If you own or run a hospitality business, and you're not monitoring your reputation via social media reviewing sites, you're missing the boat. Your customers and guests are posting opinions about you there, so if you're not paying attention, you're missing out on valuable opportunities to hear what people are saying and improve.
My favorite starting point is at Google Places because it acts as a content aggregator, where I can access reviews from multiple sites, including OpenTable, Yelp, Google, UrbanSpoon, TripAdvisor, Menuism, InsiderPages, and Yahoo. I never select a restaurant, hotel, spa, etc., without first checking it out online, and I suspect that there are increasing numbers of folks just like me.
From the hospitality business owner/manager side however, I can't stress enough the significance of monitoring these sites for feedback about your business. You can read what people think about your service, food, ambiance, facility, and many other details that you might not be paying attention to. I recently wrote a review of one restaurant that has incredible food but uncomfortable chairs, and I read another review of a restaurant where the acoustics are so poor that its impossible for a group to converse.
These are important details for patrons to note, but from the management side, this feedback is invaluable. Yes, chairs are expensive, but if they're driving away customers, it might be advisable to invest in more satisfactory replacements. And there are plenty of available options to reduce noise level within an establishment. However, you must first be aware of these perceived problems in order to rectify them.
Customers do often relay their concerns to a server, however, after working many years in this industry, I can attest to the fact that these issues are often not shared with management. Servers are busy and they often just plain forget to mention such things.
Two more significant factors to note are Yelp's features called, "Nearby," and "Monicle." People with smartphones, who are rapidly growing in numbers, can see what is close by using Monicle's gps/augmented reality feature. This is especially important for people in unfamiliar areas. You simply touch the screen and your phone's gps takes over as you rotate the phone all around to see how close "Restaurants," "Bars," and "Everything" are. From there you can go to Yelp reviews of the establishments. It's a time saver because users don't even need to enter your establishment's name. Consider the implications of this as travelers and outsiders decide where to drop in for their meals and other services. Your Yelp reviews are very significant.
One more thing to note. We all know that you can't please everybody all the time, and these review sites usually provide a business owner with the opportunity to publicly or privately respond to reviewers. Now, while I don't recommend becoming adversarial or unprofessional, you do have the opportunity to address your customers' concerns within these review sites. As is the case with all other social media, users pay just as much attention to how you deal with uncomfortable situations as they do to actual bad reviews. Are you friendly and apologetic? Did you make a genuine effort to try to rectify the situation at the time? Are you sincere in your efforts to create good will and make up for any perceived slight now?
How you handle bad reviews speaks volumes, that is, of course, if you're paying attention to what users are saying about you.
If you own or manage a hospitality business, ignoring review sites is ignoring customer feedback. At best you're demonstrating ignorance, and at worst you're demonstrating apathy. When you prove to your customers in such a public venue that you don't care about them, you're in trouble.
- Christine Pilch