Emarketer says "Do Not Fear Customer Reviews"

According to EMarketer, businesses need not fear the Web 2.0 reviews because "They're usually good." They say this based on a couple of studies which they listed in their article. This is quite an interesting take on things....

"Consumers generally had good intentions when writing reviews." They are trying to help out others to make decisions apparently. (Though I would suggest that there is a bit of "wanting to be heard" as well... kinda like writing a blog).




As you can see from the Baazarvoice survey, most people say they are either "positive most times" (51%) or "positive everytime" (36%).

I am still skeptical of this though as I have, more often than not, come across "negative most times" or "equally split". Perhaps this is because the hospitality industry is different from other online retailers. We are not just selling products or services, we are selling experiences. And expectations of those experiences vary from person to person.

When we meet those expectations, the customer is "satisfied" and does not blog or write about his satisfactory stay at so and so hotel. Especially if he/she stays at hotels 30 or more nights a year.

When we do not meet those expectations, they are unhappy and will bluster and complain and can now do so on tripadvisor or whereever.

When we exceed those expectations, they walk away happy and may tell their friend, family and colleagues about it. And may even put it into some Web 2.0 site.

However, it seems that people are to be more driven to write about the bad experiences in hotels than the good.

But rather than "fear" them, we hoteliers should embrace them and take them as feedback. We need to put a role within our hotels to deal with this just as any other complaints that we get from a guest standing in front of us.