In a recent report from Barclays, it has been suggested that improvements to customer feedback management can boost hospitality revenue by £3.2 billion. Businesses should be putting structures in place to manage reviews, as they become part of a long term strategy to improve business operations.
The Barclays Feedback Economy report polled 2,000 consumers, finding that the use of customer feedback is booming, with 59% using online feedback to decide where they will visit. 45% of consumers say that they are more likely to leave a review than they were 18 months ago.
Millennials were highlighted as a particularly influential demographic. They were found to be more likely to engage with reviews, with 29% of 18-24 year olds and 27% of 25-44 year olds citing reviews as one of the most important factors in their decision making.
The overall impact of hospitality businesses becoming more receptive and engaging with online feedback can be huge to this sector. It has been suggested that by being more responsive to online feedback, leisure and hospitality businesses can add £2billion to the UK economy, with a further £1.2 billion added thanks to the impact on the supply chain.
For hospitality businesses, the stats speak for themselves:
- 82% say that feedback has been beneficial to their business
- 63% say that feedback has delivered repeat business
- 63% say they aren’t managing feedback strategically
- 73% say they plan to outsource feedback management within the next 5 years
Andrew Mabbutt, CEO the UK’s leading ratings and reviews platform, Feefo, believes these findings serve to help businesses in the hospitality sector. He said: “This report makes very interesting reading. Not only does it tell us that customers are engaging with reviews more, but also that businesses should be listening to their customers and act on these insights. Moreover, with 63% of businesses not managing feedback strategically, there’s a missed opportunity to gather business insights to make operational decisions and implement innovation. Such improvements can help to increase trust, traffic and sales, especially with a trusted feedback platform like Feefo.”
73% of businesses surveyed say that they planned to make changes to how they deal with feedback
including investing in training, employing dedicated staff, and outsourcing feedback management – within the next five years.
Mabbutt remarked, “Whilst this is great news for feedback providers, it’s important for hospitality businesses to gather only genuine reviews, feedback and business insights. Feefo is an invite-only platform, meaning that all of the reviews we gather are completely genuine and can be matched to every transaction. This prevents fake reviews being published which can have a seriously negative impact on business.”