In the modern world of leisure and hospitality, success is increasingly defined by the number of small yellow stars next to a hotel or restaurant’s name online, a fact not lost on Savannah’s largest industry.
About 150 professionals from the hospitality sector packed into the Mansion on Forsyth Thursday for the Tourism Leadership Council’s August luncheon, a crash course on online reputation management.
Speakers Erica Backus and Jeremy Harveyfrom Visit Savannah’s marketing and public relations team led the discussion on ways businesses can manage and improve their online brand, as well as how to appropriately respond to negative reviews.
“It’s a double-edged sword, great reviews can be fantastic, but negative ones are going to linger out there forever,” said Backus, director of public relations at Visit Savannah.
Harvey said it was important for hotels, restaurants and tour companies to prioritize review management and respond to critical feedback as soon as possible.
“It needs to be on par, if not higher, than social media,” said Harvey.
“Managing reviews can have an effect on the ROI and bottom line. There was a study done by Expedia that said just a one-point increase in your score translates to about a 9 percent increase in your average daily rate.”
In fact, a 2011 Nielsen Global Survey found that 92 percent of people preferred peer-to-peer reviews over traditional marketing and advertising, making it all the more important to monitor what other people are saying about you online.
TripAdvisor, one of the largest online travel directories, clocks 280 million unique visitors a month and has 170 million reviews and opinions from travelers, with about 100 contributions posted every minute.
Harvey and Backus said the best way to handle a negative review is to either privately message the individual, a feature available on Yelp and Travelocity, or post a customized response that addresses the reviewer’s concerns.
Backus said the key is to be brief, apologize if there was a problem and be authentic. She said most review sites do not allow users to reply to the management’s response, in essence giving the business the last word.
Harvey said a thoughtful response by management can improve a person’s overall impression of the establishment and encourage would-be visitors to give the business another look.
“Don’t cut and paste, customize each one,” said Harvey. “But be professional above all else.”