Review & Sales

Introduction
If not stated otherwise, the information for this blog entry was obtained from Mag. (FH) Alexander Fritsch. He is a lecturer at the HTW Chur and Academy of Hotel Excellence Switzerland and has his own company named Tourismuspartner. (Fritsch, 2017)

Importance of Reviews on Sales
Globalization is why everyone has access to the internet and the information displayed. Moreover, this interactive and participatory web offers up opportunities for everyone to create content and share ideas or knowledge, in the tourism area most likely on social networks such as review sites. (World Tourism Organization and the European Travel Commission, 2014)
Such user generated content (UGC) has a strong, direct influence on the online sales in the tourism area as consumers perceive reviews as more creditable and trustworthy than professional ads. Hence, review portals are of utmost significance and as a company it is crucial to know how to monitor and handle both, negative and positive reviews.

Why Users Read Reviews
Online travel review readers rely heavily on reviews when planning a trip because it reduces the time used for the planning-process, the risk and uncertainty involved when opting for something while simultaneously increasing confidence in the decisions they make. Another aspect is the anticipation which arises while reading reviews and how it helps one to picture a trip more concrete. Reviews provide online review readers with ideas and helps them to evaluate alternatives and eliminate choices they would not enjoy in the end. (Gretzel, 2007)

How Reviews Are Formed
Reviews are founded on the process in figure1. During a consumer’s planning phase of a trip, expectations arise as one is confronted with promises a company makes either on its website or through its marketing. During the execution of this trip and after completion of the trip, the consumer will evaluate if the company could live up to the promises made. If the expected performance is a match, depends on the performance which had been perceived during the stay. A positive match is often attributed to the differentiation of a company meaning that the promised standard has been outperformed.


Figure 1: Expectation Principle (Fritsch, 2017)

Giving a service promise is a clever way of doing marketing and aligning the guests’ expectations to what they will eventually receive. An example: the Europapark always indicates the time that it takes to queue for a specific roller coaster. Consequently, people expect the right thing and they will not be dissatisfied.

Flops and Tops
When talking about reviews, worldwide flops are room, comfort, and Wi-Fi, while the worldwide tops are location, beach, and service. The location or beach is something that is either given or not, but a hotel can influence and should work on all other aspects. In order to avoid flops, and negative reviews in general, one should under promise and over deliver, not the other way around, like, unfortunately, is often the case.

Quality Management (=QM)
As mentioned above, it is of immense importance to meet customer requirements and expectations. This is what QM focuses on: we set a realistic guest expectation, recognize positive and negative feedbacks, study our competitors, and determine specific goals for improvements, which we implement in a second step.
The benefits derived from QM are numerous: better customer value, satisfaction and loyalty. We have more repeating customers. Moreover, we improve the image and reputation of the company, have an expanded customer base, and drive up revenue and market share. (ISO, 2015)
As an alternative to using reviews as a tool to improve business, we can make use of the so-called Performance Analysis. This is a grid, which opposes performance to importance. This is done with every single service. Its result tells us what we should do about the service.

Figure 2: Performance Analysis (Wilkins, 2010)

Other than that, we can directly ask guests: give them the possibility to fill out a feedback form. Hence, we communicate with guests on-site. They can address us at the very moment, in which a hassle arises, instead of afterwards. This may avoid bad reviews online and can even be used to take management decisions. For instance, a hotel asked its customers whether they would appreciate new toilets or not. Their answer was no, so the hotel could save that money and invest it elsewhere.
To make sure there are no inconveniences to the guest, one can make so-called courtesy calls. That is, the customer gets a short call after having settled in in his or her room to make sure that everything is as they please.

Online Reputation Management (=ORM)
»You don‘t have an online reputation, you get one« This quote says it all: the own online reputation cannot be determined by the company, but is created by the people leaving ratings and comments on the web. However, a company can influence it by conducting ORM. (Olery, 2011)
ORM is the coordination of reviews, ratings, and comments on the web. There are specialized tools for doing so, a prime example being TrustYou. These tools work with reviews throughout multiple platforms and not only include ratings, but also text feedbacks. To gain an in-depth understanding of ORM, we got the chance to test the platform ourselves with our projects’ hotel companies.
Responses have an immense impact on revenue too. What is rather surprisingly, is that one can over-do communication: responding to every single comment has shown to drive down revenue. Reasons could be that responses get a standardized touch. Hence, one should find the right balance.

Trust-Elements
Companies can and should turn the reviews into their favour: there are widgets that can be implemented in their websites and drastically drive up conversions. Widgets are small boxes and create trust amongst people. Therefore, they are referred to as trust-elements.

Conclusion
In such competitive and saturated markets as the ones we move in nowadays, it is of high importance to do things right. Today we learned how to achieve this: regarding reviews and sales, one must make sure that the received performance is in line with the expected performance. If one succeeds, or even manages to exceed expectations, reviews and sales will be positive. We now have a rough understanding of basic terminology, concepts, and platforms that help us to be the most successful possible.

Alexandra & Melissa

References
Fritsch, A. (2017). Review & Sales. Chur: HTW Chur.
Gretzel, U. (2007, February). Online Travel Review System. Texas, USA.
ISO. (2015). Quality Management Principles. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from iso.org: https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/archive/pdf/en/pub100080.pdf
Olery. (2011). Everything a Hotel Manager Should Know About: Online Reputation Management. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from Online Reputation Management: http://www.olery.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Online_Reputation-Management_for_Hotels_pocket_guide.pdf
Wilkins, H. (2010). Research Repository. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/36606/66931_1.pdf?sequence=1
World Tourism Organization and the European Travel Commission. (2014). Handbook on E-marketing for Tourism Destinations. Madrid, Spain.

Illustrations
Fritsch, A. (2017). Review & Sales. Chur: HTW Chur.
Wilkins, H. (2010). Research Repository. Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/36606/66931_1.pdf?sequence=1

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