What is the best way to respond to bad reviews?
Bad reviews are inevitable and once a bad review is posted this can taint your company’s reputation. Did you know about 92% of consumers now read online reviews, and 75% of the consumers say positive reviews make them trust a local business? Here are some steps you can follow to deal with bad reviews and manage your online reputation.
1. Uncovering the problem
People often leave reviews based on their hotel experience whether they received exceptional service or they had bad service during their stay in your hotel. By researching what happened during your guests’ visit, hoteliers are able to improve upon the mishaps. When such problems are being addressed, you can clarify the situation with the unhappy customers and improve moving forward.
2. Respond to all reviews, especially the bad ones
Acknowledging your guests’ experience and providing solutions is a great way to regain customer trust. It shows you value customer feedback and will make changes to ensure customer service is improved. When responding you want to make sure that you address the problem, tell them that your company appreciates that they took their time to review your company and, offer next steps in changing the customer experience. Responding to good reviews is also encouraged, as you are able to see what has been working and what you can continue to do to enhance customer service.
3. Go the extra mile
Guests want to feel important and valued, even more so when they did not have the best experience at your hotel. Providing exclusive deals and packages is a great way to ensure they have a better stay with you. You can offer lower stay rates, spa deals, free drinks at the bar, or exclusive tickets to nearby events. This shows that you are willing to go the extra mile with customer service and give your guests a better stay.
4. Choose empathy
If you are solving a problem, do not be critical but empathetic to your customer. Rather than making the situation more complicated than it is, it is good to set yourself in the customer perspective. You need to avoid being defensive, and be authentic and apologize for the mistake your company made. Being defensive often trigger customer to be more enraged, hence when you are trying to solve a problem the biggest help for your company is to listen and provide solutions on providing better customer service.
