The hospitality industry has evolved to be almost completely dependent on online reviews, which is a pretty big deal considering that 92.4% of consumers use online reviews to guide their purchasing decisions. The amount of bookings that take place without the consumer first looking at reviews of their desired location are few and far between, as a majority of consumers admit they won’t make a decision on where to stay, where to eat, or what to do without first looking at reviews.
Having an online reputation checklist will allow your business to continuously track, and understand, your customer’s perception of your business and use that information to keep acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones.
To elevate their online presence and retain more satisfied customers, businesses in the hospitality industry need to take advantage of the following reputation tactics.
- Respond to reviews
- Integrate customer feedback
- Cultivate customer loyalty
Hospitality Online Reputation Checklist Step 1: Respond to Reviews
As you can see from our online reputation analysis, hospitality businesses get around 21 reviews per location per month (customer reviews stats show ReviewTrackers hospitality customers generate an average of 52 reviews per month). This is a high volume compared to other industries, and it can be easy to miss reviews if you aren’t careful. Which, in case you were wondering, is not a mistake you want to make since 88% U.S. consumers read businesses’ responses to Tripadvisor reviews.
In order to show current and potential customers that you care about the feedback they are leaving, it is important to develop an effective review response strategy. This is more than just a suggestion, by the way, because 53.3% of consumers expect a response to their review within 7 days.
Hopefully, we’ve answered the question,”Why respond to reviews?” But, you may still be wondering,”How do I respond to reviews?” Luckily for you, we offer free review response templates that will help you get started on the right track of successfully responding to reviews and developing a review response strategy.
Hospitality Online Reputation Checklist Step 2: Integrate Customer Feedback
Reviews are important, and responding to them is important as well. But, the most important part of the customer feedback process is what you do with the feedback you are given. You need to take the feedback from your customers and create actionable insights from it.
Start by utilizing existing reviews and feedback as a source of business intelligence. Extract insights from this data and apply them to improve business operations, enhance customer experiences, and identify opportunities for innovation or optimization.
You can also use business intelligence for marketing by leveraging the insights gained from customer reviews and feedback to inform your marketing strategies and campaigns.
Hospitality Online Reputation Checklist Step 3: Cultivate Customer Loyalty
Acquiring new customers will never hurt any business. But want to know what will help your business more than acquisition? Knowing how to build customer loyalty. You need to acknowledge that fostering customer loyalty is a more cost-effective strategy than solely focusing on acquiring new customers.
Did you know that 57% of customers spend more with brands they are loyal to? In order to get this extra revenue, consider implementing initiatives and programs aimed at building strong relationships with existing customers, such as personalized offers, loyalty rewards, exceptional service, or any other promotion that will build loyalty for the long haul.
Remember, customer loyalty is earned over time through consistent positive experiences, exceptional service, and demonstrating genuine care for your customers’ satisfaction. By implementing these strategies, you can create a loyal customer base that becomes your brand’s advocates, helping to attract new customers and drive long-term success.
As a matter of fact, 87% of consumers who receive a “good customer service experience” say that their experience pushed them to either recommend certain products or services to other people or continue purchasing or using more products and services from that company.
The Next Steps for Your Hospitality Online Reputation Checklist
With just the three steps above your hospitality business can enhance its online presence, making it easier to acquire and retain customers. Specifically, consumers will notice your engagement through review responses, and your team can take reviews one step further and closely analyze them for actionable insights.
To recap, here’s what we covered in this hospitality online reputation checklist:
- Respond to reviews: Develop an effective review response strategy to show your attentiveness and engage with customer feedback.
- Integrate customer feedback: Utilize customer reviews and feedback as valuable business intelligence to improve operations, enhance experiences, and inform marketing strategies.
- Cultivate customer loyalty: Implement initiatives and programs aimed at building strong relationships with existing customers, such as personalized offers, loyalty rewards, and exceptional service, to foster long-term loyalty and advocacy for your brand.
Planning and acting on these changes won’t happen overnight. However, the use of reputation management software as a long-term solution to acquire and retain patients can easily set you apart from the competition and create a runway for long-term success.