Skip to main content

What managers can do to turn an online consumer review into a "helpful" one?

There is plenty of empirical evidence to support the positive relationship between online review ratings and a business's bottom line. Not all online reviews carry the same effect, however. Those reviews that are exposed to more internet users will have a bigger impact on a business than the ones that are barely read by others. 

Generally speaking, all of those websites allow consumers to vote on the helpfulness of an online review and tend to feature the reviews with more helpfulness votes on the front page. The reviews listed on the first page will have a better chance of being "discovered" and read by others. Meanwhile, managers are usually allowed to reply to an online review with one manager response.
I recently conducted an empirical analysis with another key investigator, Karen Xie at University of Denver. In this study, we drew our conclusions based on a linear regression model with 56,284 consumer reviewers and 10,797 manager responses from 1,405 hotels on TripAdvisor.com.
While the detailed report can be found in International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, with a blog discussion on MultiBriefs.com I am going to highlight the study's important findings and business implications as the following:

Factors contributing to the helpfulness of online reviews

We identified the following as the key influential factors that contribute to the helpfulness of online reviews:

  • Reviews with lower ratings
  • Reviews with fewer sentences
  • Reviews written by male reviewers
  • Reviews written by reviewers with higher status
  • Reviews written by reviewers with longer membership
  • Reviews written by those who visited more cities in the past
  • Reviews with a manager response

Implications for hotels and possibly other service businesses

  • Manager response is critical in general. It moderates the relationship between reviewer experience and the helpfulness of reviews in terms of reviewer status and length of membership.
  • Managers may respond to selective positive reviews to reinforce the positive reputation for the business.
  • Managers may respond to selective negative reviews with details of how they addressed the service failure issues, allowing potential consumers to form realistic expectations of the business.
  • Because "who" writes a review matters, managers may need to pay special attention to those reviews with fewer sentences, written by male reviewers or those reviewers with higher status and/or longer membership.
  • Because reviews with fewer sentences tend to be voted more helpful, managers should write a concise response just to get the key points across.

Implications for the webmasters on online review or retail websites

Webmasters may refer to our regression model and further test their existing algorithms. Then, we hope our model can help them do a better job in "predicting" those reviews with high potential of becoming "helpful" ones as soon as a product/service receives a consumer review.
If they have the power to predict the helpful reviews, webmasters can inform the business owners/managers with an auto-reminder so those reviews with a high potential of being voted helpful will be seen by the business owners/managers.
Then, the business owners/managers may decide how they want to deal with those helpful reviews. That way, the website will be able to provide more valuable service to their business partners as well as the consumers who are seeking "useful" reviews online.
Both Karen and I are hoping you will find our results and conclusions meaningful. In the end, we would like to encourage you to leave us some feedback and suggestions. Or let us know about any research or practical questions in your mind. If applicable, we would be glad to use the research questions you ask here in our future studies.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Luxury vs. Millennials and Their Technology: The Ritz-Carlton (By Julia Shorr)

Embodying the finest luxury experience, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC has been established since 1983. In 1998, Marriott International purchased the brand offering it more opportunity for growth while being independently owned and operated. They are known for their enhanced service level as the motto states, “Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen”. The luxury brand now carries 97 hotels and resorts internationally and is attempting to keep the aspects of luxury while keeping up with the trends of the technologically improving generations. The Varying Demographics of the Target Market The Ritz-Carlton’s typical target market includes: business executives, corporate, leisure travelers, typically middle-aged persons and elders, and families from the upper and upper-middle class section of society .   This infers a large range of types of travelers in which all are similar in that they are not opposed to spending extra for the luxurious ambiance. However, with

Is It OK for Hotel Staff to Wear Piercings and Tattoos?

Time has changed. I see more and more college students wearing piercings and tattoos nowadays, but is it OK for hotel staff to wear piercings and tattoos? The answer is “no, no, no.” According a report at USAToday.com, customers across the board do not want to see any hotel workers with pierced eyebrow, pierced tongue, tattooed arm, or nose ring. Some may argue that tattooed and pierced workers may seem more acceptable in edgy boutique hotels as compared to the big franchised hotels, but the survey results did not find any differences among a variety of lodging products. Many respondents believe people who wear visible tattoos and piercings are taking a high risk of their professional lives. If you stay in a hotel, do you mind being served by tattooed and/or pierced staff? What if you are the one who makes the hiring decision? References: USAToday.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok08042010 Picture was downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok08042010P

How Covid-19 will change the HR department? (by Vivian Tan)

With the current pandemic happening, many businesses are having a hard time. It is hard for them to maintain to pay all their employees, and many things have changed on how companies are running during Covid-19. Because of this virus, employees work from home and might lack the motivation to finish their tasks. Many businesses shut their doors infinitely and file for bankruptcy because it is hard to pay their employees, and there are not many businesses coming in. In the hospitality industry, the HR department must create policies and answer questions from the outbreak. It is also essential that they communicate with workers for any updates and make sure that it does not affect their daily operations.     When it comes to covid-19 concerns, the HR department should communicate with the employees for any updates on the virus, such as informing employees about policies, personal hygiene, posting signs around the workplace about symptoms of the virus, and wear masks. Also, asking employee