If you’re not actively encouraging online hotel / restaurant reviews yet, it’s a great practice and very simple to start doing so.
Any time someone says something positive about your hotel or your restaurant or you get an e-mail with some positive feedback, you should have some sort of a system for asking these people to share their experiences with others online.
There are some simple strategies to achieve this which we will cover today but before you rush in and try to encourage reviews you should ensure you are offering all your customers an experience over and above what they would expect, you need to be WOWing them – be Remarkable. Create a guest experience that compels your guest to go online and write a review. Also DO NOT over promise – by this I mean if you are an Inn, pub with rooms, guest house or BandB promote yourself as such, please don’t promote yourself as a hotel if you are not. Promoting yourself in the right way will make it easier for you to exceed traveller’s expectations. In the same view do not under sell yourself either, it’s all about getting the balance right. Ensure you train your staff to exceed expectations and when you receive a review (online or email / letter etc.) ensure every member of your staff knows about it. Staff will then feel proud and go that extra mile.
Compose an Email template
One example of how to encourage reviews for your hotel is to have an Email prepared to send out to customers who have enjoyed their visit. You should have all your guest’s email addresses on file when the booking is taken so this should relatively easy.
Example email:
Hello NAME,
Thank you for choosing (HOTEL NAME) for your recent stay in (TOWN / CITY). I was delighted to hear you had an enjoyable time at our hotel.
At your convenience, would you please take a moment to share your experience online with your friends and others on your favorite travel review website?
Is was a pleasure to have you as our guest. We hope to see you again soon.
- STAFF NAME
HOTEL
HOTEL
Direct phone:
Personal email:
Personal email:
See what others have said about our hotel on TripAdvisor:
[TripAdvisor hotel link]
This email is designed to achieve the best results as:
- It comes from an individual person instead of the entire hotel. Response rates typically increase when e-mail comes from one person.
- It’s less about the hotel and more focused on the guest. A guest may not care what is important to the hotel, so we need to position this request as a way for them to share an experience with friends.
- It’s short, so that the message intent is very clear.
- It is not TripAdvisor-specific. It’s more of an invitation for people to talk about us in a manner that suits them best online – whether that’s TripAdvisor, Twitter, or another site.
- It’s good to encourage reviews anywhere the guest prefers.
Should you wish to add your facebook page link if you encourage reviews there feel free to do so. You can also add a link to any other review site you wish but I would certainly keep this to a minimum so as not to confuse the matter.
Next – Don’t be shy – ask for reviews.
This can be a really soft sell which you and your staff will find easy. This can be as simple as printing guest review cards with the link to Trip Advisor and handing out to guests when they check out or finished their meal. A little staff training is all that is needed.
Who can you ask for a review?
Anyone who has visited and enjoyed their experience. Use the card example above.
All resident guests by sending the email template – you should have their email address
All your social media followers by posting a link to the review site
Anyone who has emailed or written to you saying they enjoyed themselves – send them the email template
Encourage on your website by providing a link to the review site
Why would you want to encourage reviews?
People do tend to check online before booking to find out more – ensure you are found with plenty of great reviews
To move a bad review down the list on sites like Trip Advisor
To encourage your staff to offer remarkable service
To build customer confidence in your business and encourage bookings
The more reviews you have online the more likely you are to be visible on Google Maps / Places in the search engines
To give you something to shout about!
Need more help or advice on how to exceed customer expectations and generate great reviews? Give me a call on 07875 175994 or email marketing@pub-marketing-promotions.co.uk
Cary
Related post – How to respond to negative reviews on Trip Advisor
If you’re not actively encouraging online hotel / restaurant reviews yet, it’s a great practice and very simple to start doing so.
Any time someone says something positive about your hotel or your restaurant or you get an e-mail with some positive feedback, you should have some sort of a system for asking these people to share their experiences with others online.
There are some simple strategies to achieve this which we will cover today but before you rush in and try to encourage reviews you should ensure you are offering all your customers an experience over and above what they would expect, you need to be WOWing them – be Remarkable. Create a guest experience that compels your guest to go online and write a review. Also DO NOT over promise – by this I mean if you are an Inn, pub with rooms, guest house or BandB promote yourself as such, please don’t promote yourself as a hotel if you are not. Promoting yourself in the right way will make it easier for you to exceed traveller’s expectations. In the same view do not under sell yourself either, it’s all about getting the balance right. Ensure you train your staff to exceed expectations and when you receive a review (online or email / letter etc.) ensure every member of your staff knows about it. Staff will then feel proud and go that extra mile.
Compose an Email template
One example of how to encourage reviews for your hotel is to have an Email prepared to send out to customers who have enjoyed their visit. You should have all your guest’s email addresses on file when the booking is taken so this should relatively easy.
Example email:
Hello NAME,
Thank you for choosing (HOTEL NAME) for your recent stay in (TOWN / CITY). I was delighted to hear you had an enjoyable time at our hotel.
At your convenience, would you please take a moment to share your experience online with your friends and others on your favorite travel review website?
Is was a pleasure to have you as our guest. We hope to see you again soon.
- STAFF NAME
HOTEL
HOTEL
Direct phone:
Personal email:
Personal email:
See what others have said about our hotel on TripAdvisor:
[TripAdvisor hotel link]
This email is designed to achieve the best results as:
- It comes from an individual person instead of the entire hotel. Response rates typically increase when e-mail comes from one person.
- It’s less about the hotel and more focused on the guest. A guest may not care what is important to the hotel, so we need to position this request as a way for them to share an experience with friends.
- It’s short, so that the message intent is very clear.
- It is not TripAdvisor-specific. It’s more of an invitation for people to talk about us in a manner that suits them best online – whether that’s TripAdvisor, Twitter, or another site.
- It’s good to encourage reviews anywhere the guest prefers.
Should you wish to add your facebook page link if you encourage reviews there feel free to do so. You can also add a link to any other review site you wish but I would certainly keep this to a minimum so as not to confuse the matter.
Next – Don’t be shy – ask for reviews.
This can be a really soft sell which you and your staff will find easy. This can be as simple as printing guest review cards with the link to Trip Advisor and handing out to guests when they check out or finished their meal. A little staff training is all that is needed.
Who can you ask for a review?
Anyone who has visited and enjoyed their experience. Use the card example above.
All resident guests by sending the email template – you should have their email address
All your social media followers by posting a link to the review site
Anyone who has emailed or written to you saying they enjoyed themselves – send them the email template
Encourage on your website by providing a link to the review site
Why would you want to encourage reviews?
People do tend to check online before booking to find out more – ensure you are found with plenty of great reviews
To move a bad review down the list on sites like Trip Advisor
To encourage your staff to offer remarkable service
To build customer confidence in your business and encourage bookings
The more reviews you have online the more likely you are to be visible on Google Maps / Places in the search engines
To give you something to shout about!
Need more help or advice on how to exceed customer expectations and generate great reviews? Give me a call on 07875 175994 or email marketing@pub-marketing-promotions.co.uk
Cary
Related post – How to respond to negative reviews on Trip Advisor
Publicans always say November is a bad month for business.
“It’s the run up to Christmas and customers just won’t come out, they are saving up for the expense to come in December.”
My response is give them a reason to come out to your restaurant or pub!
There is so much happening in November but you need to plan ahead and promote your events. November has National Curry Week, Children in Need and British Sausage Week along with Bonfire night. That’s at least 3 weeks of November where you can really make some good money but it must be promoted well and you must give the people a reason to spend their money with you. Don’t just hang around next November waiting for Christmas to come along and hope for the best.
Planning doesn’t just mean decide on an event and write up your A board and maybe an internal poster. There are so many more ways to promote your events.
You need somewhere for customers access ALL the information -
Your website for example. Ensure you have a dedicated page for all future events then a link to a dedicated page for each individual event with dates, times, menu, offer and all details
Use social media to but be sure to keep the momentum, don’t just mention it once. Create an event, start competitions, ask questions, write a note, use the discussions page, post photos and so on.
Use your database. Every business should have a database of ALL their customers. You should be emailing events out in the form of a newsletter with links back to your website for all the info and encourage people to follow you on social media. A database needs managing effectively but worth the effort as it really is one of the most important marketing tools you can have.
Printed material. Create a printed version of your newsletter for customers to take away. Maybe, depending on the event, create some flyers and distribute around your local area, ask the local newsagent to put them in their shop or even inside the local newspaper. Ask other local business to distribute too.
Local Press. Now I don’t mean pay for an advert, I mean create a great story with an attention grabbing headline that the Journalists will take notice of and print (online and offline) for FREE! Yes they do this… they are always after a good story!
There are many other ways to ensure your events are a real success and make you some money. The ideas above should be a good starting point. You just need to plan carefully and have a marketing strategy in place.
Need more help and advice? Give me a call 07875 175994 and we can discuss how 2011 can be a great year for you.
Cary
Publicans always say November is a bad month for business.
“It’s the run up to Christmas and customers just won’t come out, they are saving up for the expense to come in December.”
My response is give them a reason to come out to your restaurant or pub!
There is so much happening in November but you need to plan ahead and promote your events. November has National Curry Week, Children in Need and British Sausage Week along with Bonfire night. That’s at least 3 weeks of November where you can really make some good money but it must be promoted well and you must give the people a reason to spend their money with you. Don’t just hang around next November waiting for Christmas to come along and hope for the best.
Planning doesn’t just mean decide on an event and write up your A board and maybe an internal poster. There are so many more ways to promote your events.
You need somewhere for customers access ALL the information -
Your website for example. Ensure you have a dedicated page for all future events then a link to a dedicated page for each individual event with dates, times, menu, offer and all details
Use social media to but be sure to keep the momentum, don’t just mention it once. Create an event, start competitions, ask questions, write a note, use the discussions page, post photos and so on.
Use your database. Every business should have a database of ALL their customers. You should be emailing events out in the form of a newsletter with links back to your website for all the info and encourage people to follow you on social media. A database needs managing effectively but worth the effort as it really is one of the most important marketing tools you can have.
Printed material. Create a printed version of your newsletter for customers to take away. Maybe, depending on the event, create some flyers and distribute around your local area, ask the local newsagent to put them in their shop or even inside the local newspaper. Ask other local business to distribute too.
Local Press. Now I don’t mean pay for an advert, I mean create a great story with an attention grabbing headline that the Journalists will take notice of and print (online and offline) for FREE! Yes they do this… they are always after a good story!
There are many other ways to ensure your events are a real success and make you some money. The ideas above should be a good starting point. You just need to plan carefully and have a marketing strategy in place.
Need more help and advice? Give me a call 07875 175994 and we can discuss how 2011 can be a great year for you.
Cary
I have long been an opponent of operators using soley vouchers,
bogof/2 4 1 offers and discounts to try and build their businesses
for multiple reasons.
So what’s the alternative? I expect it will be asked every time I talk about restaurant marketing to anyone and everyone.
I am going to try outlining the only two restaurant marketing philosophies that exist. And while some may comment that these also apply to most any business or industry, while this may be true, I am a restaurant (food service) consultant and only work with food service operators. I don’t care about retail strategies (they don’t work in food service) or manufacturing or consumer goods marketing simply because their product and ours is totally different. They sell products, we sell a social experience.
There are only two types of marketing philosophies.
1. Transaction Based Marketing (TBM)
Transaction Based Marketing is marketing done to maximize sales to guests solely through a focus on increasing the number and amount of customer transactions. This can be done through a segmented focus or not. No past, resent or future relationship with the guest is demanded or leveraged.
This is basically ‘push’ marketing designed to promote impulse buying through an emphasis on only price. You have an offer or deal (vouchers or discounts) you want to ‘push’ out to as many people as possible with an expectation that they’ll use it thereby driving as much traffic into your business as possible as immediately as possible. This is a short-term tactic and requires more and better offers or deals to both maintain existing traffic levels and to increase them over the long-term. This type of strategy is also supported by utilizing frequency schemes disguised as loyalty programs wherein the customer accumulates points towards future discounts.
TBM is expensive because it focuses on both aspects of pricing strategy – cost and profit, at the same time. Costs for executing this type of program run between 10 – 20+% of sales or higher due to the actual production costs, medium delivery costs, discount costs and a very important lost opportunity cost for sales and profits that would have occurred if you had not discounted your products but sold them for full price and typically have lower ROI’s (return on investment).
An example of this would be an operator who email blasts a ’Buy-1-Get-1-Free’ (BOGOF) offer to everyone in his email database. The campaign is focused on a specific menu item or groups of items and is not segmented to go to particular groups within the database that may have indicated an affinity for that particular item or group of items.
2. Relationship Based Marketing (RBM)
Relationship Based Marketing is marketing done to maximize the guest relationship with the business and its brand with a desire to increase the lifetime value (LTV) of each guest instead of a per transaction approach. This type of approach is highly segmented as it attempts to match guests who prefer to interact and develop a deeper and more complex relationship with the brand on a social basis other than price.
These are the guests who desire more perceived real value from the guest experience. They are more social in nature and require that the brands with which they interact offer some degree of social relevance to their lives in order to maintain their patronage and loyalty. The idea being that if you can insert your brand into a guest’s life and make it a habit for them to visit you due to a
unique social interaction or situation that can cement them to your brand, it will increase not only frequency but derive true loyalty that leads to increased positive word-of-mouth, buzz and ultimately customer referrals.
Examples of these types of social interactions can be cooking classes, wine tastings, social gatherings (Tweetups), networking or business group meetings, entertainment, family outings, cause (charity) marketing efforts, etc…
Relationship Based Marketing is relatively inexpensive compared to the heavy transaction costs and lower margins associated with TBM and has a much higher ROI. Instead, the focus is on creating a perceived value in the mind of the customer which correlates to similar social preferences or values that the customer holds. No items are discounted and segmentation of the brand’s messages is more natural and more aligned with customers social preferences and values. While a great example of this is Social Media Marketing efforts, individual efforts can include promoting local and organic ingredients, healthy menu items, green efforts, a more highly defined food culture or culinary experiences, high profile chef’s, premium or unique wines or beverages, greater levels of hospitality, more meaningful personal interactions between
customers and staff or operators, community causes or connections, business associations or partnerships, etc…
Customers really don’t want lower prices, they want value.
People still believe, “you get what you pay for”. So as the world grows more and more social and each of us requires more value and more interaction with the people and places we interact with, it becomes increasingly necessary for businesses to offer real value in the customer experiences by connecting with customers on a more social level at all touch points possible. Simply using the old voucher and discounting tactics of years gone by does not, in any way, help accomplish the businesses goals of growth and success. Looking at each customer as a transaction instead of engaging them in a real relationship simply doesn’t make economic sense any longer and even group and chain exec’s are admitting it publicly.
It cheapens the real and perceived value of the product, the service and the business overall and makes it more likely that the customer will not be loyal to anyone other than the business with the lowest price.
Is that the business you truly want?
Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
I have long been an opponent of operators using soley vouchers,
bogof/2 4 1 offers and discounts to try and build their businesses
for multiple reasons.
So what’s the alternative? I expect it will be asked every time I talk about restaurant marketing to anyone and everyone.
I am going to try outlining the only two restaurant marketing philosophies that exist. And while some may comment that these also apply to most any business or industry, while this may be true, I am a restaurant (food service) consultant and only work with food service operators. I don’t care about retail strategies (they don’t work in food service) or manufacturing or consumer goods marketing simply because their product and ours is totally different. They sell products, we sell a social experience.
There are only two types of marketing philosophies.
1. Transaction Based Marketing (TBM)
Transaction Based Marketing is marketing done to maximize sales to guests solely through a focus on increasing the number and amount of customer transactions. This can be done through a segmented focus or not. No past, resent or future relationship with the guest is demanded or leveraged.
This is basically ‘push’ marketing designed to promote impulse buying through an emphasis on only price. You have an offer or deal (vouchers or discounts) you want to ‘push’ out to as many people as possible with an expectation that they’ll use it thereby driving as much traffic into your business as possible as immediately as possible. This is a short-term tactic and requires more and better offers or deals to both maintain existing traffic levels and to increase them over the long-term. This type of strategy is also supported by utilizing frequency schemes disguised as loyalty programs wherein the customer accumulates points towards future discounts.
TBM is expensive because it focuses on both aspects of pricing strategy – cost and profit, at the same time. Costs for executing this type of program run between 10 – 20+% of sales or higher due to the actual production costs, medium delivery costs, discount costs and a very important lost opportunity cost for sales and profits that would have occurred if you had not discounted your products but sold them for full price and typically have lower ROI’s (return on investment).
An example of this would be an operator who email blasts a ’Buy-1-Get-1-Free’ (BOGOF) offer to everyone in his email database. The campaign is focused on a specific menu item or groups of items and is not segmented to go to particular groups within the database that may have indicated an affinity for that particular item or group of items.
2. Relationship Based Marketing (RBM)
Relationship Based Marketing is marketing done to maximize the guest relationship with the business and its brand with a desire to increase the lifetime value (LTV) of each guest instead of a per transaction approach. This type of approach is highly segmented as it attempts to match guests who prefer to interact and develop a deeper and more complex relationship with the brand on a social basis other than price.
These are the guests who desire more perceived real value from the guest experience. They are more social in nature and require that the brands with which they interact offer some degree of social relevance to their lives in order to maintain their patronage and loyalty. The idea being that if you can insert your brand into a guest’s life and make it a habit for them to visit you due to a
unique social interaction or situation that can cement them to your brand, it will increase not only frequency but derive true loyalty that leads to increased positive word-of-mouth, buzz and ultimately customer referrals.
Examples of these types of social interactions can be cooking classes, wine tastings, social gatherings (Tweetups), networking or business group meetings, entertainment, family outings, cause (charity) marketing efforts, etc…
Relationship Based Marketing is relatively inexpensive compared to the heavy transaction costs and lower margins associated with TBM and has a much higher ROI. Instead, the focus is on creating a perceived value in the mind of the customer which correlates to similar social preferences or values that the customer holds. No items are discounted and segmentation of the brand’s messages is more natural and more aligned with customers social preferences and values. While a great example of this is Social Media Marketing efforts, individual efforts can include promoting local and organic ingredients, healthy menu items, green efforts, a more highly defined food culture or culinary experiences, high profile chef’s, premium or unique wines or beverages, greater levels of hospitality, more meaningful personal interactions between
customers and staff or operators, community causes or connections, business associations or partnerships, etc…
Customers really don’t want lower prices, they want value.
People still believe, “you get what you pay for”. So as the world grows more and more social and each of us requires more value and more interaction with the people and places we interact with, it becomes increasingly necessary for businesses to offer real value in the customer experiences by connecting with customers on a more social level at all touch points possible. Simply using the old voucher and discounting tactics of years gone by does not, in any way, help accomplish the businesses goals of growth and success. Looking at each customer as a transaction instead of engaging them in a real relationship simply doesn’t make economic sense any longer and even group and chain exec’s are admitting it publicly.
It cheapens the real and perceived value of the product, the service and the business overall and makes it more likely that the customer will not be loyal to anyone other than the business with the lowest price.
Is that the business you truly want?
Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
