Managing Social Media And Online Reputation On A Brand Level For A Group of

Case Study

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices Index

About Apex Hotels 3 How Apex Hotels uses Twitter 4

Different accounts for different purposes 5 Monitoring and responding on Twitter 6

Types of content that work best on Twitter 7 The Apex strategy for Facebook 8

Sourcing Content for Publishing 9

More thoughts on Facebook 10 How Apex Hotels manages online reputation 11

Encouraging guests to share content online 12 Involving everyone in the process 13

Why Apex Hotels chose ReviewPro 14 About ReviewPro 15

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices About Apex Hotels

Apex Hotels is an innovative group of seven city hotels based in the UK.

“Knowing our brand position as a group of contemporary, luxurious city-center hotels helped us with our social media strategy and content”, said Sam Weston, who along with Amy Spark, share some of their thoughts on how to manage social media at the brand level for a group of hotels.

Managing Guest Satisfaction3 Surveys: Best Practices How Apex Hotels uses Twitter

Apex Hotels began using Twitter in March 2009. While this The Apex brand doesn’t have a rigid tone of voice for was a little later in the game than some of their larger Tweeting, despite their account being administered by competitors, they wanted ensure they had the time and three separate individuals. resources available to manage it effectively. “An unmonitored and stagnant Twitter account can do more They do, however, have a clear understanding of what is harm than good for a brand”. acceptable to broadcast, and try to avoid controversial subjects or appearing too opinionated. Messages are Since joining the network, Apex has increasingly used intentionally light, friendly and informative to abide by what Twitter as a method of engaging with guests and like- they see as one of the most overlooked principles of social minded individuals. They also see a big opportunity in media: conversation. engaging with other businesses. “We like to appear approachable to questions and “Twitter offers us an invaluable feedback channel for both enquiries about our hotels, the cities in which we operate positive and negative comments, although I’m pleased to and the products we offer.” say we receive mostly positive feedback! People seem much more inclined to offer feedback in 140 characters than via longer channels. Often, it provides valuable insight into what we’re doing well within Apex, or where we might be able to improve.”

Managing Guest Satisfaction4 Surveys: Best Practices Different accounts for different purposes

Apex has one main Twitter account that covers all their network (through Affiliate Window and Buy.at). They find hotels: @apexhotels. this to be a very helpful way to communicate latest promotions and offers that these affiliates can promote and “We chose to run one main profile rather than an individual earn additional sales commissions. It also offers a two way account for each to give us the best possible chance channel for them to hear feedback on what offers they’d to reach as many as we can through Twitter. We also like to see from the hotels in the future. wanted to ensure consistency in our brand message: we didn’t want a whole host of people from different areas of Additionally, Apex is experimenting with a Twitter profile for our business having access to Twitter and potentially their sales team Ð @apexsales. The purpose is to provide causing a PR disaster here and there!” their sales team with an opportunity to engage directly with corporate clients and key industry members within the Apex built a separate Twitter account for their HR team Ð sales and marketing world. This account enables them to tweet slightly more corporate messages, since the target @apexcareers Ð which is used to offer advice and guidance to potential applicants. This account also offers audience is familiar with hospitality terminology, meetings recruitment and CV tips. “Engaging with the wider and events promotions, and so on. recruiting world ensures that Apex maintains an excellent standard of service by employing the right people at the “We chose not to tweet this to our main profile too much as very top of their game.” we didn’t want to have an overly corporate-sounding profile, and prefer a more informal, friendly approach.” Amy Spark also maintains a profile Ð @apexaffiliates Ð to offer guidance to participants of the Apex Hotels affiliate

Managing Guest Satisfaction5 Surveys: Best Practices Monitoring and responding on Twitter

Apex Hotels monitors social media channels using various monitor chatter about the cities in which they operate: tools such as ReviewPro to ensure their team is aware of , and . This might be as simple what is being said about their brand: acknowledging both as any mention of ‘do you know + Edinburgh’ to more the positives and negatives, and responding where required. targeted hotel and restaurant queries.

“It’s easy to ignore the negatives, but in our experience a “An example of what we’ll find could be as simple as ‘whats problem ignored often becomes more difficult to deal with in the weather like in Edinburgh?’ Ð or it could be detailed the long run and has an almost snowball effect as it gathers questions about attraction prices and opening times.” momentum through re-tweets and social media chatter.” Regardless of whether the person asking the question is At the same time, the team celebrates positive feedback staying at Apex, they will respond if they have the time. The from guests through re-tweets and comments. “It’s a great reason is that even if they’re staying with the competition qualifier for people considering staying at their hotels if this time, they’ll hopefully follow @ApexHotels and perhaps independent comments on Twitter (and of course through remember the Apex brand for next time. various online reviews) reflect our brand positively.”

Apex Hotels monitors mentions of their hotel names and specific @mentions too. They created saved searches to

Managing Guest Satisfaction6 Surveys: Best Practices Types of content that work best on Twitter

Apex finds that gathering content for “Of course, we’re a business too, so we The time of day they try to publish Twitter is often an organic affair Ð do tweet our offers, although we try to tweets varies. coming from social media discussions keep to a rough ratio of 1:10 (1 offer about the cities they operate within, per 10 tweets). From using Twitter “We do try and tweet during the hotels and hospitality in general. They personally, it seems that many evening on occasion, as well as during also find ideas from within the company companies tweet almost all offers and I the standard 9-5. A good example was Ð from any department. find, again personally, that I stop the recent bad weather in November “Occasionally events will happen at the reading their tweets in the stream, or and December of last year. With the hotel that we’re unaware of, so we do scan past them. I think originality is weather changing every 10 minutes ask staff to contribute when they see important and the catch of a good and peoples’ travel plans being something that is social media worthy”. tweet, or a different Tweet is often the constantly interrupted, we tweeted a In the near future, Apex is looking at difference between being special offer in the evening so that if establishing ‘champions’ at each acknowledged or ignored”. they were stuck in London, Edinburgh property who will report on local activity or Dundee and didn’t have somewhere and take quick snapshots to post The Apex team tries to tweet every day, to stay, we were on hand to help. online. This will further establish the and they monitor their accounts Flexibility is probably one of the most connection between the on and offline. frequently to ensure messages aren’t useful things with social media. Some left unanswered. Responsibility for brands seem to be constrained by a Competitions on Twitter Ð asking creating responses is split up among rigid and formulaic approach and followers to re-tweet messages or the team by day so that one person personally I think that can seriously contribute to discussions Ð has been isn’t left to manage the account impact on the value a company, and the very effective in engaging with themselves. “ people following that company will get followers. “Maybe it’s primarily because out of the relationship, out of the there’s an opportunity to win a break at This provides a little variety and new conversation itself”. one of our hotels, but often it spins into ideas for tweeting. It ensures the discussion between other Twitter content is always fresh, on brand and users.” fun.”

Managing Guest Satisfaction7 Surveys: Best Practices The Apex strategy for Facebook

Apex Hotels began building their Trackable links are created for both After a few years of experimenting with Facebook presence in early 2009. Facebook and Twitter to see which both social networks, Amy finds they Facebook has, of course, evolved their content is most popular on each. can get away with posting more business profiles significantly since content per day on Twitter than on then Ð making them work more like “Particularly on Facebook, we find very Facebook. “The nature of Twitter is personal profiles. “We find it has corporate sales messages cause more fast-paced and people are used become a very good way for us to people to ‘unlike’ the page or to receiving lots of short messages. engage with existing guests, along with unsubscribe from updates. Currently However, with Facebook, we try not to potential new ones”. Apex Hotels now 6% of our fans are unsubscribed from post more than once a day as we find has over 3500 ‘likes’ on their main receiving our updates in their news people start to unsubscribe, probably brand profile, which is growing quickly. feeds and we obviously want to keep because they feel bombarded”. As with Twitter, they created additional this percentage as low as possible”. profiles that are managed by their spa And as with Twitter, Facebook is also and HR departments. These more used to answer customer queries and specific pages have also built a solid As with Twitter, Apex prefers to stick to a friendly tone, and focus on collect feedback, which is passed on to following. the hotel managers. They notice the competitions, photos and video, and events in the cities. majority of the feedback they receive Apex has seven hotels located across through Facebook is positive, but if three cities in the UK: London, they do receive anything negative it’s Edinburgh and Dundee. They created a “It’s more about keeping people important this is addressed and main Apex Hotels page for the group engaged with the brand so that they resolved as soon as possible. as a whole, which is where they remember us when they need to book publish content about the hotel group, a hotel, rather than trying to sell to the individual hotels and restaurants, Wethem will developright away.” a solution to any concern raised.” and the cities where the hotels are located.

Managing Guest Satisfaction8 Surveys: Best Practices Sourcing Content for Publishing

All staff members at Apex are Content that draws the best The mascot for Apex Hotels Ð the Apex encouraged to keep the social media response Duck Ð has also worked very well for team up to date with news from the them. “Guests receive a branded hotels and surrounding area. All team rubber duck in their rooms when they members, especially those working on “Competitions and prize draws are by stay at the hotels. People collect them the front lines with guests, can be a far our most popular posts. Offering a and take photos of them all over the huge resource. Additionally, the social hotel break as a prize give us the world. We have a competition where media team looks out for current events opportunity to showcase our properties, the best photo of the year wins a hotel and occasions in their three locations. which generates interest in them break.” without sending out a sales message Alerts are set up to pick up items of Each hotel offers a different colored interest, such as shows, festivals, that will put people off. ” duck that can be collected. Fans can exhibitions, and so on. also name the new duck whenever a Photos and video also work very well, new hotel opens. Timing also plays a Local businesses that the hotels work especially on Facebook. The Apex big role in the responses they receive. with also provide a source of content. team publishes new photography, hotel videos, and TV advertisements, which “We find that posting on Friday are always popular. Facebook fans and afternoon and on the weekends gives “Building relationships with other members of the hotels’ online companies through social media gives us double the impressions of posting at community are also encouraged to post other times of the week, so we save us access to more discounts, photos. competitions and useful information for their best posts for the end of the our fans.” week.”

Managing Guest Satisfaction9 Surveys: Best Practices More thoughts on Facebook

“It is difficult to track the exact monetary value as people may hear about us through Facebook, but then book using another method. We can trace bookings that have come directly from facebook.com through Google Analytics and in the last year we have had 28 transactions, but we believe the untracked total to be much higher than this.”

For Apex, the main purposes of their Facebook presence are the following:

¥ To maintain a relationship with previous guests ¥ To attract new guests through recommendations from friends ¥ To keep people engaged and interested in what Apex is doing as a company ¥ To see what other hotels and companies are up to

“Facebook is changing and developing all the time and we look forward to new marketing opportunities as they arise.”

Managing Guest Satisfaction10 Surveys: Best Practices How Apex Hotels manages online reputation

How online reviews affect travelers today How Apex Hotels became one of guests’ favorite hotels Apex Hotels finds that their guests use social media throughout the buying process. This begins when they ask Apex Hotels puts a lot of emphasis on selecting central their friends for travel recommendations on Twitter, look at locations for their hotels and creating a great product, so photos of hotels, and use other social media sites to plan a certain amount of the positive reviews they receive their trip. During their stay at an Apex hotel, the guest may happen organically. interact with Amy and Sam on Twitter @ApexHotels. And then after leaving the hotel, many of these guests like to A strong emphasis is made on service delivery and the share feedback about their stay. Social media is important quality of the product. Since London is a very competitive at each stage of the travel process. market, this requires continual improvement to stay ahead. “The quickly emerging importance of online review sites is clear,” said Sam Weston. “People go to a hotel website, The General Manager at each property keeps a careful and read through the text, but they often try to go beyond marketing speak and look for qualified reviews from real eye on all feedback received, so if there are any areas guests.” that need improvement, quick action is taken. While perfection may be constantly moving target, the Apex team works constantly to get as close as possible. “Potential guests are more likely to trust other travellers opinions, rather than relying on what hotels say on their own websites”, added Amy. For these reasons, the team sees user generated content is very important as part of their hotel marketing strategy.

Managing Guest Satisfaction11 Surveys: Best Practices Encouraging guests to share content online

The staff at Apex asks for feedback from all guests Ð both reviews and social media is transparency and trust. If you through online reviews and their own internal can instill that trust, then you are going to get repeat questionnaires. Business cards were created to hand out business.” and encourage guests to review the hotels. Post-stay emails provide another opportunity to ask for these Apex Hotels has also worked to create a very reviews. But it’s important to note that Apex does not approachable guest services team. During the check in incentivize online reviews in any way. Even aside from the process, guests are encouraged to contact these people legal and ethical implications, Sam and Amy recognize that for any help needed during their stay. Providing clear hotels that try to game the system are missing the whole channels for communication Ð both online and off - point of online reviews. reduces the number of situations that may lead to a negative review. Many times guests that raise an issue Naturally encouraging a positive online reputation has side through Twitter, for example, are pleased with how quickly benefits. “Many of our guests find us through review they receive responses. websites, and this means they’re also more likely to back to these sites and write a review after their stay”, said Amy. They see a snowball effect happening here: the more they optimize their online reputation and encourage people to check review sites as part of their buying process, the more online reviews they get.

“Encouraging reviews ultimately has to be an organic Real-time media like this allows for real-time service Ð process that is the result of other factors of the experience putting power back into the hands of hoteliers, and you create. If people have a good stay, they’ll leave you a allowing them to take more control of their online good review”, said Sam. “The principle behind online reputation.

Managing Guest Satisfaction12 Surveys: Best Practices Involving everyone in the process

For Apex, improving quality and guest satisfaction is a team The general managers keep their teams up to date on how sport. For hotel general managers, it was essential to have they’re performing according to the Global Review Indextm Ð a centralized portal for reviews and reputation. While they ReviewPro’s benchmark measurement of online quality. understand the vital importance of guest feedback, they Negative and positive feedback is always shared with the have very limited time. team. Sharing these reviews can be a great morale booster, and encourages the team to continue doing great work. “Having a tool that quickly shows a complete view of how their hotel is performing online means that they now have To encourage remarkable service, Apex Hotels has an more time to spend actually improving the services offered incentive in place to reward staff members that are by the hotel.” mentioned by name in an online review.

“ReviewPro is an exceptional tool to bring all online reviews “This really encourages our entire team to work hard and together in one place, and offers our managers an provide great service”, said Amy. opportunity to filter reviews, quickly analyze the positive and negatives, and perhaps identify little areas of improvement. And then the tool allows them to quickly assign tasks so all levels of the business are involved. Each of our general managers is actively using ReviewPro, but each department manager Ð from the restaurants to the housekeeping department Ð also has access.”

Managing Guest Satisfaction13 Surveys: Best Practices Why Apex Hotels chose ReviewPro

Sam and Amy considered various reputation management determining marketing strategy. “It enables us to instantly options, but the lack of comprehensive, hotel-specific understand our unique selling propositions Ð from the reporting meant that nothing that really met their needs guests’ perspective. until they found ReviewPro. “ReviewPro was the best fit for what we wanted to achieve.” ”For example, the team realized their location is much more important to guests than their food offerings, so they ReviewPro’s ability to export data became very helpful as played this up in their collateral. “Semantic analysis the team integrated and cross-analyzed online reputation ensures we are connecting with our audience, and data with internal surveys and other business performance communicates what they are looking for.” metrics. “This gave us a holistic view of our hotel operations.” “Improving quality and guest satisfaction is an ongoing process. It’s never going to stop. Market conditions change ReviewPro’s philosophy of constant innovation was also and the needs of our guests change. So we will continue to attractive. “We liked that it was a continually developing monitor all online reviews and feedback and incorporate product. Social technologies are changing very quickly, that into our operations so we are always at the top of our and we didn’t want to be stuck with a product that wasn’t game.” future-proof. So the fact that ReviewPro is constantly evolving with our feedback is very valuable for us.” Semantic analysis has become a fundamental part of “ ReviewPro was the best fit for what we wanted to achieve.”

Managing Guest Satisfaction14 Surveys: Best Practices About Us

ReviewPro is the leading provider of Guest Intelligence solutions to independent hotel brands worldwide. The Visit our Resource Hub company’s comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions includes Online Reputation Management (ORM) and the The Leading Source of Guest Intelligence best Guest Survey Solution (GSS), which enable hoteliers to obtain practices and content for the Hospitality Industry deeper insight into operational and service strengths and weaknesses, increasing guest satisfaction, ranking on review sites and OTAs, and driving revenue.

The company offers the industry-standard Global Review IndexTM (GRI), an online reputation score (available exclusively to ReviewPro clients), which is used by thousands of hotels worldwide as a benchmark for reputation management efforts, based on review data collected from 142 online travel agencies (OTAs) and review sites in more than 45 languages. More than 17,000 hotel brands worldwide are Learn More currently using ReviewPro’s solutions.

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Managing Guest Satisfaction15 Surveys: Best Practices www.reviewpro.com [email protected] @reviewpro

Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices