into the website experience. While browsing a city page, they will have the opportunity to see which friends have visited that city, and can ask questions about recommended activities.
This is part of a bigger trend in social media–moving connections beyond just one website and making the social network portable across websites.
Reputation is now a key part of sales
Savvy hotels are beginning to understand the importance of using guest and customer reviews to increase confidence and encourage more sales.
This happens in two ways:
- On your website, you can increase customer confidence and direct bookings by publishing positive reviews. Tools like the ReviewPro Quality Seal provides an independent, third-party verification of what guests think about your hotel. If you’re doing a good job with reputation management, consider placing something like this on your website - like Landmark Hotel does - and watch direct reservations increase.
- On third-party websites, the quantity and quality of your reviews play an integral role in positioning among competitors. Make sure that you’re listening to and serving guests coming in through these channels, and encourage them to go back and leave review on the site they made reservation with.
These two areas directly affect revenue, so make encouraging more reviews everywhere a top priority for you.
More creativity in asking for reviews
As more and more hotel managers begin to see the power of reviews for generating sales and increasing customer confidence, they’re becoming more strategic in asking for reviews.
You can start with sending out post-stay e-mails asking people to leave a review, and perhaps provide more personalized touch by having the general manager follow-up by e-mail to guest survey comment card participants.
Some hotels ask every single guest for an online review, but this approach may end up annoying some so much that they leave negative feedback. Instead, try listening for guests that tell you they’ve had a extraordinary stay - and then ask them to share that great experience with others online.
Other hotels are experimenting with integrating the review process directly into your hotel’s network. For example, if you offer wireless internet access, what if the landing page people see after logging in linked to review sites, and asked visitors to share their thoughts then?
Semantic analysis as a marketing tool
Semantic analysis is a growing area in reputation management. Understanding someone’s sentiment–their feelings about a certain aspect of their stay with you–is important for both operations management and marketing.
If someone had an overall good stay at your hotel, but left negative comments about the air conditioning being broken, it could encourage managers to invest in repairing or replacing the air conditioning in the room.
From a marketing perspective, semantic analysis can be used to determine which aspect of the guest experience is most enjoyed by your customers. You can then emphasize this in your marketing communications. You can also determine which part of the hotel stay annoys guests, and reduce and minimize that in your marketing.
It’s all about setting expectations. If, for example, people find that the location is too far from major tourist attractions, make sure that you don’t have anything suggesting otherwise in your marketing materials. If people come with the right expectations, the likelihood of them leaving a negative review is less likely.
Search optimization as reputation management
Search engine optimization is playing an increasingly important role in online reputation management. Great reputations are useless without being seen by potential buyers, which is why SEO is our final big trend to watch in the year ahead.
With more than 90% of people beginning their buying decisions with a web search, you need to ensure that people see what you want them to see. The best way to do that is to “own” the search engine results pages. Make sure that your web pages fill up as many listings is possible for each keyword on that page. You don’t want negative reviews or competitor information coming up if possible.
How can you do this?
- Putting your blog on a separate domain
- Publishing news on a subdomain
- Working with 3rd-party information websites
- Creating and actively updating social media profiles on Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, Linkedin, Facebook, Wordpress, etc
- Beginning an overall coordinated SEM campaign
Do everything you can to influence the conversation happening about you on the social web. Avoiding participation lets others control it - and your success. Let 2011 be the year you determine the outcome of your success.
NB: This is a guest article by Edwina Dendler and Josiah Mackenzie, industry analysts at ReviewPro, a customer intelligence tool for hotels.