In hospitality, you’re always on the lookout for more customers. Reviews are something guests will look at before even considering going to your establishment. A good review can speak volumes about your business, but a negative review will be the takeaway for a reader. The solution is to make sure every guest is satisfied with their experience at your establishment. That sounds easier than it actually is… but we’ve gathered a few tips below to help simplify the process.
People are always more likely to write a review if they’re dissatisfied with their service than they are to write a review when they’re happy. Want to get the kinds of reviews your Hotel deserves? Try a few of these tips:
Go above and beyond. Normal “good” service won’t be worth a review, but exceptional service will be more likely to achieve the result you’re hoping for. Above and beyond service can be making accommodations for a guest with a food allergy, celebrating a guest’s birthday, and making guests feel like they are people who are appreciated. If you’ve ever looked up establishments you’ll find some really great reviews that mention above and beyond service. These hard won reviews encourage and reassure potential guests. By going above and beyond for a customer, you’ll make them feel valued enough to consider writing that review.
Offer incentives. There are plenty of opportunities to reward customers for writing a review. Consider offering a small discount on their next stay, adding on a complimentary breakfast, or providing another incentive that will make it worth a customer’s time. Left to themselves, most guests won’t think of doing it for you unless they received above and beyond service. Make it worth their while, and they’re much more likely to take the time to write a positive review. Now, this doesn’t mean that you should only be providing incentives for good reviews. Offering incentives means for any type of review, good or bad.
A great example of offering incentives could be an online survey. Most restaurants on the bottom of the receipt will offer to enter you into a monthly drawing for taking an online survey. The survey asks questions about the guest’s experience. Once the survey is completed the guest is entered into a drawing for a gift card. If you want to find out more about a specific location this could be a great option. The good reviews can then be used on your website and social media accounts.
Guest Follow Up. When a guest leaves invite them to write a review on the spot. One of the easiest ways to do this is through email, which will provide them with immediate access to a survey link, or other means. You can utilize SMS and text your guests links once they’ve checked out, or left the location.
If you make the process easy for guests to leave reviews, they’ll be more likely to do so. Part of making the review process easy for guests is to be sure that your company is setup on multiple review websites. Set your company up on all available review sites including Google, Facebook and Yelp. . The guests will then be able to go to the site they are comfortable on and review your business there. If a guest is forced to use a website they aren’t familiar with, it could irritate them and skew their review.
Provide Staff with Incentives. If specific departments are mentioned in reviews, provide those departments with a gift or bonus. By offering staff incentives they’ll be highly motivated to share additional information with guests. Staff will see an immediate need to go above and beyond and improve guest experience with guests. You can also do this with managers. If a manager is mentioned by name in a review add an additional dollar amount to their pay. Try using this strategy during your busiest season as a “test run.” If it runs smoothly, do it all year and watch your reviews grow! If you don’t want to use an pay incentive model try adding the money to a party fund. The party fund can be used for staff meetings and additional staff incentives.
Reviews are important to your image as a business. As you receive more reviews be sure to adjust your business accordingly. Even if you have great reviews there will still be some aspect of the guest experience that will need improvements. Whether the improvement is something with the guest journey or during their stay, be sure to continue to update and improve it. Holdcom can work with you to meet guest expectation with professional recordings for narration for videos, phone systems, and your website.