The 7 Golden Rules To Turn Negative Reviews Into New Customers S4E5

Welcome to season four of the Boost hospitality podcast. I'm back again to show all hospitality owners how you can turn lookers into bookers, get more heads on beds and increase your direct booking. This season I've got something very special lined up. The Boosterly website was recently voted one of the top 10 UK hotel blogs out there. And after asking you guys, I realized that so many of you haven't actually read the blogs. You said that you prefer audio as a way of learning about new tactics.

And tips to get in more direct bookings.

So what I'm doing this season is I'm going to be providing the audio version of all of my blogs that.

Are on the Boostly website.

So it doesn't matter whether you're on the computer in the car getting ready for breakfast or changing those beds. I can show you how you can increase your diary books.

Let's get on with the show. So today I'm going to talk about the seven golden rules to turn negative reviews into new customers. So online reviews are powerful. They can reach would be customers worldwide quickly and easily spreading the word about your business. But what if you get a negative one? Not responding is probably the most dangerous option you have right now. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk you through the seven steps of how to deal with a negative review. And who knows, you may be able to turn a negative review into getting new customers. Number one, keep calm. Dealing with a bad review is dealing with someone else's emotions. The other party is upset or angry and is lashing out for what reasons we may not know. But the most important thing is to not react straight away. Take an hour or two to circulate your thoughts and then reply. A trick that I used is that when something is really bad and a really bad review is left, I would write it down on a word doc and then what I would do is I would just basically an unfiltered response, write everything that I felt about what the review was saying, especially when I felt that it wasn't true. And then I would close my laptop and I would come back to it in 24 hours. I felt that by doing this I've got it off my chest, I've said what I wanted to say. When I came back to it 24 hours with a calmer head, I was able to draft up and put together a proper response. Number two, turn the negativity around. Negative feedback, if handled positively, can be helpful to draw people's attention towards your business. Positive qualities so highlight your strengths while still being able to keep control. For example, we're very sorry you had a bad experience. We've been in business now for over 10 years and we believe in providing best quality service, etc, etc, etc. So avoid being defensive but also raise your qualities as well. Like I said, a potential customer or guest will be more keen to know your manager's response than actually reading the one star review. Remember, you're in the spotlight. Whatever you say goes on record, everyone will see it. People might not comment, but they will keep themselves updated about your current basically your current situation. That's why it's so key to keep responding to reviews on TripAdvisor, Google and Facebook. Not just the positive ones, but the negative ones as well. Number four is learn the best way to take stock of this is that if you've got 10 reviews and nine of them are talking about a specific problem, then you need to fix it. There's no other way of saying that is that if, I mean for us and for our Property, out of 10 reviews, eight people were talking about the water pressure. So instead of just brushing it off and going, you know, we don't need to fix that. We knew that there was a problem because these guests are staying and living in your property. You know, they are able to stay and live in a room or an apartment or a cottage where you don't get to. So if it's just one out of 10 people that maybe complain about an uncomfortable pillow, you can brush it off because that's their preference. But if more and more people are talking about the same thing, you need to learn and deal with it. Number five is use the personal touch. Address the customer by their name and be specific about the problem they faced. This shows that you're not taking the customer for granted and reassures them by simply just mentioning the name. Obviously, in TripAdvisor you don't always get the ability to see what their first name is, but in booking.com or in Facebook you definitely get that ability to. Number six is express yourself appropriately. Be honest and human with your response. Tell your customer how upset you are that you are dissatisfied with the services and let them know how you're going to rectify it. Number seven is all about rectifying. At the end of the day you have to own up and you've got to take charge of the situation. Even if you feel that it isn't your fault. You. You need to take ownership and where it's appropriate, either compensate or try and find a solution to a problem in the past what I've done. If I've not been comfortable compensating the full stay, I've offered Amazon gift vouchers or gift vouchers for the future stay. I've always tried to when I definitely feel like this is our fault, then I've rectified it as soon as possible. And the most important thing that I've done when it's coming to solve a solution when it needs my intervention, I've got on the phone and I've spoken to them. I've got it off the computer, I've got it off where words can get misinterpreted and I've got on the phone and I've just had a chat and that's the most important thing. And that is where I'm going to leave you today. So you just listen to the Seven Golden Rules to turn a negative review into new customers. If you want to find the full blog, you can go onto the Boostly website now by going to boostly.co.uk and then in the search bar, type in seven golden rules.

Okay, well done for getting through another episode of the Boost Hospitality podcast. My name has been Mark Simmerson and.

You can reach out and contact me.

On Twitter, Facebook or email. If you have enjoyed this episode and all of the episodes of the Boost Hospitality podcast, please go to itunes or wherever you are listening to this and leave one of those lovely five star reviews.

Virtual hugs for everyone that does.

Thank you very much and I'll see you soon.