Are you making the most of your TripAdvisor profile? It’s easy to dismiss TripAdvisor as just another listing site, but the reality is that TripAdvisor is the largest and most popular single travel website in the World. It has over 96 million members worldwide that average over 350 million unique visits per month, and over 320 million reviews. Your tour or activity is an important part of that eco-system so you need to take control of TripAdvisor for your business. But there are things to remember in order to make the most of your profile and the travellers that TripAdvisor brings to your listing and ultimately your business.
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Complete your profile
Make sure you update your information so that it is accurate and up to date. The more contact information you provide, the greater the chance that your potential customers can connect with you. Right now, you can still add your website address to your listing which means that people can go directly to your website from your TripAdvisor listing. This only applies to attractions and activities, hotel and other accommodation providers must pay for a business listing in order to have a link to their website.
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Add good photos
You have the opportunity to upload your own “Management” photos to your listing. This is important while you wait for customer to upload their own user generated photos to your listing. Your photos should be high res and good quality but preferably including people.
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Ask customers for reviews
This may seem like a scary notion for some, but for any business looking to increase their reputation, increasing the number of reviews that you get on your TripAdvisor profile is a good thing. By asking customers to write reviews about you, you are saying that you have confidence in the service that you provide and that you are open and willing to receive their feedback. It also tells customers that you respond and are engage with TripAdvisor which reduces an unscrupulous customer from using blackmail tactics to get free or upgraded services. You can ask for reviews in a number of ways; by asking the customer to visit your TripAdvisor profile page at the end of the tour, providing them with a “Please review us on TripAdvisor” business card, and/or by sending the customer a post trip email that includes a link to your TripAdvisor profile page.
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Follow up with all reviews
Use TripAdvisor’s notification tools to keep on top of your new reviews and take the time to respond to all of them, the good and the bad. On average, you can expect about 15% of customers to write reviews about your business. If you serve an average of a hundred customers a day, that means responding to about 15 reviews each day. If you make this part of your ongoing customer service process or have someone else in your business responsible for customer relations, then responding can be part of their job. Remember that it is important to maintain a professional, friendly, and personable tone when responding. The worst thing you can do is “cut and paste” a standard response to your customers. Make the effort to thank them for taking the time to review and acknowledge their efforts. Your customers will appreciate it and your future customers will see what a great company you are to do business with.
Taking control of your business profile on TripAdvisor is not a difficult or time consuming process. It’s about being proactive and using the tools that the site provides you to make the most of your listing. The best way to win on TripAdvisor is show what an amazing business you run and to give your customers the ability to voice their opinions. Keep in mind that TripAdvisor competes with you for your customers, so plan your review strategy carefully and make TripAdvisor work for your business, not the other way around.
Written By | Rezgo
