Your social fan base can be one of your hotel’s best assets and word-of-mouth exposure can be priceless. However massive social exposure is not always a good thing…
So what do you do when a guest tweets a photo of bedbugs, or someone posts a scathing review on TripAdvisor? In this episode we discuss the three tactics for mitigating the damage when the social stuff hits the fan (S-SHTF) and even turning it into a win.
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In The News
Expedia Purchases Photo Sharing Site: http://www.dgitaltrends.com/photography/expedia-acquisition-acquires-trover-travel-photography/ This combined with Orbits and CheapTickets expanding their reviews to rental cars is a sign that the OTAs are looking to chip away at the TA marketshare
Google releases new ways to edit Google Maps listings.
https://maps.googleblog.com/2016/07/more-ways-to-share-your-street-smarts.html
How many hotels have jumped on the Pokemon GO Bandwagon
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Show Notes:
Examples of S-SHTF
- One client found one of the suggested searches on google for their hotel was “HOTEL NAME bedbugs”
- Guest at a hotel posts a YouTube video of a stained mattress and suggests a murder took place in their room
- You did something really wrong, such as fine your guests for negative reviews (http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/04/new-york-hotel-fines-guests-500-for-bad-reviews-on-yelp/)
- The Weather Channel anything… storms and natural disasters
Strategy 1: Lemons into Lemonade
- This should be your default strategy for negative social press
- Find guess with small issues and turn into big wins (Giraffe example)
- You are building your positive social brand here
- Monitor beyond your # or @. Watch for brand and destination keywords
Strategy 2: Embrace and Turn
- Creating content to own the search results
- Become the uber-expert
- Be aggressive and overwhelm the negative
Strategy 3: Own Up And Apologize
- Own it fast if you’re going to own it at all. You don’t want to be perceived as doing this as a last resort.
- Be sincere and direct in your apology
- Be “over the top” in terms of making it right.
Strategy 4: Fight!
- This is the riskiest of all strategies because you can easily become the big corporation attacking the little guy.
- Clear cut case of right v/s wrong
- Clear evidence to the point
- Prove your point but be nice and always take the high ground
- Humor helps to break the tension
Strategy 5: Passively Monitor
- WARNING: Be careful you are not missing an opportunity to turn an upset customer into a lifelong guest.
- WARNING: Be sure your head is not in the sand
- A good strategy if the issue is just a single comment/post and you believe any involvement will only add gas to a dying fire
- Note the potential problem and address internally
- Prepare in case your strategy needs to change
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Prepare In Advance for a S-SHTF
The time to prepare is before the crisis hits. Take a page from Marriott’s playbook and create a detailed crisis plan (2001 plan released on Wikileaks) http://loyaltylobby.com/2013/10/15/marriott-crisis-management-guide/
- Have a Plan –
- Involve The Team –
- Build Social Capital Now –
- Monitor and prepare to react –
https://www.revinate.com/blog/2013/05/best-practices-in-hotel-crisis-management/
Success Stories:
- The Bed Bug Hotel – Addressed and owned the story
- Addressed personal questions
- Created content educating guests about their bed bug procedure (really cool)
- The Murder Scene Hotel – Won with content
- (did they address the issue directly?)
- Created a series of videos to bury the negative
- Joshie the Giraffe and Ritz Carlton – Lemons into lemonade
(lost once – found, lost again at another hotel – replaced by Ritz) - Death at the Grand Floridian – Apologize and make right
- Over the top response at Disney including closing all beaches
- Fences
- Disney CEO Bob Iger personally calling family
- Provided information, was transparent, and helped
Fail Stories:
- Union Street Guest House – Decided to lie about fining guests by saying it was a joke
- Amy’s Baking Company – Not hotel but FAIL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/amys-baking-company-kitchen-nightmares_n_3274345.html
- Claridges Breastfeeding Issue – https://storify.com/danslee/claridges-hotel-pr-nightmare
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The 5 “A’s” Of A PR Crisis (credit to Forbes)
- Assess. Calmly, despite the stress, identify the issue and determine the best course of action.
- Admit. If you were at fault (or worse, lying) admit the transgression quickly and directly
- Address. Specifically address what you are admitting and apologizing for. Don’t mince words, be direct and succinct.
- Atone. Make right what you made wrong. Detail out your plan to ensure (1) you fix the issue and (2) layout out plan for it to not happen again.
- Adapt. Move on a better person or company. It’s time to begin repairing and rebuilding you social capital
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FINAL THOUGHT:
Understand even the best brands will hit social stumbling blocks, how you handle the issue will define your brand moving forward.
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