Research shows that you should let consumers’ photos speak for your business

 The advance of technology and the widespread adoption of smartphones and handheld devices in recent years have enabled us to publish our experience about a product or service through online photo or video sharing and provide a review.

Online review websites have also updated their features, making it easier for consumers to attach pictures or videos to their reviews. As both consumers and businesses adapt to the new photo-sharing trend, it becomes crucial to expand our knowledge regarding user-generated photos’ (UGPs’) effect on online reviews.

An empirical study about user-generated photos

I worked with a research team in an interdisciplinary project to assess UGPs’ effects on the helpfulness of hotel reviews. We published our findings in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. The paper is entitled “Let photos speak: The effect of user-generated visual content on hotel review helpfulness.”

The hypotheses

We drew from the media richness theory and advanced five hypotheses for statistical analysis, including:

1. Online reviews attached with UGPs have significant positive effects on review helpfulness.
2. Online reviews attached with UGPs containing more guestroom objects are rated as more helpful than those containing fewer guestroom objects.
3. Online reviews attached with UGPs containing more F&B (food & beverage) objects are rated more helpful than those containing fewer F&B objects.
4. UGPs’ positive effect on review helpfulness is stronger for lower-priced hotels than higher-priced hotels.
5. UGPs’ positive effects on review helpfulness are stronger for negative reviews than positive reviews.

The data and the analysis

We used a Python-based web crawler to collect the data needed for hypothesis testing from Qunar.com, one of the largest online travel agent (OTA) sites in mainland China. The data covered 12,138 hotels in Beijing, with about 1.16 million valid reviews and over 464,000 photos published by close to 900,000 users between January 2014 and April 2018. In this sample, about 9.84% (114,000) reviews were attached with UGPs.

We adopted YOLOv3 (You Only Look Once version 3), a real-time object detection algorithm, to identify the guestroom and F&B objects in UGPs. The top 10 guestroom objects identified include bed (15.34%), chair (14.55%), TV (6.23%), sink, toilet, couch, clock, remote control, refrigerator, and laptop.

The top 10 F&B objects included bottle (8.45%), cup (4.39%), bowl (2.82%), dining table, microwave, spoon, wine glass, oven, cake, and knife. Compiling with other numerical data, such as the number of helpfulness votes a review received, star rating of a review, etc., we then tested the hypotheses in a series of linear regression models.

The results

Our analyses confirmed the user-generated visual content’s positive effects on review helpfulness. Moreover, consumers rated UGPs with more product-specific images more helpful than those with fewer product-specific images (guestroom or F&B objects for a lodging product in this case). Such a positive effect becomes more salient for lower-priced hotels (than higher-priced hotels) and reviews with lower ratings (than reviews with higher ratings).

What do the research findings mean?

Besides this study’s theoretical contributions, the research findings provide a few specific practical implications for hotel managers, web admins managing online review platforms, and the consumers relying on online reviews for decision-making. Here, it is imperative to note that the following actionable suggestions are exclusive content only available in this viewpoint article but not in the original journal publication.

Hotel managers

• Strategically respond to selected reviews with UGPs.
• Respond to most, if not all, reviews with more guestroom objects in UGPs.
• For hotels with various F&B offerings, respond to the reviews with more F&B objects in UGPs.
• It is unnecessary for hotels with limited F&B offerings to pay attention to the reviews with F&B objects in UGPs.
• For hotels of a lower price, make every attempt to answer reviews with UGPs.
• Make sure to respond to reviews of lower ratings and with UGPs.

Web admins in online review platforms

• List those consumer reviews with UGPs at the top, allowing easy access for potential customers.
• Promote the reviews with more guestroom objects in UGPs, regardless of how many F&B offerings a hotel has.
• Promote the reviews with UGPs containing more F&B objects for the hotels with various F&B offerings.
• Cross-list or promote the reviews with more F&B objects in UGPs for the hotels even when internet users search for restaurant reviews.
• It is unnecessary to promote reviews with F&B objects in UGPs for the hotels with minimal F&B offerings.
• Highlight the reviews with UGPs, especially for the hotels of a lower price.
• Display the ones with UGPs first when internet users want to check out the negative reviews.

Consumers using online review websites

• Pay attention to the information conveyed in the reviews with UGPs in general.
• Pay even more attention to the reviews with UGPs that show more guestroom objects.
• Quickly skip the online reviews with UGPs showing more F&B objects if a hotel has limited F&B offerings or if the traveler does not plan to use the F&B services offered in the hotel.
• Pay attention to the reviews with UGPs that show more F&B objects only when the traveler also wants to use the hotel’s F&B services.
• In a search for hotels of a lower price, make sure to check out the reviews with UGPs carefully.
• When browsing through a hotel’s reviews for decision-making, pay special attention to those reviews of lower ratings and with UGPs.

The conclusion

Although our work is not without limitations, our analysis with an integrated analytical model that incorporates both econometric analysis and image-processing techniques yielded additional insights about user-generated visual content’s effect on online reviews. Once again, this study shows that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

How much attention do you pay to the pictures or videos attached to online reviews? Are those reviews attached with pictures or videos more influential in your decision-making? If so, in what way?

Note: This post was first published on MultiBriefs.com; The picture was also downloaded from MultiBriefs.com. 

Managerial responses to online reviews: Strategies should vary across different hotels

Last month, I published two journal articles about online reviews. The first one was about how managers of different hotels should use different strategies to respond to online reviews and published in The Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (with Karen Xie and Wei Wang). The second one was a review of current literature about online reviews and published in International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (with Karen Xie and Tori Richards). 

I highlighted the important implications of these two journal articles on Multibriefs.com. For example, I recommend that responses to online reviews should vary based on hotel class. In particularly: 

• Budget traveler hotels — provide more but also more concise (shorter) responses by the executives.

• Mid-market economy hotels — provide more responses by the executives.

• Full-service hotels — provide more responses by the executives in a timely manner.

• Above-average hotels — provide more and longer responses by the functional managers (e.g., front desk manager, sales manager, etc.) and reply in a timely manner.

• Luxury hotels — provide more and longer responses by the functional managers.

In the literature review paper, we pointed out what we know and what we don't know about online reviews. Particularly, I would like to see what you want to know about online reviews. Maybe your comments will inspire more research studies in the future to help us further advance our knowledge about online reviews. 

Can Hotels Fine Guests for a Bad Review?

A hotel in Upstate NY has a policy to fine guests for bad reviews on online review sites.  Is it even legal?

The hotel says it never enforce the policy.  If so, why would this hotel put this policy out there for criticism?  Well, unless the management wants to get more attention, regardless if it is good or bad.

Check out more details in the following Fox News video.  

Are Customers Also Responsible for Their Dining Experience?

I recently read an interesting experiment from a famous restaurant in #NYC, where the owners compared customers' behavior of today and that of 10 years ago.  I wrote an article about it on MultiBriefs. 

 

Here is what was reported by the restaurant (and what I included in the article): 

July 1, 2004:

Customers walked in. 

They were seated with a menu.  Three out of 45 requested for a different seat. 

Customers spent about 8 minutes on the menu before closing it, indicating that they were ready to order. 

Servers instantly took the order. 

Appetizers were served in about 6 minutes (except for complex items). 

Two out of 45 customers sent items back. 

Servers remained attentive to customers. 

Checks were delivered when customers finished their meals. 

Customers left within 5 minutes. 

On average, it took 1 hour and 5 minutes from start to finish.

July 3, 2014:

Customers walked in. 

They were seated with a menu.  Eighteen out of 45 requested for a different seat.

Instead of opening the menu, they took their phones out. Some were taking pictures; others were just playing with their phones. 

Seven out of 45 had servers come over immediately. 

They showed something on their phone to the server and took about 5 minutes of the server’s time.  Later, the servers explained to the management team that the customers needed help with Wi-Fi connections for their phones. 

When servers approached customers for orders, most had not even opened the menu and asked the servers to wait.

Customers finally opened the menu, with their hands holding their phones on top of the menu. They were still playing with their phone. 

Servers came back to check with the customers. Customers asked for additional time. 

Customers were finally ready to order, with an average wait time of 21 minutes. 

Food began arriving in about 6 minutes (except for complex items). 

Twenty-six out of 45 customers spent about 3 minutes taking pictures of the food. 

Fourteen out of 45 customers spent an additional 4 minutes taking pictures of themselves or one another with the food in front of them. 

Nine out of 45 customers sent food back to reheat. 

Twenty-seven out of 45 customers asked servers to take a group picture for them.  On average, it took about 5 minutes of theirs and the server’s time until the customers were satisfied with the group picture. 

On average, customers spent 20 minutes more on the meal and 15 minutes more to pay and leave. 

Eight out of 45 bumped into somebody in the restaurant while they were texting and walking in/out of the restaurant. 

On average, it took 1 hour and 55 minutes from start to finish. 

I am thinking: Are customers also responsible for their dining experience?  How does technology has brought down (if it does in some way) people's dining experience?  In regarding to online reviews, what information matters most from online reviews --- The overall rating?  Service?  Quality of food? Or something else?

Online Reviews: Why does it matter?

How many times have you clicked on the rating and reviews for a product or service? Did those reviews become the deciding factor in your purchase? Over the past five or so years there has been a significant increase on the use of websites featuring customer ratings and reviews of products and services. These websites include (but not limited to):

Yelp

Google

Amazon

Tripadvisor

Toptable

Increasingly the importance and weight of online reviews have grown to the point they may affect the profits and returns of businesses. Local/small businesses seem to have the most to gain (or lose) from this, and it shows accordingly. In an article by Myles Anderson, he states that “More local consumers are now taking notice of online reviews and online reviews are an important factor in deciding which local business to use. Consumers appear to best swayed by location and price which don’t represent any guarantee of quality or reliability.” Supporting Anderson’s statement, it is found that approximately 52% of consumers are more likely to use a local/small business if the reviews show to be positive.

However, local/small businesses are not the only businesses heavily affected by the increased significance of online reviews. The success or failure of hotels and restaurants is starting to become heavily dependent upon these customer reviews to the point where even just a half-star increase in rating can prove to have a positive effect on bookings.

With the growing importance of online reviews one must begin to question the legitimacy of some or many of them. It is not an uncommon phenomenon, today, for businesses to go on consumer review sites to post fake reviews in their favor. These reviews are often very biased and overly enthusiastic and often used to counteract negative reviews floating around. Though this is becoming more of a problem as the internet expands in everyday lives, some websites like Tripadvisor are trying to prevent businesses from doing so on their sites.

 

How important are online reviews to you? Will you regard them as much as personal recommendations?

 References:

Anderson, Myles. "Column: Local Search." Search Engine Land. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.

"Customer Reviews Affect 6 in 10 Online Shoppers." MarketingCharts. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.

Doward, Jamie. "How Online Reviews Are Crucial to a Restaurant's Takings." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 01 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.

"The Importance of Online Reviews for Local Businesses | US Daily Review." The Importance of Online Reviews for Local Businesses | US Daily Review. US Daily Review, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.

 

Is It a Good Business Strategy to Offer Phone-Free Discount?

A restaurant is offering 5% discount to customers who leave their cellphones at the door during the meal. The restaurant owner wants his customers to enjoy the dining experience and food without getting distracted by their cellphones, according to this Fox News video. Is this phone-free strategy well received and working?

It works very well for this restaurant. Over 50% patrons have chosen discount over cellphones. Moreover, it gave the restaurant about three minute free media exposure on Fox News, with additional conversations on social media.

Honestly, this is not the first time I heard of such incident. There are resort hotels encouraging guests to lock up their cellphones during their stay because they want their guests to truly enjoy the beauty of nature.

Will this “phone-free” advocate become a trend? More importantly, is it a good idea for business to promote a “phone-free” policy?

In my opinions, unless you are the first one who initiates a “phone-free” policy and gets some free media exposure, it is probably not a good idea to discourage cellphone usage. Furthermore, I argue that business should do the opposite by encouraging customers to use mobile devices, including cellphones. My reason is simple. We are now living in the “SoLoMo” world, where everything goes “Social, Local, and Mobile.” Business must embrace the “SoLoMo” movement. If mobile devices are prohibited, how can customers capture their wonderful experience and then immediately share it on the internet? It seems to me that many customers only use mobile devices for pictures and videos these days. Many customers also want to share updates as soon as they capture a memorable moment. We cannot expect this group of customers to write long reviews and edit/upload their pictures/videos after the experience is over, can we?

What are your thoughts? Should companies promote “SoLoMo” or “phone-free” policy?

Relevant discussions:

No Texting, Tweeting, or Facebooking?! 

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

References:
The picture was downloaded from NewMediaTravel.com

Online Reviews: Why does it matter?

The online reviews of a company's services can have positive or negative effects on whether your business thrives. The best content about your brand  or product doesn't come from you but from consumers. According to Cone’s 2011 Online Influencer Trend Tracker studies found that four-out-of-five consumers decided against purchasing a product based on negative feedback in an online review."


 As seen in the chart, word of mouth is the main way people are influenced when buying products but online reviews falls second. The more negative reviews individuals see about a product or company, the less likely they are to make a purchase, resulting in a loss of revenue. It is in the best interest of business owners to insure that customers are always satisfied with their services. Websites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, Yahoo, Google and Bing are sites that consumers use to write reviews on products and businesses. If bad reviews are received, the more your brand is seen in a negative light. It is important to have a profile on multiple websites that showcases your brand because it will overshadow any negative posts about your brand. If negative reviews are made, businesses must insure that the issue is resolved and there is a follow up with customers to make sure it does not happen again.

I have personally had an experience with a bad product and if it wasn't for my complaint to the company via Twitter, I would have never received better customer service and a new product. Companies do not like to see negative feedback of their brand especially on growing social media sites as Twitter or Facebook because it paints them in a negative way. Companies can also track what is being said about their brand through tools like Google Alerts, Hootsuite, Trackur, and Twitter Search.
 

This website lists 15 ways to avoid a bad review: http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/09/15-ways-avoid-bad-online-reviews.html


As a hospitality professional, what are some strategies that you would use to ensure that your company retrieves good reviews from customers?
Have you had any experiences posting reviews online?



Pictures taken from
The Inquisitr
My Reviews Page 
Sources: http://outspokenmedia.com/online-marketing/online-reviews-content-marketing/