Contemporary Issues in Tourism and Management of Online Reviews

Question: Discuss about the Management of Online Reviews Answer: According to Queensland Government (2016), the emergence of online marketing and business has given freedom to the customers to share their reviews online. It is beneficial for the business also because it provides them with honest feedbacks and open communication with the customers. But there is a need to manage these reviews effectively in order to provide proper response to the customers. The companies need to adopt a procedure to manage these online reviews. As per DeNisco (2017), the business leaders should manage the reviews effectively as they broadcast the perception of customer and also impact their future purchases. So, the reviews deserve proper response and acknowledgement. For encouraging reviews from the customers the company need to create its own online presence which can be made through social media or digital media. They need to add new content at frequent intervals to maintain the interest of the customers. When the business plans to respond to the reviews, they should be proactive and not reactive. Even if a customer posts negative review, the business has to identify the proper solution and respond in a professional manner and positively (Mills, 2014). Figure 1: Managing Online Reviews The company must take help of different technologies to manage their online reviews well. There are review tracker services available which can be purchased so that the company can increase their revenue by managing their reviews. As per Harvard business school, when the rating is increased by 1 star, it brings increase in 9% of revenue. 4 out of 5 customers reverse their purchase decision after going through negative reviews. The companies must use ReviewManagement systems to track the reputation of the brand on online platform. It is important because 91% of the customers read online reviews and then make their decisions. A reviewmanagement system can use interactive graphs and data to analyse the reviews of the customers and it finally helps business to identify the strengths and areas of improvement in the business. It helps in measuring customer satisfaction and improves the brand reputation and sales of the business (Campbell, 2016). There are certain Human Resource issues which are to be handled while managing online reviews by a business. The business needs to hire a staff which should be especially dedicated to manage the reviews of the customers for the business online. The human resources needed to be trained effectively for the purpose so that the chance of errors reduces. There can be internal as well an external hiring for the same. Responsibilities should be given to the staff for providing response to the reviews of customers in the best appropriate manner. Like in the tourism business, the companies or travel agencies can hire staffs which are hired for keeping up contact with the customers and knowing their reviews about their experiences with the companies. It will help the company in bringing improvement in their tour services and other facilities (Mills, 2014). The company need to have data requirements for managing the reviews. The business should persuade the customers for reviewing the services and offerings of the business online. It can be done by providing extra benefits to the customers like points or rewards program for writing each review. There are some softwares which are available to analyse the data online, these softwares should be used by the business (Charlton, 2015). If the content of review is correctlymanagement then it increases its visibility on the search engines. The organisation has to frame some policies to manage online reviews. There should be some limits and guidelines as to how the response can be given to the customers. As per Conner (2013), every organisation should have a standard time policy which shows that within what time the company should answer the questions of the customers. A standard window should be 4-24 hours and this should be maintained to keep the interest of the customer. The policies should contain the rules which the customer executives should follow to deal with the negative and positive reviews. The employees are always taught to handle the reviews and response in a way which shows win for a customer. The employees handling the reviews should be made aware about the values and ideologies of the organisation and which they have to follow (Rowett, 2014). It can be concluded that the companies are nowadays getting online reviews for their services through many websites and there are many tools which helps companies in managing these reviews. Some of the tools like Google alerts and Social mention help in keeping a track on the customer feedbacks. References Campbell, C 2016, Online Reviews Are the New Social Proof, Entrepreneur. Charlton, G 2015, Ecommerce consumer reviews: why you need them and how to use them, Econsultancy Conner, C 2013, Why Every Organization Needs A Standard Response Time Policy, Forbes DeNisco, A 2017, 7 best practices for managing online reviews of your business, Tech Republic. Mills, I 2014, 6 Steps to Successfully Managing Your Online Reputation, Huffpost. Queensland Government, 2016, A step-by-step guide to managing negative online reviews. Rowett, P 2014, How to manage your tourism business reputation on review websites, Tourismeschool