min read
With social media and review websites, it’s easier than ever for customers to post feedback about the experiences they had with your tourism business. It’s important to keep track of this visitor feedback and to respond to the comments and feedback you receive.
Six reasons why online feedback is important
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Immediate feedback
It provides immediate feedback that highlights successes, or areas for improvement and development.
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Decision-making
It informs the decision-making process for other potential customers, whether they decide to book with your business – or not.
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Positive conversation
The more positive conversation there is about a business online, customers will be attracted to this.
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Builds trust
Engaging with feedback builds trust and loyalty with customers and encourages repeat business.
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Search engine optimisation
It’s good for search engine optimisation (SEO). Businesses with positive reviews may be weighted higher in search engine rankings.
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Customer expectations
Reviews give you feedback on customer expectations – and provide information to help make informed decisions on making sure customer expectations are met and exceeded in the future.
Where can digital business reviews be found?
If a customer wants to give real-time feedback, an image, a comment or review is usually on social media, mainly Facebook and Twitter. Use a social monitoring tool to help monitor multiple social media channels at once.
Online reviews are often shared on review websites once the trip is complete. Some sites aggregate review comments from multiple websites – enabling businesses to respond to feedback from multiple sites from the one platform. Take a look at Reevoo or TrustYou as both offer an online dashboard.
Reviews can also be left through Google. Take ownership of your Google My Business listings and images and reply to reviews.
Top tip:
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TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is the largest travel review site. There are 280 reviews left on the site every minute. Be sure to find out more about on setting up your TripAdvisor listing.
Responding to online visitor feedback
Positive
Examples of a positive online interaction with customers include posts that tag or mention a specific business – such as a customer enjoying their dinner, staying at an accommodation or visiting your attraction.
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Respond
Be sure to respond to these posts and thank the customer
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Share
Share the post on your businesses social media channels, as it’s social proof which shows future, potential customers that there are others enjoying your offering
Negative
If the online reviews are negative:
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Acknowledge
Acknowledge the review and show commitment to fixing it. Be sure to respond through on social media/review website and ask for alternative contact details to follow up with the customer
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2
Don't delete
Don’t delete the comment or respond negatively. The customer can just post the comment again if it’s removed and doesn’t solve the issue raised by the customer
Digital visitor feedback - here are some tips on how to manage the feedback received from customers for your tourism business:
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Gather feedback
Gather more or specific feedback – encourage customers to leave a review online through your preferred channels, either on social media or a review website.
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Google Alerts
Set up Google Alerts to receive email notifications when your business has been mentioned online and to monitor certain key words and phrases.
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Live Chat
Add Live Chat to your website, which can be done by adding web code to your homepage. This allows customers to ask, and receive answers to, their questions in real time.
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Analytics
Analyse and track overall feedback. Your review websites and social media will show all feedback as a total number and will give an indication of how effectively customers are being engaged with. It can also show statistics for your business, to compare against your competitors.
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Share
Share feedback with the whole business
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Highlight feedback
Highlight feedback on your tourism businesses website as social proof. Take a look at pulling through a feed of live reviews from social channels or review website.