Reviews - the Future for Hotels

But before we look into our crystal ball, let's recap on the current state-of-play. Today's reviews market is dominated by 'first entrants': businesses that saw an opportunity to pitch their tents on a vacant lot. Sites like Yelp and Expedia and TripAdvisor. Sites like these can cover everything (Yelp) or anything (TripAdvisor - travel).

Just like the 'Wild West' we alluded to back in June last year - or perhaps more akin to a  gold rush? But, just as these historical events ran their course, so will the web resolve itself out of this anarchic phase. But how? And when?

How? And When?

We've got a much better picture of the 'How?' than the 'When?', but it's the 'How?' that is most important for our clients: and this is very much up to Google. Google is the sherriff, the President, the gatekeeper - all rolled into one. No-one gets access to anything on the web without Google's say-so. 

And when your potential guests* go to Google, it gives them the information it knows they want.

How does Google know what they want? The simple answer is that Google knows what they searched for, not just a millisecond ago, but in the last hour/day/week/year. In most cases it also knows where they live (at a minimum, their home country) and an awful lot about their lifestyle and purchasing habits.

So Google gives them this, right at the top:

And then this:

And then this: 

So?

Given what we know of people's behaviour when they're browsing the web (that 8 times out of 10 they will look at the first relevant result) they will increasingly be drawn to Google's reviews in preference to any others (unless Google draws a blank). So the 'wild west campers' like this:

And this...

 And this...

And this...

...will become much less relevant as time goes by. Whether or not the reviews they contain are positive or negative, because as your potential guests* will  become conditioned to going no farther than Google for reviews, they won't be looking at these sites nearly so much. 

This is actually a huge advantage for most hotels as it means they will only have to focus on getting reviews to Google; of course its also a massive advantage for our clients, as Dialogue is expressly designed to do just that (after, of course, ensuring that the reviews have been processed through Resolution™ and our client has been given the opportunity to respond, in private, to any issues raised).

*And don't ignore Google's impact on your returning guests: increasingly we 'Google' for details of businesses we use, even if it's just for an address or 'phone number, but Google shows us reviews all the same.

Reviews - the Future

But before we look into our crystal ball, let's recap on the current state-of-play. Today's reviews market is dominated by 'first entrants': businesses that saw an opportunity to pitch their tents on a vacant lot. Sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor. Sites like these can cover everything (Yelp) or anything (TripAdvisor - travel, IWantGreatCare - hospitals and doctors).

Just like the 'Wild West' we alluded to back in June last year - or perhaps more akin to a  gold rush? But, just as these historical events ran their course, so will the web resolve itself out of this anarchic phase. But how? And when?

How? And When?

We've got a much better picture of the 'How?' than the 'When?', but it's the 'How?' that is most important for our clients: and this is very much up to Google. Google is the sherriff, the President, the gatekeeper - all rolled into one. No-one gets access to anything on the web without Google's say-so. 

And when your potential customers* go to Google, it gives them the information it knows they want.

How does Google know what they want? The simple answer is that Google knows what they searched for, not just a millisecond ago, but in the last hour/day/week/year. In most cases it also knows where they live (at a minimum, their home country) and an awful lot about their lifestyle and purchasing habits.

So Google gives them this:

And then this:

And then this: 

So?

Given what we know of people's behaviour when they're browsing the web (that 8 times out of 10 they will look at the first relevant result) they will be drawn to Google's reviews in preference to any others (unless Google draws a blank). So the 'wild west campers' like this:

 

And this...

 And this...

And this...

...become much less relevant as time goes by. Whether or not the reviews they contain are positive or negative, because as your potential customers* become conditioned to going no farther than Google for reviews, they won't be looking at these sites. 

This is actually a huge advantage for most businesses as it means they only have to focus on getting reviews to Google; of course its also a massive advantage for our clients, as Dialogue is expressly designed to do just that (after, of course, ensuring that the reviews have been processed through Resolution™ and our client has been given the opportunity to respond, in private, to any issues raised).

*And don't ignore Google's impact on your existing customers: increasingly we 'Google' for details of businesses we use, even if it's just for an address or 'phone number, but Google shows us reviews all the same.

Credibility - a cornerstone of Dialogue

To us it's a given - so much so that we probably don't mention it as often as we should. In this post we will address the issue of credibility from your customers' perspective. 

This Q & A is written as if one of your customers was asking the questions to you (the business).

Q. What happens when I post a complimentary review?

A. It first goes to HelpHound where their moderators read it, and then it's posted to our website for everyone to see.

Q. What if it's not complimentary? 

A. HelpHound's moderators will send it straight to us so we can try to resolve whatever issue you have raised.

Q. So HelpHound filters out the negatives?

A. No - you always have the right to post whatever review you want, at any time. But we use HelpHound because the overwhelming majority of our customers write this kind of review because they have an issue they want resolved (HelpHound call the process 'Resolution'), and we want to be able to resolve it.

Q. I know some services like this allow you to choose which reviews are shown at the top

A. Yes, but not HelpHound. With Dialogue you choose, it automatically defaults to the most recent ('latest'), but you can choose to view 'worst' first if you wish.

Q. So if I want to voice whatever issue I have with your business in public, I can do that with Dialogue?

A. Yes, but we will have been given a chance to 'resolve' for you it first. If you remain unhappy you always have the right to post publicly (and we can respond publicly).

Q. What role do HelpHound play in all this?

A. They provide a watching brief: they make sure that we respond quickly and fairly. And at the end of the process they invite you to post a final visible review.

Q. Why use HelpHound? Why not just deal efficiently with complaints yourselves?

A. In this internet age we need visitors to our website to be able to reassure themselves that we are good at what we do, credibly. We acknowledge that simply publishing customer opinions that we have gathered ourselves will lead to that credibility being questioned, so we use HelpHound as an independent agency to do it for us. Here's what they say at the top of all our reviews:

But, of course, no business is perfect (just look at our reviews, we're not rated 5 stars by all our customers), but we want an opportunity to correct our mistakes. In that way HelpHound enables us to achieve two objectives: showing, credibly, what our customers think of us, and resolving the (hopefully) small number of mistakes and misunderstandings that occur with even the best businesses.

Q. Assuming that you are paying HelpHound, how can they be considered independent?

A. HelpHound's (and therefore our) reputation rests on the credibility of the service they provide to us and our customers. If any single customer of any client of theirs found that their ability to post whatever they wanted was in any way impeded the whole object of our relationship would be rendered null and void. HelpHound's own credibility rests entirely on their ability to remain independent of us.

Q. Of course, I can always post somewhere else?

A. And we are fully aware of that, that's one of the main reasons we adopted Dialogue: so we could give our customers an effective modern communications tool that they would actively choose to use.

And finally: If you have any lingering doubts, post through Dialogue and experience it in action for yourself, we are sure you will be pleasantly surprised.

What happened when a hotel suspended Dialogue for 2 months?

We guessed that the numbers might be interesting, but not quite this interesting. If we were arrogant we would say we knew what would happen, but human nature being what it is we will stop short of that - until next time, that is.

Positive reviews (4 and 5 star) posted to TripAdvisor:

In the 2 months before suspension: 63

In the 2 months after: 36

Too clear to ignore? You bet. 10% down would have been inconclusive, but a 43% drop and the conclusion is unarguable.

You get 'em there, we'll help you keep 'em there

+ 27%

That's how much one client's click through (to one or more pages after their home page) increased with Dialogue. Prospective customers don't just want reviews, they actively seek them out; and if any more proof of this were needed, here it is.

-19%

How much bounce (visitors to their website leaving after only viewing their home page) reduced; also known as 'visitor retention' - here's a great description we read recently:

With thanks to Randi Thornton

Booking.com: Does anyone else find this slightly misleading?

These 'awards' (for what else can you call a cup?) have started appearing alongside the names of selected hotels:

What do you suppose Booking.com users think when they see this? We did a straw poll around the office and the answers ranged from:

• Top hotel and
• Great hotel

to:

•  Award winning hotel (which was worryingly closer to the mark). This is what happens if you mouse over the 'award':

Now we don't know exactly what's behind this, but it looks suspiciously like Booking.com are now giving awards to hotels for earning them money. Fair enough Booking.com, but please make this clear to your users.