3 ways to make guest feedback on your website more believable
3 Comments
Reader Sylvie asks:
“…I do wonder though how many people think we post false reviews as well. I’d like to think that none but I’m sure they’re out there. How does a company go about ’showing’ their integrity? Proving they’re honest?”
Again, I’d like to take some pointers from the world of ecommerce. There, the credibility of the reviews has a large impact on sales performance – so the industry has developed creative ways to prove they’re real.
Here are 3 powerful ways to prove review integrity:
Postcards, letters, and hand-written feedback
Give away free postcards to all of your guests. If you’ve provided a great experience they will often write back to you. I saw this all the time when I worked as front desk staff at a hotel.
If people send you a postcard or letter, scan it and upload it to your website. It’s harder to fake that.
I like what Hotel SO is doing in New Zealand with their online guestbook:
Hotel SO online guestbook
They even posted this to a separate domain for easy reference…brilliant!
Signatures
If you can’t get someone to write you a whole handwritten letter, at least get their signature on a paper (with permission, of course). You can then scan and add it to your website along with their comments in digital form.
Online video or audio
This is the hardest, but most compelling. If you ever have the opportunity (and permission) to record video or audio content of your guests’ feedback, do so. Showcase it on your blog. Featured on your website.
Your goal is to get some guest feedback in rich media formats. Reviews are typically more believable when they aren’t just typed text.
More importantly, make sure there is no reason for someone to doubt the authenticity of your reviews. Most people will trust the testimonials that you post to your website…unless there is good reason to believe otherwise.
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Hi Josiah,
Thanks. These are good tips I can pass on to my hotels. Now in our case, we are the middle man and our pre-arrival concierge service is offered to all travelers that have booked any of our 46 hotels through us. We also follow-up with each guest after their departure so we get great feedback on behalf of Mexico Boutique Hotels (aside from what the hotel actually gets on property). Here’s the challenge: We enever actually meet the traveler or see them face to face and they still write us great comments about our service and the hotels. They also send tips and observations. How would you suggest we harness this valuable input in a credible way (given that we have much less opportunity for signatures and such)? Thanks!
Hello Josiah,
nice tips, I’ll try to put into practice
What do you think, to send to your guests once they are gone a nice thank you letter with a link to your facebook profile asking them to share their experience with others?
I think that Facebook profile is more trustable than Tripadvisor. At leat peopla can see a face and a real name.
What do you think about it?
Hi Josiah,
very funny and interesting… but I was thinking that sometimes the hoteliers lie posting fake reviews… so what if they write fake guestbooks or create fake videos with the help of their family and friends? You know, some of them do this all the time… D’you think readers realise it and think all this stuff on the official website is untrue? I’m wondering if there will ever be the way for reviews to be more reliable…