The funny thing is that I absolutely rely on low rated reviews to make my decision. 5 star reviews are often slim on details. “Great food! Loved it!” “This book is awesome!” “Fantastic movie!” “The movies did a swell job!” … on the other hand, many 1 star reviews going into angry detail with lots of specifics. You can easily shrug off the “This sucks!” reviews in favor of the “This movie has terrible pacing. The characters were an absolute mess. The special effects were awful. The only people I can imagine liking this are people who enjoyed that shitty Inception movie.” There.. that review told me the movie was slow (not something I have a problem with), has character issues (might be a problem), and bad fx (usually ruins a movie for me). But then goes on to say it’s like Inception, which he obviously hated, but I loved – so now I’m back to feeling good about the movie again. Moreso because if he thought the effects in Inception were awful, then we have a different definition of “awful”. That negative review was far more helpful that the hundreds of “Good movie!” reviews.

http://brokenforum.com/index.php?threads/review-filter-classifies-negative-reviews-as-fake.1848/

 This is an extract from the above forum. A response to a discussion about how some reviews sites have filters to manage the reviews, which can work correctly or incorrectly.

I’ve reposted the comments, as it’s a great example and explanation of how “helpful” negative reviews can be. In the travel industry we are so close to our products, to our destinations, that stepping back and see how sometimes negative reviews can have positive effects; helping us define and sell to the right audience.

What the above does, is illustrate so nicely, how negative comments can be helpful.

So often we just to try to sell hotel rooms, without a target audience in mind. When we have a target audience, a film that is made for people who enjoy sci-fi or art house films, it’s never going to appeal to everyone. So naturally you’d expect mixed reviews. We read the reviews to provide a guide to aid your own decision making; is this film something that I’m likely to like, is this motel room, suitable for my family, or our wedding anniversary night. (Those two things ideally shounldn’t mix at the same place).

Reviews that complain about noisy families  is just the piece of information that a family is looking for, somewhere where there are likely to be loads of noise children, therefore ours will fit in nicely. Nothing ruins a holiday more, than having to tell your kids to be quiet at the pool continually or put the shoe on the other foot, it’s hardly a honeymooners when surrounded  by loud and splashing kids at the pool. A group of noisy 20 somethings are going to be totally put off by a gushy positive review of the privacy and seclusion of a Motel designed for couples.

Instead we should be thanking those negative reviewers for helping us get the right customers.

A great example I know of is a campground, although plagued with negative reviews about the rules of the campground and how strict they are. These reviews serve to put off the wrong type of campers, groups of young people, looking for a cheap place to party. But smattered with positive reviews from parents and families about the peace and privacy of the camp ground, these reviews are doing the job of target marketing for you. Appealing to families and putting off  the noisy 20yr olds.

No one likes reading negative reviews about their services, but if you can step back, look at the review critically and see that sometimes even a negative review, can have positive effects.

As an another example, Motelier Stewart Haynes, just comment on our recent post of ours about Little Lattes, a website designed to tell you where all the child friendly cafes in Adelaide are. His comment, “thanks for a great resource of places to avoid”. Which illustrates this point beautifully, when we create products for a target audience and then get customers within that audience, everyone is much happier.

Problems arise when we try to target everyone and please no-one.

April update on recent media, news and blog posts about customer reviews from around the web.

April media articles around customer reviews

1. Seattle post: Combating negative reviews using reputation managers 
Interesting article, key points include a statistic that reviews are 12x more powerful than product descriptions. Although in essence a press release for a reputation company, I would agree with the sentiments expressed entirely.

According to Reputation Changer’s Senior Strategy Officer, Mark Reffert, however, many business owners take the wrong approach to battling negative reviews. “It is common knowledge, by now, that these review sites can have a damaging impact on a business, yet it is not widely known what the best strategies for combating these reviews are,” says Reffert. “Many business owners seek to rebut or refute the reviews, as is the case with many of the hotel owners rising up against TripAdvisor. But this is exactly the opposite of what business owners ought to do.”

Instead of rebutting these reviews, Reffert says business owners should seek to suppress these reviews, through the services of an online reputation management company like Reputation Changer.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/press-releases/article/Reputation-Changer-Major-Brands-Combat-Negative-3491056.php#ixzz1t6S9bnqC

2. San Fran Chronicle: New company Reputation911.com launches new reputation management tool.
Again another press release but some interesting and amusing comments, especially this one

Tweets fly like bullets as businesses and professionals are robbed of their revenue and reputation while review sites prosper as the new “gun dealers” in today’s Wild Wild West known as the Internet.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/17/prweb9408599.DTL#ixzz1t6SiweVx 

3. Vacation rental agreements try adding confidentiality agreements to prevent reviews. 
Another fascinating article as the world comes to terms with the consumers new found freedom of speech and influence. This one is about a vaction rental company that fined a guest $500 on their credit cards for breaking a contract clause and leaving a review. Of course a negative reviews for a $3500 apartment.

The best line of the article however is at the end.

“The notion that as a traveler you have to worry about being fined by your hotel or rental property if you did not enjoy your stay shows just how bad things have become in the world of online review sites,” says Travis Katz, the chief executive of Gogobot, an online application that collects travel recommendations from friends. “The Internet is supposed to be a marketplace of free ideas and free expression. However, it is increasingly becoming a place where businesses are trying to bully people — or even companies — into censoring ideas that could put the business in the wrong light.”

4. Time business: Why product reviews might be the next big thing for investors. 
When your choosing stocks, the big movements are the sales forcasts, however recently a link has been identified between predicting rising and falling stocks by watching the product reviews.

Not rocket science really, if consumers don’t really like the product, sales won’t be great.

5. Open Forum: How to manage the damage from negative online reviews. 

This is an interesting article from a business perspective on the steps to mitigating negative reviews. Am a little disappointing that in the only one example does the retailer consider that the consumer complaint is quite valid. It appears the attitude from businesses can be, I deserve my referrals, how dare someone not have a positive experience of my service. Rather than a little humble pie occasionally “What did we do wrong here, how can we improve”.

6. SEM Blog: HowTo handle negative reviews like a PRO. 
This is a short but great article.

7. Three girls and media marketing: 7 things your small business should know.
Practical advice that reminds you to treat the customer with respect.

Do a quick google search for your property with the word ‘review’ attached to the end and you might be a little scared with what comes up. 

There are new sites cropping up everyday that allow customers to leave a review, comments or feedback about you.

You might be asking?

1. How did my place get onto their site? 
2. How can I keep track of all these reviews and comments? 

How did I get onto these sites like Fossick?

Firstly being listed other sites is nothing sinister or untoward. It’s a bit like signing a contract with a travel agency, that one agency then has a network of travel agents who sell and promote your place to their clients/audiences. It’s how travel has been sold forever, but the difference is, these relationships and connections are a lot bigger and more global. It means that you need only deal with and manage a couple of relationships, but your business gets exposed to a much bigger audience, generating more sales.

On Fossick here are some of the sites we have partnered with.

The other way you get added to sites is that someone else physically adds you. On Fossick we enable anyone to add a business listing to our site. In a similar way anyone can create or add a business to google place listing or socially created sites like foursquare or wikipedia.

Technology has enabled us to create and share information in new ways. Which has resulted in huge increase in the number of websites, in particular websites that collect small chunks of data off hundreds of people to create larger more useful collections of information. Wikipedia, travelpedia, google earth, flickr are some examples.  Which means that data that exists about things, people and businesses is growing exponenitally all the time and it’s next to impossible to know about them all.

Lastly the other way your business be appearing on multiple sites is via directories you belong to. The yellow pages (or the many variations of) often sell or share their directories with other sites, especially internationally. New directories and listing sites appear all the time, so you could be stunned at how many sites you name, business address and details appear across the web.

Add to this an explosion in the ability for anyone to be a publisher and by that we mean, create and publish their thoughts online and to a potential audience of people searching online. For you that specifically means that people can now comment on your business, in a way that was simply not possible even 5-7 years ago. What I’m referring to is commonly called reviews. The natural step, which we are seeing an explosion off, is all these little online travel shops, including the ability to comment, alongside the sale of your product.

But if you can’t keep track of all these new sites selling on behalf of, or being created through collective knowledge – how on earth can you keep track of reviews written about your business. Well thankfully technology has also solved that problem too  and it’s free.

How can I keep track of reviews and comments about my business online?

It’s actually surprisingly easy to keep track of comments using your business name and it’s even free. What you need to do is create a google alert.

What’s a google alert?

What google does everyday is crawl the web looking for new web pages to add to it’s search engine. What you can do is set up an alert, so that everytime it’s spiders come across a particular word or phrase you can ask them to email you and tell you about it. Very cool technology. For example everytime somone uses the word Fossick online, I get sent an email to tell me.

How to create an alert? 

1. Follow this link to google alerts page (you will need a google login; which is  same login as a gmail or you tube account or any other google product)

2. Then chose a word to search for like the name of your business and then set the frequency and method of contact. Email once a week is usually sufficent.

3. Voila you’re are done, sit back and wait for google to tell you anytime you business name is mentioned online.

You can have multiple alerts, so you might also set one up for your town or region or  topics that interest you, even competitors.

When you discover a new site, register. 

If you discover a new site, especially with reviews,  look for a way to register and claim your business page (most sites offer this, certainly fossick does).  It may seem a hassle but on the flipside these sites are advertising your business. Think of them as little travel agents helping your business been seen by as many people as possible.  On Fossick if you register we will then email you when a new comment or review is added,  it only takes about 5mins to register and there are some perks to it, like being able to respond to reviews, add and amend details all for free.

Register for Fossick

If your run, own or manage accommodation in Australia, New Zealand or the South Pacific. Look for your business on Fossick, then register and claim the page (it’s free). Not listed, simply add your place to Fossick here (it’s free).

Been at a conference recently where speakers have touted facebook as a new sales channel? 

Where in a few years we’ll all be doing everything inside Facebook, including booking hotel rooms.

In travel, if we were expecting customers to be booking hotel rooms via facebook- it’s unlikely folks. So if you’re behind the 8 ball, hadn’t got around to building that app yet, you’re in luck, there is no need.

Why  ”Facebook will [not] be the place we go to buy”

At its peak, Facebook was going to be everything. With massive market penetration and substantial daily usage, to some it seemed that facebook was going to be the new marketplace. Our customers are there everyday, so it makes sense that this is the place to market to them and where they’ll buy. As businesses we needed to get onboard and integrate  heavily into facebook, ready for the onslaught of fans and buyers.

I never really bought into the concept and I am pleased to see I’m right.

Why we can dismiss this facebook shopping fad!

When companies launch new products and initiatives with loads of fanfare, when they pull them, it’s usually done more quietly – who makes a song and dance about closing a store, but closing them they are. In the facebook world, we only need to look to the big movers and shakers of American retail to see the trend; Gap, JC Penny and Nordstrom have all opened and now closed facebook stores. Source: Bloomberg: Gamestop to JC Penny close facebook stores.

The reasons given are simple, no-one was buying.

When you think about it, are we really surprised?

The social media experts like to liken social media to a cocktail party. Introducing and meeting new people, being engaging and socially interesting, conversing with the guests rather than shouting brand messages from the middle of the room.

Which is a good analogy, beacause when you think about it in this context – how many of us go to a cocktail party to shop.  When we shop we shop, when we socialise, we’ve already been to the store and bought our best outfits. It’s time to show them off, to talk, to discuss, to admire others, but not to buy.

Social space is social and people don’t want to be invaded by the dreaded brands again. This is an interesting juxtaposition, as being a business owner I can see the power of using facebook and other social media channels to build my business. At the same time on a personal level, it annoys the crap out of me. Hence my recent article

” Why I don’t want you to discover Pinterest”

Pinterest is great because it’s real people, sharing things they like, not yet another paid employee trying to pretend to be interested so that you “engage” with their brand.

Sure there are success stories, there is real engagement and fun, but on the whole I’m sick of the businesses and more interested in what my friends are doing. Look at your news feed, how much of it is actually friends status updates? I generally scroll through looking for the gems of what people I know and care about are actually up to.

Implications for travel industry

Next time you hear someone telling you that the average joe will be booking accommodation via facebook, you can laugh. You know better. Leave the sales channels with the OTA’s or your own website.

Or you can follow with interest the Best Western, facebook page. Featured above in the image, they have an integrated booking engine. They are at least a major chain with resources to burn, but for the smaller players, lets see how the big guns go first, before you launch in. As I’m guessing a simple link to your own website booking engine will probably suffice, which is a far cheaper option.

Deals however are different

Deals, according to the Gap, are still fair game on facebook. It flies in the face of my previous comments, but we’re fickle consumers at the best of times, so we’re still partial to the odd deal presented to us at a timely moment. Just don’t expect me to buy it there, I’d rather go to your website.

Travel is about planning or inspiration. Either you’re planning a holiday and you’re looking for deals, options to make it happen or you can be inspired to go somewhere that hadn’t been on your radar – the short notice weekend away or the fabulous deal to Bali.

The exceptions

James Hacon on the Tourism Blog recently highlighted the success of Jucy Rentals on social media, facebook in particular. Where consumers are making reservations and booking via facebook. This is an interesting example, because clearly Jucy has excellent grasp of managment via facebook and have enabled it to become a form of email – a way to correspond with potential customers.

I think Jucy has been particulary successful because of the human element. When we book travel there are lots of unknowns, there are circumstances and variations. Chatting to a real person has massive appeal. Being able to ask questions and have them answered quickly is incredibly powerful and useful from a consumer perspective.

In the age when we’ve largely stopped using the telephone and email is cluttered, the real-time interaction on facebook has a nice appeal. For savvy travel agents and tourism companies, there is still a lot of scope to create and generate bookings on facebook, but it’s interesting to note, that’s not via storefronts and places to physically part with your money, it’s personal interaction and problem solving that then leads to purchase.

Once you have rapport then it’s personal and it feels far more like a email correspondence.

Simply whacking up a booking engine and expecting people to buy is not going to happen.

Low-cost airlines seem to be thriving whilst the traditional carriers struggle – why is that?

Check out this great infographic to see how differently they manage their costs and why their making so much more money.

Source: http://frugaldad.com

We keep our eye on anything that comes up about reviews…. so below are some links to recent media or commentary around reviews for March.

Since this is the first post in a series, some of the links are older, but worth looking at.

Media articles around customer reviews

Why a Negative Review Can Be a Positive Experience by Steve Olenski on Social Media Today

Loads of great research and studies about the importance of being open and transparent with customers.

5 Ways to Rock Customer Review Sites by John Jantsch on Duct Tape Marketing

Great post highlighting 5 important strategies to customer review websites. Although American orientated the info still applies to the accommodation industry in Australia and New Zealand.

5 tips for managing your online reputation

Great little piece with 5 tips to getting proactive of  about getting great reviews.

 Motella Blog: Verified vs Unverified reviews

Interesting piece on Travelbug (NZ OTA) decision to remove unverified reviews. Including stats for the worldwide averages for negative / neutral / positive reviews.

 Hospitality Net: Social Media and Search increase click through rates

Not specifically about reviews, but some interesting stats on the power of search and social media to increase click through rates.

In the USA  as the Kindle market heats up, one clever marketer was on to a winner on Amazon.

They simply sent a letter with their product to the customer which stated  that if they left a review of the product they’d purchased on Amazon ,then they would be refunded the cost of the product. It was only$10, but still, free is free. It’s enough of an incentive that lots of people did it. Problem was this was seen as  being unethical, lots of people reported it and bam, the story runs in the New York Times and voila your product is removed from Amazon altogether. Your ill gotten gains boosted your business for a few weeks, only to forever kill it.

However to find that out, you’d have to read to the end of this New York Times article.

Only 2 paragraphs in you’re far more likely to read

Fake reviews are drawing the attention of regulators. They have cracked down on a few firms for deceitful hyping and suspect these are far from isolated instances. “Advertising disguised as editorial is an old problem, but it’s now presenting itself in different ways,” said Mary K. Engle, the Federal Trade Commission’s associate director for advertising practices. “We’re very concerned.”

Which considering few people read to the end, you could happily stop reading, safe in the knowledge that this customer review problem, full of fake reviews and dodgy advertising practices, will die a good death soon enough.

Except that the reality is  society is relatively self policing. The majority of us are in fact,  law abiding, ethical and up-standing members  and don’t like to see the whole system bought down by the rogue among us.

Sure, for a couple of weeks, the company cited above might have rocketed to the top of the list. But really, looking at what some of the people wrote “extolling the virtues” would you have believed it, or been just a bit skeptical?

The thing with reviews is that we are not stupid. We might be irrational and illogical but the majority of us are not thick. Generally we can spot this over-zealous self-promotion in the same way we get turned off general over-zealous marketing tripe.

The bit we overlook sometimes is  why we’re reading the reviews in the first place, .

We use reviews because we’re over the traditional marketing messgae. We don’t believe it, we know they don’t mention the downsides, so reviews have sprung up to counter this trend. To present the dark side of a product, so we can purchase with our eyes open. Ditch reviews and what is the alternative for the consumer – to trust the marketing message from the company.?

Yes fake reviews are wrong. Yes there are loads of issues to try and manage around the topic, but please don’t be concerned because some people are unethical. Be concerned that the consumer needed to turn to reviews to find some semblance of truth in the first place.

At Fossick, we believe in sharing the love, so have compiled a list of the great places  New Zealand accommodation sites can get backlinks or links to their website.  Not sure what a backlink is and why you would want one? Read this article. 

1. Fossick- Find out where to stay in Australia and New Zealand? 

Read the local opinion on where to stay in Australia and New Zealand

This is our site of course, but for NZ and Australian accommodation we are a great place to list your property for free.

What’s the catch? As a consumer you want to know you’re being presented all of your options, not just those with larger budgets, so we list everyone. If you’re after the link back to your site to encourage guests to book direct, we charge a small annual fee ($50/yr). Cheap as chips compared to the AA or Jasons.

Other places you can list your business for free.

Gopher – A new directory site, more in the style of the yellow pages but online.

Trav PR -Publish your travel related PR via this site. A great site for catching up on relaunches and what’s happening around the world.

MKiiwi -Another New Zealand based search engine and directory

NZ Webz Directory  – General directory for New Zealand

NZ Your Way -

The Kiwi Story - Showcase your great New Zealand business. You need to join topicshow and tag your article with New Zealand to be included in the Kiwi Story.

NZPages - & Not flash or fancy, but a basic directory of NZ websites.

Free travel directory – International directory dedicated to travel sites.

Gonzoz – Another very specific travel directory for Australia and New Zealand

Great New Zealand  Travel Guide - A nice looking travel guide to New Zealand

Look Directory – Human edited arts and humanities directory

International travel guides and sites – Directory of top tourism sites and travel guides from around the world. Whatever your travel plans, you will find something useful here.

International travel guides and sites – Directory of top tourism sites and travel guides from around the world. Whatever your travel plans, you will find something useful here.

ARF New Zealand Directory — New Zealand Web site directory sponsored by ARF Rental Cars. Located in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch.

It’s the silly season and when things get a bit crazy it’s hard to be perfect all the time.

So you got a bad review! Can anything be done?

Well you could go down route of trying to get it removed, or you could just write a response.

Look at these two examples to the same review.

“I recently took my children to get their Santa photo taken at your mall and was very disappointed with the service. The young staff were dismissive and rude; getting a santa photo is expensive exercise and I walked away feeling really ripped off”.

Response 1: 

Thank you for your comments however this is an extremely busy time of year, what do you expect 5 star service for you and your brood. There are lots of places to get Santa photos taken, next year go elsewhere.

Response two: 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Getting a santa photo is one of the joys of Christmas, so it’s disappointing to hear we didn’t offer you a great experience. I’ll talk to my staff and relay the feedback and come up with some changes to enhance the experience for everyone.

How did each response make you feel?

The first response makes you feel angry; however if you run a Santa photo booth at Christmas you’ll probably be empathetic, but the vast majority of people don’t, and they will feel taken aback at the abrupt comments. Their empathy is for the reviewer.

The second response, takes the negative comments and deflates them. The issue is acknowledged, the response is empathetic. It doesn’t offer compentsation or gush with remorse; it doesn’t launch into how the young staff are to blame. A simple acknowledgement that it was disappointing, that expectations were not meet and some actions to how they might improve the service for everyone.

Why the Santa example? 

As an accommodation owner you have a different experience to reviews that the average joe bloggs.  You’re like the person who also runs a santa photo booth. Your natural empathy is towards the person receiving the review, because you understand their frustrations and experiences.  This response is however not as the average customer sees it; they side more naturally with the reviewer, because again this is persona who is most similar to them.

How to respond to negative comments

When you get a bad review, the best possible action is to respond, but beware that your response can inflame or deflate the review. Write what you want to say on a piece of paper –  leave it overnight and bin it  in the morning, then write the polite response that’s required.

It’s not as satisifying, but it’s the right call for your business.

Need help with a tricky response. Send it to us!

Sometimes you just don’t know what to say. We’d be happy to help write a response for you, just send your tricky review to keepusbusy@fossick.com