Beware of the Megaphone

Social Media Interaction

The “Internet is a great leveler “in more than one ways. While internet has provided the framework for a small-town store be a global business house, it also empowered every customer irrespective of their economic or social standings. Today everyone has a Megaphone.

Trust doesn’t come easy and it is particularly difficult when transaction is over the internet. We invariably fallback on experiences people like us had earlier. Today consumer does thorough research before they make a buying decision, they also leave online review and ratings to help others. Word-of-mouth has expanded beyond a customer’s immediate friends and family. As online transactions become increasingly common, consumer-generated feedback is hard to ignore these days.

During the pre-social media days, an out of town customer at any hotel, restaurant or shop had only so much importance – it was seller’s market then. Now every customer is important even if the likelihood of their return is low. If somebody’s had a negative experience, they now have a megaphone to go out and tell millions of people.  

Similar to online retail, hospitality sector too has got intertwined with the social media for conducting their businesses. Today they need to promote, communicate and stay relevant via all the available social media platforms.

Although 90% of hotels have their Facebook pages, there is a disconnect somewhere in the system. Whereas for 87% of potential customers an appropriate management response to bad review improves their impression of a hotel, a meagre 32% of hotels respond to guest reviews, negative or positive.

Ratings and feedback foster mutual respect between two parties. Sincere hotel management would typically invest time to monitor the social media (Facebook, Trip Advisor etc.) and respond to any review of their property – either to thank the reviewer or apologize.

This acts like insurance – it doesn’t guarantee new customer, but helps form losing one. Researchers claim that valuing feedback has positive effects on perceived quality.

My request to everyone is leave a verified feedback about your recent experience about a service or product and help others to make an informed decision. Please use your megaphone!