We work with a number of businesses in the hospitality and catering industry. It’s in their interest to be on TripAdvisor so that they can be found and tried out by new customers.
Sometimes a venue isn’t what the customer was looking for (too small, too large, not child friendly, overrun with children). Sometimes there’s nothing they can do about it EG: they can’t make the venue bigger or smaller. When this happens some customers feel compelled to write a poor review and give a low ‘Visitor Rating’ about the place. Is this fair when it may be that the customer didn’t take the time & trouble before visiting to find out the size of the place or whether their clientèle is family orientated or mostly adult only?
It got me thinking about how people would feel if their job depended on a TripAdvisor rating.
Visitors to restaurants, bars, B&Bs & hotels forget that behind every one of those locations there’s a person trying to run a business. Yes, they need to know if the experience their customers are receiving is not up to scratch but rather than being damming to the business and their owners how about they look to the positive and explain what they would have liked to see, hear, feel.
And as I mentioned, suppose everyone’s job was dependant on the reviews they got openly on TripAdvisor. What a difference that would make to some businesses and it might also make some people think about the impact of the reviews they leave to all those small local restaurants, bars, B&Bs and Hotel just trying their best to make a living!
Esther personally uses TripAdvisor a lot and enjoys doing reviews for the places she’s been to. Not only that but it’s another great use for her #FoodSelfies and Instagram pics..!
“I like to share my experiences to help other people decide whether they want to visit somewhere, to promote places I think are worth going to and to give constructive feedback to the businesses themselves.” – Esther Orridge, Social Progress Ltd
The key word here is “constructive” feedback. For example, you may have a bad experience or be served by a grumpy waitress, however they are just people! You just don’t know what they are going through – it may be an off-day (we all have them). And as for the business owners, they have feelings too!
“It’s not what you say but how you say it” – unknown, well-known saying
Have you ever heard of the 3:1 rule? Years ago someone told me (Esther) about a simple way of addressing something negative without crushing the person: 3 positives to 1 negative.
And Janet’s tip on giving good impactful feedback is to use the A.I.D format. ACTION, IMPACT, DO. EG: let’s say that your experience in a restaurant wasn’t the best, then think of why that was and highlight the ACTION, explain how that made you feel, what was the IMPACT and what would you like to happen in future.
So it could go something like this “We were unhappy with the level of customer service as the waitress didn’t clear our starters before bringing our main course, this meant the table was cluttered and we struggled to find places to put things on the table. If possible could the starter plates be taken away before bringing the main dish in future.”
There is also the saying; “it takes years to build something and can take only seconds to destroy it”.
So next time your fingertips are about to type out a review, whether it’s on TripAdvisor, Facebook, Google or another platform, do consider the real people behind the business before you write your opinions down for the world to see.
Some of Esther’s personal #foodstagrams / #FoodSelfies on TripAdvisor and Instagram:
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