There are three elements that will make your accommodation business better and help it to grow. Your services and your cash flow are two of those elements, and the third is feedback. Businesses that only focus on the first two elements won’t necessarily suffer as a result. They will, in all likelihood, do okay and experience moderate growth; however, those that put feedback front and centre will outperform the others by far. I recently had a great chat about feedback on my podcast, That Bad Review, with James Henderson – economist, podcaster, hospitality professional and accidental festival founder.
James and I talked about many topics, but we kept coming back to the importance of feedback, and why it’s so valuable. One of the main problems is that business owners don’t understand how powerful feedback can be, and as such don’t harness its potential. That’s why, in this article, I’m going to share three of the top reasons why feedback is so important for your business.
It’s a Source of Information for New Guests
We live in a cynical world when it comes to advertising and experts. This is where social media has changed the way that guests interact with your business. Reading reviews is the number one way prospective guests and clients will determine whether or not to use your business. However, the nature of reviews means that, by and large, they’re often really great or really bad. But even if reviews are bad, they’re always a great source of advertising for your business. Respond to those bad reviews and you’ll show your prospective clients that you care about feedback and are engaged with your audience.
It Helps to Improve Services
As mentioned above, you can harness the power of negative feedback. It’s not only a great opportunity to show your guests that you care, you can also use it as a way to improve your services. By taking onboard feedback and making changes to your business accordingly, you can perfect your business in line with what your guests are telling you that they want. Guest feedback is a fantastic insight into what works well and what doesn’t.
It Builds Loyalty
When you build a core group of loyal guests that return to your business each year, it will help to remove some of the uncertainty on the annual income you take. You can use feedback as a great tool to build loyalists for your business. When you reach out to guests and ask them for their input, it shows them that you value their opinions. It also makes them feel like they have an investment in your business, especially when you make changes based on their feedback.
Guest feedback is everywhere and when you learn how to collect it and use it to shape your business, the better placed you’ll be to create something they will want to return to. Your guests’ collective voice is priceless, so never stop listening.
Listen to our entire conversation here.