I Love Better Reviews by Nils Rooijmans #smmcur

Love Better Reviews
Master you Online Reputation
Nils Rooijmans
Social Media Matters 2016 #smmcur
Nils Rooijmans - Water Cooler Topics

Agenda
• Introduction
• (Travel) Customer Journey
• Google: user queries, search results & reviews
• Tripadvisor
• History and Stats
• Rankings
• Reviews!
• Forums & Influencers
• Risk(?) [Discussion]

Who is this guy?
• Master in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
• Search Technology fanatic
• Ilse.nl (2000-2008)
• Search Marketing Consultant
• “Nils, How do i get on top ?!”

Who are you?
• What do you want to learn about today?

Travel Customer Journey (Then)

Travel Customer Journey (Now)

Travel Journey
Customers research on Internet and are more informed, selective and less loyal
80% of Web users plan their trip online
Internet is the primary source of information to plan a trip for 72% guests
A Web user visits an average of 5-8 sites in its online travel research before booking
Critics and reviews of travellers are VERY important factor for
87% 0f travellers

Customer Journey Touchpoints
• https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/tools/customer-journey-to-online-
purchase.html#!/the-us/travel/medium/organic-search

NR1 Go-To for information
96% (!) of travelers start their travel plans with a search in
Google

What do people search for?
• Inspiration
• Information
• Reviews
• How to book
• Find out using Google’s Autocomplete, Ubersuggest and Adwords
Keyword Planner tool

What do the search results look like?

EXCERCISE
• What do people search for on Curacao?
• Any surprises here?
• What do people search for related to your business name?
• Surprises?
• What do the search results look like?
Compare to competitor(s)
• Notice anything remarkable?

BREAK

Reviews!
• Why reviews matter
• The NR1 in Reviews for Hospitality: Tripadvisor
• Tripadvisor
• History & Stats
• Rankings
• Review management
• Forums, Q&A and Influencers
• Critics [Discussion]

Why reviews matter

Value of Reviews
53% would not even book a hotel without reading guest opinions.

NR1 Hospitality Review Platform

TripAdvisor
introduces
Instant
Booking on
mobile
TripAdvisor Highlights
19
2001 2002 2004 2009 2010 2013 2014 Today
First ever
traveler
review is
posted on
TripAdvisor
Restaurants
added to the
site for the
first time
Popularity
Index
launched,
ranking
properties
according to
traveler
feedback
TripAdvisor
forums are
created
A flights
search feature
is
launched
on the site
TripAdvisor
launches
first
iPhone app
Hotel price
comparison
launches
Vacation
Rentals are
added to the
site
Partners with
Facebook
TripAdvisor
acquires
and
TripAdvisor
reaches
340 million
Unique
monthly users

million
340
unique monthly visitors
million
103
TripAdvisor members
million
350
reviews and opinions
230+contributions every minute

Some 280m people now use the site to research travel.
That is an audience the size of the US Population.

The Business Model
Click-Based Advertising
Revenue
Display-Based Advertising
Revenue
Subscription-Based,
Transaction and Other Revenue
Click-Based
70%
Display-
Based
11%
Subscription
19%

What you can use TripAdvisor for?
• Monitor reviews of your business
• Analyze the performance and reputation of competitors
• Respond online to guest reviews
• Increase your customer satisfaction level
• Get Content Marketing Ideas
• Get Customer Insights from reviews
• Actively hunt for leads

TA Business Listing
• By signing up for a Business Listing, TripAdvisor will add an email
address, website (both clickable) and phone number.
• Listings will also allow offers to be posted, give access to analytics and
other benefits, such as better display of photos.
• To see how much Business Listings would cost for your property, log
in to your property’s TripAdvisor account and then go to
www.tripadvisor.com/BusinessListings. (starting at ~ $600/year?)

TA Business Listing

Now, Let’s RANK!
Why does this matter?
Because increase in rank =
increase in visibility and engagement =
increase in bookings and revenue.

EXCERCISE
• How would you rank the listings?
• Write down 3 criteria

How to get on top
• Video with TA explanation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zaytwjxd1Y8

How to get on top according to TA
We designed the enhanced Popularity Ranking algorithm to value the quantity and consistency of reviews
more significantly than we have in the past.
Doing so helps stabilize the ranking for all businesses, reduces fast-riser behavior and creates a more accurate
overall ranking for our travelers.
Our goal was to design an enhanced algorithm where a property settles into a stable ranking more quickly and
avoids the fast-riser behavior. The Popularity Ranking continues to be based on the quality, recency and
quantity of reviews that a business receives from travelers.
In summary:
• More reviews are better than fewer reviews;
• Good reviews are better than poor reviews; and
• Recent reviews are better than older reviews.
As TripAdvisor says, “There’s no secret. It’s about pure hospitality.”

Quantity of the Reviews
Encourage engaged guests to leave a review, by
• Asking directly
• Leave cards in guest rooms / at cashier
• Tablet at checkout / cashier
• Giving your guests the code to your free Wi-Fi on a card, with a
reminder to leave a review on TripAdvisor
• Sending guests an email after their stay inviting them to write a
review
NOTE: Do NOT reward reviewers (against guidelines)

Quantity of the Reviews

Quality of Reviews
• Quality score wins:
To move up on the Popularity Index, improving customer experience
does seem far more important than getting a greater volume of
reviews. (Great news for smaller properties)
• Set guest expectations before they arrive by making sure any
information about your property, amenities and services is up to date
and photos accurately reflect your business. Fulfill or exceed those
expectations during their stay.

Recency of Reviews
• Recent reviews carry more weight in your ranking, while older reviews
have less impact over time; so make sure to keep encouraging guests
to share their feedback online.

Consistency
• The new algorithm does a better job of rewarding consistently good
behavior:
A property that has many consistently good reviews will rank higher
than one that has many reviews, some of which are good and some of
which are poor, all other things being equal.

Tips from the top
1. Provide truly remarkable service
Often, it’s not the lavish gestures that travelers mention in reviews but the little details, unexpected surprises
and special attention from staff
2. Be true to brand
“We’re not fancy, but we know who we are,”
“Imagine the stories you want your guests sharing after they leave … and get your staff to see their role in
making them happen,”
3. Be “refreshingly honest”
“Overstating benefits or omitting realities can bring you travelers who will be disappointed when they arrive
and unlikely to give you the great reviews you are seeking.”
“Refreshingly honest is one of our favorite compliments.”
4. Mobilize the whole team
letting them know when they are mentioned by name

Tips from the Top
5. Offer great value
What do travelers gripe about most in reviews—aside from service? Wi-Fi charges, surprise fees and gouging.
Many are generous with extras too, like free Wi-Fi, breakfast, upgrades, beverages and snacks. When making
these decisions, hotels must now factor in the costs and benefits to reputation.
6. Do it with passion every day
“treat guests as though they are your family in your home.”
Not exactly earth-shattering news for seasoned hoteliers, but it’s not always easy to connect the dots,
especially for larger hotels.
7. Prevent escalation
do what it takes to ensure guests don’t leave dissatisfied

The Lesson

TA Review Guidelines
• Family-Friendly
• Written by Actual Traveller (no second hand/hearsay)
• NO reviews written by representative of the property
• No reviews written by vendors employed by the property
• Individuals affiliated with a propety may not review
competitors.
• Unique and Independent
• Relevant to Travelers
• Unbiased

TA Review Guidelines
• Helpful, First-Hand
• Recent
• Original
• Non-commercial
• Respectful of Private Information
• Listed by TripAdvisor (appropriate property)
• Age Requirement (18+)
• Easy to Read
• No ratings or comments about aspects of a business you
• did not experience.

TA Review Screening
YES, TA does screens reviews
“We have three primary methods to manage the legitimacy of reviews:
1. Systems.
Reviews are systematically screened by our proprietary site tools that are frequently
upgraded.
2. Community.
Our large and passionate community of more than 50 million monthly visitors help report
suspicious content.
3. Quality Assurance Teams.
An international team of quality assurance specialists investigate suspicious reviews that
are flagged by our proprietary tools or community.”

Responding to Reviews

How to respond to TA Positive reviews
• Look for positives in all reviews
• Thank the guest by name
• Avoid the same standard reply for all reviews
• Appreciate the positive comments of the reviewer in the
• review and thank him personally for the same
• Appreciate the staff members mentioned in the reviews
• and send a mail to the entire staff with the review link so
• that everyone in staff is motivated in getting more
• reviews. This Will motivate your staff by giving them a
• sense of pride in their work and pride in service

How to respond to TA Positive reviews

EXCERCISE
• Search for 3 amazingly positive reviews for your partners property
• Share reviews with your partner
• Write one response to a review that you can later post yourself

TA Negative reviews
• If you know about a guest problem try to resolve the situation proactively
before it results in a negative review.
• 84% of users agree that an appropriate management response to a bad
review "improves my impression of the hotel."
• 64% of users agree that an aggressive/defensive management response to
a bad review "makes me less likely to book that hotel.
• Analyse the negative comments and see what can be done to ensure that
those comments may not come in future

What to do in case of a bad review?
• May or may not be genuine
(TripAdvisor does not verify the reviews and the review )
• Check for a fake review see the profile of reviewer
• Check the review against TripAdvisor Guidelines
• If the review violated guidelines, report it to TripAdvisor

Recognizing Fake Reviews
• No Community reputation for the reviewer
• Focus on Why they went rather than what they experienced
• Lot of One Review Posters for a property
• Overly hyped reviews
• Hotel Jargon
• Sudden Burst of Reviews
• Beware reviews from different people that seem eerily close in tone
or style.

How to respond to TA Negative reviews
• A bad review on TripAdvisor hurts your reputation, but stay calm.
• When you respond to the bad review you need to have two
objectives
• Minimise the damage to your reputation by making other prospective guests
think more highly of you.
• Win back the reviewer and other potential guests reading the review as you
are responding to win back every person who will ever read the review.

• Respond as fast as possible
• Remain courteous and professional
• Thank the reviewer for providing feedback
• Apologize for the guest's poor experience
• Explain what is being done to rectify the issue
• Stick to the facts - don’t get personal
• Don't take it personally and attack the reviewer

Response Template
Greetings <Guest Name>
Thank you very much for taking the time to review our property.
Your input, and the feedback from all of our guests is vitally important to us
and we always want guest expectations to be met upon arrival.
As Per your comments, we have updated our website to ensure that future
travelers know that while remarkable hospitality, service and cleanliness are
our top priorities some
of our bathrooms are indeed small. We sincerely apologize if you did not
know this in advance.
We hope to see you again in the future and you can reach me directly at
[phone/email] if I can be of any assistance.

EXCERCISE
• Search for 3 negative reviews for your partners property
• Share reviews with your partner
• Wrtie your own response template
• Write one response to a negative review that you can later post
yourself

TA Forums
What you can do (without business listing):
• Participate in Forums
• Answer Questions
• Create Helpful Posts
• Build Relationship with Influencers
• Submit Helpful Travel Articles
Get in front of your audience!

Google Trick
• Search for high traffic keywords and see the Google Results
• Participate in these topics in forums
• Examples:
• “things to do in curacao for honeymoon”
• “where to stay in curacao”

TripAdvisor Forum Guidelines
• Family-friendly
• Travel-related
• Non-threatening
• Free of solicitations
• Free of HTML, JavaScript and images
• Authentic and original
• Post carefully and respectfully

TripAdvisor Forum Best Practices
• Don't get addicted - Limit your participation Time
• No Flame Wars
• Protect your brand and reputation
• Treat People with respect
• No copy pasting from other online sources
• Build Trust
• Be Transparent & Honest
• Don't Sell But Educate
• Be Consistent & Think Long Term

Use TA Forums for content marketing
• screen questions
• aggregate related questions and anwers
• write article
• publish on your blog
• promote article in the forums (careful, no link, respect guidelines)

TA Pro Tip : Q&A’s
• Answers Questions on TA,
• Example:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g147278-d262487-
Reviews-The_Royal_Sea_Aquarium_Resort-Willemstad_Curacao.html

EXCERCISE
• Visit the curacao forum and look at the questions
• Select 3 questions you will respond to from potential guests. Write
down the answers and review the answers
• Post the answers and look forward to the response from other
community members and the guests who asked questions and
respond to their responses

Enjoy the Journey!

How to monitor online feedback?
1. www.google.com/alerts
2. Enter terms (more than 2 words, ie: “restaurant gouverneur”)
3. Confirm your email
4. Will be delivered to your email

I Love Better Reviews by Nils Rooijmans #smmcur

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