Words spread like fire. If positive reviews are like an icing on a cake, negative reviews can be a ravaging fire. Now the question remains- how to douse a fire that can damage your business or prevent the fire from starting in the first place?
Hotel business thrives on customer satisfaction. There is no better leverage than a customer review; it can turn around fortunes. No wonder the hospitality business is making a beeline to get in place an online reputation management solution that can provide bold analytics to highlight customer satisfaction issues that can help hoteliers make the best decision for their business.Hence, start early to engage with your customers to know their expectations and how to fulfill the same. Make it your prime focus to attend to your social media standings and online reputation each day.
Top Reputation Management Tips for Your Hotel
1. Present Socially, But Absent Functionally; is a big NO!
Do not get involved in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social spaces and media if you really aren’t going to be managing it. Visitors glance through your social activity and none at all is better than being socially absent. Make sure you are engaging with your audience and followers with a steady stream of posts, updates and tweets that keeps your customers updated and your business in acknowledgement of the same
2. Be where the buzz is!
It is important listen to the woes, needs, praise points and demands of your potential customers. Be part of a social scene where you can assess the most of your customer’s demands and needs. Integrate with travel review giants such as TripAdivsor, Laterooms, Expedia,etc. to gauge your customers.
3. Learn to listen!
It is better to be a quite listener to heed your customer’s request and satisfaction than to rush into a talking too much. Be informative, relevant and least camouflaged.
4. Be Candid and transparent!
If you have something to hide then you rather not be at a place (read-social media) where everything is looked through a microscope and dissected to miniscule details.
5. Use Social Media as a Learning Tool
There is lot of knowledge you can learn and impart when on the social space. If you receive a negative instead of planning a rebuttal, chalk a plan to solve the issue and you would be noticed and applauded for the same.
6. Thou shall not wage war!
Think twice and thrice before posting a reply or comment. Nothing is more damaging than engaging on a war of words with reviews and potential customers. It will dent your reputation in a big way. Be polite and respond to negative reviews. Receiving any negative review can be morale-sinking. But, rise up to the occasion and give the reviewer more opportunity to come back and enjoy another experience to overcome the sourness. Do not indulge in an engage of words that can damage your reputation.
7. Made a mistake? Admit it!
Anybody loves a meek somebody over a stubborn nobody. If there have been shortcomings in the discharge of duties and performance of your management, take responsibility for the same and you would be forgiven in an instant and find more fans for the same.
8. Be prompt and proper
Be quick to address any comments or enquiries. Be precise and prompt when solving the questions of your customers. Be appropriate; engage in formal and well-built sentences than getting up-close and pally with social media lingos and abbreviations like- U R or ROFL
There are tools created to manage your online reputation with well backed data and analytics to be clued in on your customer’s satisfaction. But, it is important that you bring your business and a friendly face that makes it approachable and congenial as well. Being socially active has its required ideals and etiquettes, actively pay heed to the social presence of your business.
Guest surveys and feedback go a long way to rejuvenating and reinventing the hospitality business. With technology, hoteliers have direct access to acquaint with customer satisfaction. Hotelogix is making hoteliers understand how their business stands to gain with online reputation and how to manage your reputation in the virtual globe. To learn more about know how to transform your online reputation to propagate your business positively, register for our Spanish Webinar on ‘Smart Hoteliers- Strategies to Enhance Your Hotel Business ‘scheduled for March 20th, 2014 at 4:00PM UTC-3.
