Companies from restaurants to dental offices increasingly are getting rated by the public on social-media websites, and businesses that respond to this feedback promptly could boost their business.

That’s the upshot of a study that looked at the impact of responding to online hotel reviews posted by travelers. The study by customer-engagement researcher Medallia focused on social-media reviews and responses for many of the 4,400 hotels worldwide that are members of Phoenix-based Best Western International. Yet its findings offer insights for many other industries, too.

Best Western is a client of Medallia and collaborated in the study to determine how to improve performance as measured by hotel-occupancy rates.

“We had a significant amount of data from Best Western on what customers were saying and how that affected the performance of different properties,” said Dorian Stone, vice president of customer-experience strategy for Medallia in Palo Alto, Calif.

For businesses, the study found that it pays to respond to social-media reviews, and to do so promptly.

Social-media feedback from customers can push other consumers toward or away from a company and its products and thus is of growing importance. But many businesses respond in a haphazard manner, if at all.

Medallia found that hotels that replied tended to improve their occupancy rates compared to others. Those that responded to at least half the reviews about them increased their occupancy rates by 6.4 percentage points on average. That was more than twice the growth rate for hotels that ignored social-media posts. It also exceeded the 4.3-percentage-point occupancy increase for the hospitality industry as a whole over the April 2013-September 2014 time frame of the study.

Medallia analyzed various types of traveler feedback on Best Western’s hotels, from reviews posted on websites such as TripAdvisor.com to responses garnered from solicited surveys.

Hotels, and businesses generally, that are committed to social-media engagement also tend to generate higher customer satisfaction, according to the research. “Customers will be more inclined to trust us because we’ve created a relationship,” said Michael Morton, Best Western’s vice president of member services in Phoenix.

In the case of Best Western-affiliated hotels, owners or managers often are the ones who respond. Some reply by posting a comment on the same website, while others call or e-mail customers directly, Stone said. Form letters are less effective than individualized responses expressed with sincerity, he added.

It’s not always easy for companies to respond prudently to reviews, especially negative ones. Yet Stone said the benefits of building a rapport with customers outweigh the risks. Besides, companies that commit to responding to social-media reviews will get better at it over time.

Morton agreed, adding that responses provide an opportunity not just to build relationships but to identify problems that might need fixing. Certain legal or personal complaints should be addressed in a private phone call or e-mail reply, but responses to more general questions could be made on the same website where a review was posted.

“Hotels already trust their frontline (staff) with in-person customer interactions, and this research shows that letting employees engage with customers online as well … pays real dividends,” Morton said.

As a result of the study, Morton said Best Western has advised the many hotel owners and operators in its system “to respond to every comment if you can add some genuine insight or color” and to view responses as “an opportunity to market something great at your property.”

The speed of responding to reviews matters, too. Hotels that replied to customer feedback in less than a day enjoyed occupancy rates 12.8 percentage points higher than those that took more than two days, according to the study.

“The best players respond within 48 hours,” Stone said.

Morton said Medallia set up a notification system that informs each Best Western hotel via e-mail when a social-media review has been posted about it.

Reviews: Do they matter?

Many consumers pay attention to online reviews submitted by customers to assess whether to do business with various companies, according to a 2014 survey by BrightLocal that elicited more than 2,000 responses from internet users. Some findings:

• Do you read online customer reviews to assess local businesses?

Regularly: 39 percent

Occasionally: 49 percent

No: 12 percent

• How many online reviews do you need before trusting a company?

0-1: 11 percent

2-6: 56 percent

7 or more: 33 percent

• How do online reviews affect your opinion of local businesses?

Positive reviews make me trust a business more: 72 percent

I read reviews but they don’t influence my decisions: 18 percent

I don’t take note of online customer reviews: 10 percent

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/2015/03/25/hotel-study-says-firms-respond-online-reviews/70416742/