INTRODUCTION
According to Statista, close to 80% of people trust online customer reviews as much as personal recommendations from family or friends. In addition, customers tend to spend more money with and have more trust in businesses that reply to online reviews.
However, manually responding to every customer review may not be realistic for many hospitality businesses. That’s where AI comes in. It can help hoteliers, restaurant owners and GMs manage their business’s online reputation more efficiently, allowing them to focus their time on operations and other key elements of their business.
Following are some ways your hotel or restaurant can use AI for review management.
FIND AN AI-POWERED REPUTATION MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR YOUR BUSINESS
While there is no shortage of AI tools out there, several AI-powered platforms are specifically designed for reputation and review management. For example, TrueReview, SocialPilot and Reviewly are a few platforms that can help your hotel or restaurant manage reviews.
Many of these platforms have similar features, such as a central dashboard from which you can track and respond to reviews. They also use AI to generate responses, identify trends and categorize reviews so you can better understand what your business is doing well and what can be improved. Plus, many of these tools can be integrated with CRM software so you can use the tool to generate more reviews from real customers.
Like any AI tool, not all review management platforms are created equal. For example, some tools integrate with multiple review sites, like Google, Yelp or TripAdvisor, while others are more limited. In addition, each platform has different price points and differentiating features, so it’s important to find the tool that is most appropriate for your business.
Start by identifying the platforms that support the review sites your guests use the most. Then sign up for free trials or demos so you and your team can experiment with multiple tools before deciding on the one that works best for your situation.
USE AI TO GENERATE RESPONSES AND CREATE REPLY TEMPLATES
Whether you opt to use an AI review management tool or other AI software, you can use AI-powered writing assistants to generate first drafts of responses to reviews. If you use review management software, you can typically click on the review to which you’d like to respond, set the tone (e.g., friendly, descriptive, etc.) and click a button to generate a response.
If you are using another AI tool, it is important to include details of the type of response you are looking for in your prompt. For instance, “write a response to the following Google review using a friendly tone of voice: [copy/paste the review].”
Never post an AI-generated response publicly without reviewing it first. Instead, think of it as a starting point. Double-check the content for accuracy and make sure it sounds like it was written by a human. Regenerate the reply as needed using more specific prompts, or tweak the language manually to include details or adjust the tone.
Responses to negative reviews, in particular, require extra care. While more generic AI responses may work for positive reviews, you should address specific concerns or complaints in unfavorable reviews to help reestablish trust and preserve your hotel’s or restaurant’s reputation. You also should provide the guests with an opportunity to seek remediation, such as including direct contact information for your GM or guest services manager.
Many review management tools allow you to save responses as templates, which can be helpful for responding to common topics. You can also create your own internal log if your tool doesn’t have this feature. Use saved templates to guide your responses, but avoid copying/pasting identical replies over and over again.
USE AI TO CATEGORIZE REVIEWS AND SUMMARIZE INSIGHTS
Several AI-powered review management platforms track trends across various review sites, enabling you to identify strengths and areas for improvement. For instance, you can use AI to analyze the overall sentiment and identify key themes, such as positive reviews related to cleanliness or quality, and negative reviews related to guest services, wait times or price.
Share these insights with your team and consider offering additional training or adjusting procedures to improve problem areas.
In addition, you can use AI to track review growth and improvement over time. Compare upward or downward rating trends and themes with your in-house efforts to see what’s working and what’s not.
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