How to Boost Online Reviews—
According to Science
Online reviews are extremely valuable to the spa
industry. An overwhelming amount of positive online reviews is
sheer gold. But how can you increase your customer reviews or,
better yet, ensure you’re getting positive feedback?
The obvious answer is to make sure every customer is treated
with impeccable service, but this doesn’t always correlate in that
customer writing an online review. In a new Journal of
Consumer Psychology study, researchers discovered a way to
increase the odds of getting a better review. Their data revealed
that people who waited longer or traveled farther before
authoring a review gave more favorable evaluations.
The investigators analyzed data from more than 166,000
online restaurant reviews on TripAdvisor.com. They used a
Google Maps application and information in the reviewer’s
profile to calculate the distance between the author’s home and
the restaurant. The same positive effect occurred when
reviewers waited two, three or more months versus one month
or less to write a review. Even more surprising was the discovery
that reviewers who experienced both time delay and greater
physical distance from the restaurant gave the highest ratings.
In other words, two forms of separation created a “boosting”
effect.
To understand why the ratings were boosted by time and
space distance, the researchers analyzed specific words in the
reviews. They found that people who are farther from home and
wait longer to write are more likely to evaluate something in
abstract terms using adjectives such as a “pleasant” experience.
People who are closer to home and write a review quickly are
more likely to focus on specific details about the food, the
service and the ambiance and use verbs that are often more
negative.
So, what can you do? Try sending an email to your customer
a few weeks after they receive their service at the spa, or for
destination spas, a few weeks after their return home. This email
should remind your guest of his or her incredible experience and
entice them to leave an extremely complimentary review. As
they say, time and distance make the heart grow fonder! n
July 2017
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