Why isn't my Reputation Management Program Delivering Results and other Q&A on Reputation for Hoteliers.

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Nearly everyone in the business today understands that a company’s reputation and customer reviews have a direct impact on revenue results. That’s especially true in the hotel business where we are selling experiences and there’s a lot of competition. Delivering five-star review-worthy stays is a great way to stand out from the crowd and elevate the perceived value of a visit to your hotel, resort, restaurant, or attraction.

But here’s the rub. While many hotels around the world have some level of Reputation Management program in place, many are wondering why it isn’t having more of an impact on its revenue or even its review scores. Is all this work for nothing except to “check the box” on a to-do list?

This week, I address this question and explain the life-changing difference between Reputation Management which can be time-consuming but show minimal results, vs Reputation Cultivation, a simple yet powerful way to elevate your competitive advantage, your employee engagement, guest satisfaction and loyalty, along with your ADR, Rev-Par, and Profitability.

Please listen to the podcast and the accompanying blog post to hear my answers to even more related questions.

2. Is it ever okay to use an outside company, a PR company, or a mid-management or junior employee, to respond to reviews for us?

3. Is it ever okay to use a template or boilerplate for management responses?

4. Is asking for good reviews an organic way to improve your online reputation? What’s the best way to ask for reviews?

5. When should you direct people to a survey and when should you direct them straight to a review site link?

Q1. Why isn’t my Reputation Management program elevating my revenue significantly?

Because most people believe that Reputation Management is about thanking people for positive reviews, and composing “polite and professional” responses to negative reviews, so as to appear that we care and are listening to our guests’ feedback. Think member, patient, customer, this applies in any industry. But polite words online don’t fool too many people these days.

How are your words going to actually help make future guest experiences better so that you get more compliments and fewer complaints tomorrow? Without action, they can’t. Henry Ford famously said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” Your actions or lack of actions will create your reputation. Even if you sound polite and professional, and even if you also have an empathetic tone, without leadership action, the words will sound hollow and the future guest experience you offer will be unaltered. It is leadership action that impacts review scores.

What’s the difference between Reputation Management and Reputation Cultivation?

Unlike Reputation Management which is focused on politely responding to reviews, Reputation Cultivation begins with understanding what kind of reviews you aspire to achieve consistently to help keep guests coming back and to attract new travelers organically.

In this practice, managers listen to reviews in context to learn small ways where we can improve the experience by reducing friction points. Sometimes we are changing the friction point itself, but many times we are simply changing our communications to better prepare our teams and our guests for the reality of what we offer so that there are no unwelcome surprises.

General Managers can help prepare powerful action-oriented responses which are composed only after collaborating with the team to identify opportunities for improvement, understand the root cause of the issue, and then formulate a plan to hopefully help prevent the same complaint from happening again in the future. Once you have the plan, then the response almost composes itself. Listen to the podcast for examples.

Most review responses today, sound like templates because don’t even mention the issue in question. This is not anyone at the hotel’s fault. It is the way most people were taught to respond, and naturally, people pass on and teach others to do things the way that they were taught. But times have changed. It’s just not working in the current environment because today’s consumer is savvy and skeptical when they read the same banal rhetoric repeatedly that lacks substance and value of leadership action.

Deep down, review writers and readers hope that someone will listen enough to take action. They are disappointed when action is vaguely promised but they are thrilled and impressed when a manager is ready to share what action has already been taken and what plans are underway, thanks to their guest feedback, to help ensure that the problem will be less likely to repeat with future guests.

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I hope you will all connect with me here on LinkedIn and let me know any questions you are your team would like answered on Get Great Guest Reviews.

Please continue to the original newsletter on adelegutman (dot) com/ getgreatreviews for the answers to more common questions including:

• Is it ever okay to use an outside company, a PR company, or a mid-management or junior employee, to respond to reviews for us?
• Is it ever okay to use a template or boilerplate for management responses?
• Is asking for good reviews an organic way to improve your online reputation? What’s the best way to ask for reviews?
• When should you direct people to a survey and when should you direct them straight to a review site link?

Thank you so much for reading, listening, and subscribing!