The big boys - make 2015 a better year for everyone

Just before Christmas the Scottish Courts rejected an appeal by the owners of a Highland guest house who had unsuccessfully sued TripAdvisor over two negative reviews. We won't be commenting on the whys and wherefores of that judgement here, but we will be highlighting some aspects of the case that have wider implications for us all.

First let's look at two separate issues, the one with TripAdvisor and another with Google.

Here are the two reviews on TripAdvisor which the hoteliers claim are false or fictional...

TripAdvisor should ask the reviewer for proof that they stayed - invoice or copy of credit card statement

      
And here is another review on Google...

This review (and the millions like it across Google attributed to 'A Google User') should be deleted, both for this reason and because it refers to the establishment under previous management

Points we have for TripAdvisor and Google (given that neither company is short of the resources to employ extra staff)...

1. Please become more responsive to businesses. At least listen (with an open mind) to issues they have with individual reviews. Be prepared to question the validity of reviews
2. For TripAdvisor: Do something about making sure that reviewers are real people; we are all heartily sick of reading reviews by 'MickeyMouse123'
3. For TripAdvisor and Google: Get rid of out-of-date reviews. If there has been a change of ownership then lose reviews written about the previous management. If the review is over two years old: archive it (and don't include it in whatever secret algorithm you use to calculate the business's ranking or score). A three-year-old review is of little use to a prospective customer
4. For Google: recent reviews (which are attached to some form of Google account) have credibility, those written anonymously - 'a Google User' - under the old Google Places do not, delete them

Hotels and Google - the urgent need to re-focus

We have been predicting it for quite a while - and now it has happened; Google has made a major change in the way it returns hotels in search. It is live now in the US (google.com) and the UK (google.co.uk) won't be far behind.

First - pre-change:

Now the new:

The impact:

A massive boost for Google reviews (you can just see the TripAdvisor listing at the bottom left-hand of the screenshot).

Action to be taken:

It is now more important than ever for hotels to ensure a steady flow of positive guest reviews to Google. Dialogue will do this - if you have any questions please speak to your business membership advisor.

In detail:

1. Log into your Google My Business account and make sure your listing is 100% complete and verified
2. Update your Google+ profile on a regular basis. New posts from Google+ can enhance your hotel’s listing and will have a positive impact on SEO

Google AdWords and Google My Business Integration

If Google My Business is new to you (it launched in June this year) read this first.
 
Google My Business integrates Google+, AdWords, and maps. Last month Google AdWords location extensions began using information pulled from Google My Business accounts, making it more important than ever to ensure Google My Business profiles are 100% complete, verified, and accurate.
 
This will provide the most accurate location information to AdWords, meaning geo-targeted paid search listings are more likely than ever to be served.

More:

Link Google My Business with your AdWords account. This is a simple process that allows your hotel location information to appear with your ads and informs AdWords location extensions. 

Ensure your location information is accurate in My Business, including the position of the marker on Google Maps. This will ensure AdWords location extensions are working in your favour, and also helps Google give users accurate driving directions and location information.

Seen on the tube - Yelp are advertising in London

As most readers of this blog know, we follow Yelp closely. It is the biggest single review site on the planet, and it is a massive influence on consumer behaviour in relation to medium and small businesses in the US. The question for us and our clients is: will the same happen here in the UK?

Well, we know Yelp have made a big investment here, but there have been few outward signs. Until now...

Eliza D is a real-life Yelper - Eliza Dropkin, living in San Francisco, working for Move Loot, who spent a year studying at SOAS in London and has written over 100 reviews of everything from the London Eye to a Chinese deli in Soho, all from October to December 2012.

What next?

We have no reports of any Yelp salespeople pitching client businesses - yet. But we know what you can expect; the Yelp pitch is simple:

• An advertisement - sponsored listing - at the top of search results
• Sponsored advertising on your competitors' listings

Here is Yelp's own description.

You may expect an email something like this...

...and there's a report of their sales pitch and pricing here. Entry level appears to be around £200 a month. For those who would like to delve even deeper there's a purported voice recording of a (US) Yelp sales pitch here and their Glassdoor listing here.

If experience in the US is anything to go by they will target businesses with reviews as a first priority.  If you are approached we would suggest that you contact us before making any commitments.

TripAdvisor - is it a bellwether for all review sites?

The shine has come off TripAdvisor's share price recently...

The question we are asking ourselves is 'Is the market beginning to realise that independent review sites may have had their day?'

We are not asking this for any other reason than to be able to take an educated guess about the future influence of these sites on behalf of our clients. 

Let's look at Yelp (the biggest general review sites on the planet - market cap $4.2 bn):

And the oldest review site of them all, Angie's list, now quoted, and off a frightening 53% since listing (and an even more from its peak of nearly $20 in February) :

Our view...

...is that independent sites will struggle against the might of Google. Yelp and TripAdvisor (at $10.4 bn) look massive until we remind ourselves that Google is currently capitalised at $369 billion.

And this 'struggling' may lead them to do some interesting things to placate their shareholders. probably in terms of increasing commissions and fees. We will keep an eye out.

For now...

We are advising all our clients to take Google reviews seriously. Businesses cannot afford to ignore the power of Google reviews: to drive business or deflect business. A positive presence there is, in our opinion, bound to become more and more influential as the months pass.

HelpHound for Hotels - the Dialogue™ effect

One of the reasons hotels appreciate Dialogue is the effect it has on the way they are portrayed on TripAdvisor. Here we examine that effect in relation to properties which rank differently in their given locations.

Top hotel in your area / Top 30 hotel in London

Dialogue will get you even more great reviews - to enable you to consolidate your position on TripAdvisor. 

The fact that we can guarantee that more of your guests will write great reviews with Dialogue enables us to confidently make this promise.

It will also enable you to retain the custom of those guests who were not unhappy enough to post a review anywhere on the web, but who may not otherwise have communicated that they might not return. The option to have reviews displayed on your own site to drive direct bookings can also be key.
 
Top 10 Hotel in your area / Top 100 Hotel in London

As above, with the added bonus of the potential to both consolidate your position and move up the rankings. More great feedback and enhanced guest retention. Less OTA commissions. 

Mid ranked hotel / 100 - 400 ranked hotel in London

Providing the product* is right, Dialogue should enable you to steadily improve your relative ranking and score. and this will happen from day one. Here is an extract from a chart of the performance of a client hotel:

While this chart shows the actual results for a single client, they are replicated across our experience for all clients. The chart illustrates Dialogue's proven ability to generate more positive reviews (5 and 4 star) and less negative reviews (3,2 and 1 star).

Some of you will read the caption and question why we include 3 star reviews under 'negatives' when TripAdvisor call them 'Average'; it is for two reasons: first, TripAdvisor penalise 3 star reviews reasonably heavily when they calculate the CSI so you don't want them for that reason alone and second, most three star reviews are actually pretty damning (and therefore damaging) in their content.

This hurts your ranking as well as bookings

Struggling hotel

Hopeless basket cases excepted, if the will is there then Dialogue will help your TripAdvisor ranking reflect the improvements you are making. 

If you have recently refurbished or made other significant improvements then Dialogue will see that investment reflected quickly.

And finally...

There is not a hotel on the planet that will not look better online with Dialogue. This we absolutely guarantee!


*...the product is right:  If rooms or service have enough issues to leave a significant proportion of guests dissatisfied then we suggest you address these before considering Dialogue. We will be happy to advise if you have any doubts.

Reviews and Restaurants - a 'Sorry' story

Last night one of our staffers and his significant other paid a visit to a highly recommended new local Italian (by the Times' A A Gill, no less).

This morning he related their experience:

• Location: Great - walking distance
• Decor: Good - bright, modern English with an Italian twist
• Welcome: Good - from two young and enthusiastic staff

Now for the food:

• Him: delighted - service was 'bright and cheerful', they were 'happy to bring tap water', 'olives, parmesan and three kinds of excellent bread were brought while we waited', main course was 'as good as you could expect outside Italy' and 'recommended wine was good value'
• Her: everything as above until it came to the main course: 'Pasta on the uncooked side of al dente' and 'lukewarm' but 'not a big enough deal to send back or complain'

So far, so ordinary, you are all thinking. So why the subject of an article here? Because of the punchline:

'We won't be going back'

Now, before everyone launches in with 'Give them another chance' and 'Why didn't they complain when they were in the restaurant?' let's explain why we're relating this tale here...

There is a better way!

What we did not say before is that the restaurant was empty except for our couple. In central west London. At 8.30 on a Tuesday night.

This restaurant needs help, urgently. And it cannot risk letting custom like this slip away into the night. It needs to engage with its customers in a way that will work better than simply asking them 'Did you enjoy your meal?'

It needs to formally invite feedback. And not just to hear that the kitchen occasionally sends out undercooked pasta. Much more important than that, it needs to do it so it can reclaim the custom of people like the couple above.

How?

They should ask their customers for their email addresses*. As a matter of course, when presenting the bill. They could (should!) have a card specially printed which explains why they need the email and how they will use it.

They will then send customers an email asking them if they enjoyed their meal. If the answer is in the negative they can then do whatever it takes to entice the customer back to give them another chance. 

You know what they say in marketing: 'There's only one thing better than a happy customer, and that is an unhappy customer you have made happy.' But to achieve that you have to identify the 'unhappy customer' and invite them to become 'happy'.

And that is just what Dialogue is all about. It will enable your customers to tell you what they might not otherwise tell you face-to-face; on top of that it will take their positive comments and post them onto your website and then get them on to Google - where your potential customers are looking**.


*When we first advise businesses to do this we get all kinds of objections, usually along the lines of 'Our customers won't do it because...' Well, we've been able to prove otherwise: customers will do it, and they will do it with a will. 

** To date 50,308 people have seen this restaurant in search - and it has only ONE Google review showing there.  

Yelp - 'hostage' reviews

When one of your business practices has a term coined especially for it by your customers it's probably time to question that practice.

The term in question? 'Hostage reviews'.

The CEO of Yelp, Jeremy Stoppleman, braved Reddit to answer questions. To give you a flavour here are the top comments...

The Yelp 'filter' is unique; that means one of two things: they're geniuses who have found a solution (in this case to 'dodgy' reviews - reviews written by competitors or the business in question, in the main) or the idea is flawed.

We think there is a solution, Mr Stoppleman. One that is fair to the businesses you are trying to sign up and equally fair to the businesses who politely decline your salespeople's offer.

Our suggestion

Yelp is a community. Instead of the 'filter' (oh! - sorry, since 2013 Yelp don't use the term 'filter' any more, it's now calling the 'filter' 'recommendation software' - see here), allow anyone in the community (including all businesses) to flag up a review that they think is somehow flawed or tainted. Then employ moderators who can contact the reviewers and the businesses concerned to make a reasoned judgement. 

Junk the 'filter' (sorry - 'recommendation software' is just such a mouthful) and replace it with human beings. You can afford them, and businesses are just too important to the economy to be randomly discriminated against by software that appears to be influenced by the need for Yelp's thousands of salespeople to have a ready bargaining chip when they phone small businesses.