Avi Arya explains why reputation matters in hospitality and how to build it online. He covers practical strategies for managing reviews, improving your digital presence, and boosting SEO through reputation management.
Foreign. Hi, welcome to another show, the Askavi Arya show. Today we're going to talk about the story of reputation management. You know, I always like to give an example of my grandfather because he really had a big influence on my life and what I'm doing today. A very decorated senior army officer. And he always said, son, here's how it goes. Your reputation always precedes you. Whatever you're doing, whatever you've done, you're not the only one who's noticing it. So do it properly because every day you're building your reputation. This is what he said to me when he was alive 18, 20 years back. It always stuck with me. And today, 18, 20 years hence, we are in the business of reputation management for clients across the world. And reputation management has become an art and a science. Small to large companies are trying to understand how to manage their reputation. And somehow I don't like that term, managing your reputation. Seriously, can you actually manage your reputation? Here's how it goes. Let's break it down. Let's make it as simple as possible. You cannot manage your reputation unless you're managing the way you work with your clients, unless you're doing exactly what you're doing offline as what you want to portray online. I always say at conferences that I speak worldwide, that your online reputation is always going to be maybe a shade lighter or grayer than your offline reputation. You can't have two contrasts. You can't be a black and a white between your online and your offline reputation. So you have to know what you want to do, how you're going to do it and how you're serving your customers. And because most of my messages reach out to almost about 30,000 of you every Tuesday morning through a video newsletter, and most of you are in the hospitality domain. So let me make this more hospitality centric. Now, I've spoken about what reputation management actually is. It is an art and a science. You have to understand it. But what are the tools? What should you actually do to make it work? There are many things. Let me count a few. One, you need to listen to what's happening. There are many tools out there. There's Review Pro, there's Revinate, there's Trust U, there are some Indian tools, there are many software, some are expensive, some are not. All of them have their pros and cons, but most softwares are the same. Use these to listen to what people are saying about you and your reputation across all channels. Number two, there are many channels. There's Google, there's Facebook. There's TripAdvisor, there's Expedia, there is, like I said, Google One. There are so many. There are plethora of channels and guess what? They are all free. Many years back when I was doing my marketing from Strathclyde, one of my professors told me the two words that appeal to the human mind the most in advertising is free and sex. Yes, free and sex. These two words appeal to the human mind the most. And here are a plethora of free tools available online for you to manage and market your reputation through. But unfortunately, many people, many people in the hospitality and the travel industry don't either know it or don't put in the time and resources or hire the time or resources, or hire an agency who can put in time, resources and know how to actually manage their reputation or actually bring that reputation online, your actual reputation online again, which are some of the best things to do ethically. If you've done something great offline, ask your client to translate it online. There are many ways A company like TripAdvisor gives you TripAdvisor cards. You can actually hand out cards to people so that they don't forget, they go back and write a review for you. A lot of hotels, I know, they call their clients, but remember, when you call your client, it should first be about them. How was their stay? Did they have a good time? If they did, then you deserve a review and ask them for one. Like they say, ask and you shall receive. And in most cases, when it comes to Internet marketing and social media, people are happy to contribute. And guess what? They're not contributing on isolated channels. They are actually contributing on channels where, where hundreds and millions of people have the opportunity to see that review and make a decision whether or not to stay with you. So why not ask them? Give them those TripAdvisor cards. Give them those Expedia cards. Booking.com, every OTA has a review channel. Use all of them. Like I said. Make a list of at least 11 of these and start getting reviews done on those. Give out those TripAdvisor cards. Send out emails when your guests are going out. Make courtesy calls when they're going back home. Ask them how their reputation, how their experience was and request them to translate that online further. You can actually put pictures. Did you know that TripAdvisor, Xperia, all these major channels. Facebook, Facebook has great reviews. Why the hell are we not on Facebook? I mean, Facebook has got some of the best free tools available. Facebook reviews. I don't see a Lot of people taking Facebook reviews seriously. But Facebook reviews really help. And guess what Google and Google reviews, they're all free. And guess what? Google helps you in your SEO as well. I'll give you an example of the Tamarind Hotel and the Ajanta hotel in Delhi and many other hotels around the world where we work with them for their reputation management. Just having it took about a year in some cases. If the hotel is more proactive, you can do it in a couple of months. Ask every happy guest to write a review. There were 75 reviews on this hotel on Google. And guess what happened to their SEO? Go online and check what happened to their SEO. They're everywhere on top searches just because of managing their reputation through all these channels. Like I said, most of it is free. Yes, you need resources. Yes, you need a plan. But reputation management is today an integral part of digital marketing and really, really helps your SEO. And if you think that without reputation management or without actually following all these channels and having your reputation done, you can really do well in SEO, I would beg to differ. I don't think that's really possible. Today you have to have a mix of everything and therefore reputation management is very important. So have that story. Create a story. If going back to the basics, if your brand, if your hotel, if your travel company, whatever business you're in, you could be a personal brand. If you're doing good service, you are bound to get good reviews. But people don't. People are very emotional and people are two sides of the spectrum. In our experience, what we've seen is either people who are very unhappy or people who are extremely delighted. Those two spectrums write reviews, but we want reviews from absolutely everybody, correct? Most of the people, as many people as we can, a large segment of those people. Between those people who are very happy and people who are very upset with your service, there are about 75, 80% of your clients. Those people do not write reviews, right? So it's just a human personality. A lot of people just don't go out there and express themselves. Ask them how you can make their experience better if they were happy, you earn their reviews and these reviews will help a long way in taking your reputation management to the other level. So I hope you like this short story on reputation management for your clients. Write in to us and do subscribe to this channel. Send us your comments. We have a lot to learn from you as well. Send us your comments, your suggestions, your experiences with your guests. We'd be more than happy to answer your questions on this show. On YouTube do subscribe. Thanks for watching.
