Online Reviews –
the good, the bad and the opportunity!
Everyone loves positive reviews but the ugly ones, those can be gold!
Reviews – love them or hate them – are a reality that isn’t going away any time soon. Do you monitor what others are saying about your park? Whether you do or not, RVers are reading them. Reading reviews and comments is inevitable when researching which parks to stay in.
RV Park Reviews, Campendium, Trip Advisor, Google and Facebook are among the sites I use when researching a park or campground. While location will always rank among my top considerations, reading a bad review or two quickly becomes a factor in deciding whether we will stay at a park or look for another one in the area. But reading a response from the park, especially if it shows them trying to correct an issue, makes a huge difference in my decision.
Why responding to reviews should be considered an important part of your customer service
You cannot control what others say about their experience at your park. But you can mitigate the damage of a bad review. By responding to all reviewers, especially the complainers, your customer service continues even after their stay has ended. Complaints are a fact of life. Responding to reviews shows you care about your customer’s experience. And that leaves a positive impression on others.
“Online reviews have become a spectator sport” says Jay Baer in his book Hug Your Haters. Jay points out that communicating with your customers by responding to online reviews is good for business in 4 ways:
- Turning bad news good by possibly recovering and retaining customers that otherwise would not return
- Create customer advocacy
- Gathering insights & intelligence
- You differentiate yourself from your competition.
Gartner, the world’s leading research and advisory company, predicts that 90% of companies will provide customer care through social media by 2020.
This is important to RV parks for 2 reasons:
- Millennials and baby boomers are embracing the RV lifestyle at a record pace. Millennials have grown up with the Internet. Using social media is their preference for communicating.
- The majority of baby boomers now own smartphones. Reading reviews is easier than ever and everyone, no matter their age, appreciates getting answers to their questions quickly and easily. Social media is the perfect vehicle for this.
In fact, research has found that the most desired form of customer service is self-service. Having a mobile-friendly website with a deep question and answer section is one of the most important things you can do to improve customer service.
So how can you get started with the next wave of customer care for your RV park? I recommend reading Jay Baer’s book Hug Your Haters. Jay has done the research and interviewed top company’s that have learned how to benefit from adding social media to their customer support. From his research Jay has developed a system for dealing with online reviews. I also encourage you to contact me at RV Park Marketing using your favorite social media platform, email or the old fashion way – call me! Chris Agro (954) 587-9093. It doesn’t have to cost a lot and the return on your investment will be worth it.
Thank you for reading this article and hope you will share it with others.
Note: The links to Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers by Jay Baer will take you to Amazon via my affiliate link. Using my link will not cost you any thing but will make me a couple of bucks. I thank you for considering doing that 🙂
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