How NOT to respond to reviews on TripAdvisor

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In order to fully embrace reputation marketing, it's necessary to both analyze and respond to client reviews. Not only are they a potential treasure trove of insight, but they also represent the most valuable advertisement of your brand. Therefore, it's safe to say that your job is not over when a user leaves a review. Especially on websites like TripAdvisor.

However, the importance of responding to reviews is not the theme of this article. You probably didn't click on a link about how not to do it if you didn't believe that doing it the right way is important. This article exists to explain what are the common mistakes in review marketing on TripAdvisor and how to avoid them.

It's also worth noting that you shouldn't get discouraged for engaging with websites like TripAdvisor. It's true that Covid19 has had a negative impact on its business. However, all experts agree that it's temporary. Now is not the time to ignore customers who leave reviews on it. On the contrary, you should focus as much as possible on keeping them in the long run while attracting others. Just be sure to avoid these mistakes in order to respond to TripAdvisor reviews properly:

 

    1. Making it all about you

 

Remember to focus on the customer and their opinion. Review marketing is all about being mindful of customers and their experience. It's not a place to go overboard with promotion, the point is to make customers do it for you. Make sure they know their feelings are cared for. Especially negative ones. Show that you want to solve their problems and they will likely decide to come back. Even more importantly, everyone else will see that you care for your customers and want to solve their complaints if they arise.

 

    1. Arguing with the reviewer

 

It's easy to feel personally offended when faced with a bad review if you are doing the review marketing on the behalf of your own company. Especially if the review in question is rude and disrespectful. However, you must not let that get in your head. Just like in real-life situations, it's on you to keep your cool when dealing with an unpleasant client and make sure not to harm the brand's image. If the person is being in the wrong, other potential clients will respect your poise, and if you are wrong, you will avoid making a fool of yourself.

 

    1. Being patronizing

 

There's probably no better way to make your customers feel unimportant than being patronizing towards them. Remember, the point is to validate their feelings, take their opinions into consideration, and convince them to come back again. If they feel patronized, they'll probably feel humiliated and be less likely to do that.

 

    1. Ignoring their complaints

 

If you are doing review marketing for a company that's on TripAdvisor, you're likely doing review marketing for a business in the hospitality industry. It's whole business model therefore revolves around pleasing customers. In order to respond to TripAdvisor reviews the right way, you must take their complaints seriously.

 

    1. Keeping them waiting

 

No one will sit around for days and wait for your response. If a customer left a review, they probably decided to do it because they felt like it at that moment. The sooner you respond the better impression you will make and the more they will care. Don't expect a 2 years late response on a review to make a positive difference in someone's perception of the brand you're representing.

 

If there is a way to sum this all up, it's - be caring about your customers, their complaints, and emotions. Every mistake in this list comes from not following that principle. If you keep it in mind, you'll be sure to respond to TripAdvisor reviews correctly.

 

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