Leadership in Action is Essential for Cultivating Consumer Confidence. Albert Einstein famously said, "Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them." I love the wisdom in that quote! My hospitality spin on this quote would be: Good hotels deal with problems. Great hotels fix problems. The most loved hotels see a problem as an opportunity for creativity and innovation, so they avoid having to see that problem recur. To illustrate this point, I have selected a few true-to-life review responses I have just seen online. I will show some typical hotel review responses, where the hotel hopes to get the customer back, fingers crossed. They are dealing with the problem. not fixing or preventing it from recurring. The reputation management box has been checked, but has anything been accomplished? I will then show an alternative approach for the response so you can see the difference. You can decide which sound good versus which effectively elevate consumer confidence by showcasing responsible and compassionate leadership in action. That response has a good chance of winning a return visit and attracting new customers. The excellent review response came from a young manager, Frangelica Siy, at the Embassy Suites in Downtown San Diego. They are a 3-Star hotel that consistently inspires 5-Star reviews from its guests, thanks to leadership in action from great hoteliers like Frangelica. No wonder the Embassy Suites in San Diago is currently one of the top 10 hotels in the city, out of hundreds of other hotels, many far more opulent than the Embassy Suites. Way to go- Frangelica and team! I hope you will find these examples illuminating and begin to consider these Dos and Don'ts whenever you or your team respond to reviews with the goals of elevating consumer confidence, living your values, and demonstrating leadership in action. For more information and inspiration on Reputation Cultivation, Leadership and Culture, please visit adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews.

Have you ever been offered a complimentary night after reporting an issue to a hotel? It happened to me a couple of times when I was totally shocked by the offer. I wasn't expecting to be offered a comp night; I wasn't asking for it, and it had never even crossed my mind. To my surprise, when the free night was offered, it somehow didn't feel like a gift of apology and customer appreciation. It felt like it was offered as a quick "go-to" way of ending a conversation. This was a revelation to me. It struck me that seemingly, at hotels around the nation, managers have been trained to pacify guests in this very expensive way to quickly end an uncomfortable conversation and hopefully avoid a negative review. I'm Adele Gutman. I am known for helping my hotels have the highest guest review scores in their cities, and their countries, even earning the highest company-wide online review scores worldwide! Now, I help hoteliers learn methods that really work to inspire guest loyalty by creating a culture of caring, collaboration, and continuous improvement. In my experience, I can assure you that there's a better way to empower teams, create loyalty and earn a stellar reputation, and that's what we will discuss today. Welcome to Get Great Guest Reviews!

Follow and connect with Adele Gutman:

Website: https://www.adelegutman.com/

Podcast Page: Get Great Guest Reviews Podcast Page

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelegutman/

Adele's Speaker and Consulting Sheet: https://www.adelegutman.com/AdelesSpeakersSheet

What's the one thing everyone in hospitality needs to know to inspire 5-Star Reviews?

Adele Gutman is known for having exceptional results in leading her hotels to the top guest review success in their market, city, state, country, and, yes, even the world. There is a multitude of concepts that comprise the signature five-star review system that she formulated to achieve a company-wide 96.1% Global Review Index Score. But in this episode, Adele focuses on one essential concept at the core of five-star hospitality. And you don't even have to be a five-star business to deliver five-star hospitality and inspire five-star reviews.

Adele Gutman shares a few stories highlighting the one thing every hospitality business owner, manager, or front-line employee must fully embrace as a philosophical commitment if you want your business to excel. We hope you will listen and be inspired to break away from the pack and help your team embrace a different way of thinking. It will definitely help you to inspire a sunshower of enthusiastic, five-star reviews for your hotel or restaurant.

https://www.adelegutman.com/

There was a recent article in the Harvard Business Review - Future-Proofing Businesses with Modern Customer Engagement, written by Karen Peacock, the Chief Executive Officer of Intercom.

44% of respondents, hundreds of Harvard Business Review readers, indicated that a lack of collaboration and the constrictions of information silos at work are the top impediments to successful customer engagement at their company. The second obstacle at 32% of responses was the failure to share customer insight data throughout the company.

This insight hits close to home for me. I feel that a lack of collaboration and lack of sharing guest feedback are two of the top impediments to solving customer problems. That's how we limit our customer satisfaction success. If we coupled collaboration with leadership, fostering shared personal and company-wide intentions to embrace positive change, we would easily create more five-star guest experiences.

Please listen to the podcast. I want to share what I think is a terrific little story of something that just happened to me at a hotel this week that demonstrates how easy it can be to break through these obstacles and start delivering better experiences at a hotel or any business.

I will also share several tips on how you can begin today to initiate simple yet effective communications to transform the guest experience.

If you would like some help implementing these ideas, please reach out to me.

Follow and connect with Adele Gutman:

Website: https://www.adelegutman.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelegutman/

Adele's Speaker & Consulting Sheet

Facebook: InspireFiveStars with Adele Gutman

Instagram: InspireFiveStars with Adele Gutman

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdeleGutman

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/GetGreatGuestReviewswithAdeleGutman

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-great-guest-reviews/id1607713697

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzM3NzIxMy9yc3M?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYyoi9gqH4AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ&hl=en

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AAgxomCdTCWue20ru3QWs

Thank you for listening!

If you found value in this discussion, it would mean the world to us to have you as a subscriber and share this with anyone you know who might benefit from Get Great Guest Reviews the Podcast!

Have a great week, and keep reaching for the stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Adele

Link to the Article in HBR: https://hbr.org/sponsored/2022/07/future-proofing-businesses-with-modern-customer-engagement

Welcome to Get Great Guest Reviews! In this week's episode, Christoph Hütter, the non-traditional revenue manager, joins me to discuss the Revenue generating impact of excellence in Reputation, Reviews, and the Guest Experience.

Revenue Managers, General Managers, and Hotel Owners, you will want to pay attention to this because there is no revenue optimization without reputation optimization! That means creating a culture of caring, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

In addition to the video, please be sure to read the accompanying blog posts on my website www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews

Follow and connect with Christoph Hütter:

Website: https://christophhutter.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophhutter/

Follow and connect with Adele Gutman:

Website: https://www.adelegutman.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelegutman/

Adele's Speaker & Consulting Sheet

Facebook: InspireFiveStars with Adele Gutman

Instagram: InspireFiveStars with Adele Gutman

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdeleGutman

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/GetGreatGuestReviewswithAdeleGutman

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-great-guest-reviews/id1607713697

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzM3NzIxMy9yc3M?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYyoi9gqH4AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ&hl=en

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AAgxomCdTCWue20ru3QWs

Thank you for listening!

If you found value in this discussion, it would mean the world to us to have you as a subscriber and share this with anyone you know who might benefit from Get Great Guest Reviews the Podcast!

Have a great week, and keep reaching for the stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Adele

"Would You Treat Your Mama Like That?" Are your mission statement and guiding principles filled with words like honesty, integrity, trust, relationships, caring, and transparency? Of course, they are! We are hospitality! Our quest for excellence requires reflection and self-examination to ensure we truly live in those values. For the most part, there's tremendous heart and honor in the hospitality industry, but sometimes the grind of life can lead us astray from our best intentions, especially in times of stress, like these last few years. By reading reviews from across the country and reviewing websites and booking engines, I have observed a few common blind spots that need attention. We all know the importance of making our guests feel cared for, appreciated, and respected. We also appreciate the potential lifetime value of every customer in terms of return visits, recommendations, and referrals. With the ever-rising cost of customer acquisition, it is fiscally prudent for us to practice reputation and loyalty cultivation actively. In this episode, we will examine seven common complaints on negative reviews that reflect what many travelers consider a deviation from fully, forthright, and honest communications. I would call it a failure to deliver satisfaction on brand promises on websites and booking engines. We'll use the litmus test, "Would you treat your mama like that?" to judge the guest-centricity of these common yet unappreciated practices. Please enjoy this episode! Follow and connect with Adele Gutman: Website: Adele Gutman LinkedIn: Adele Gutman Adele's Speaker & Consulting Sheet Facebook: InspireFiveStars with Adele Gutman Instagram: InspireFiveStars with Adele Gutman Twitter: Adele Gutman Youtube: Get Great Guest Reviews with Adele Gutman Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-great-guest-reviews/id1607713697 Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5saWJzeW4uY29tLzM3NzIxMy9yc3M?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiYyoi9gqH4AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ&hl=en Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7AAgxomCdTCWue20ru3QWs Thank you for listening! If you found value in this discussion, it would mean the world to us to have you as a subscriber and share this with anyone you know who might benefit from Get Great Guest Reviews the Podcast! Have a great week, and reach for the stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'll be bold and just say it. Technology without humanity cannot resolve the Guest Expectation vs Guest Experience gap that so many businesses are facing today. Technology is a tool. It's just a tool. But in the hands of compassionate people who feel inspired, empowered, and encouraged by their leaders to guests happy, great technology can give them wings to fly. There's so much to think about when exploring the relationship between Humans and Technology in delivering great experiences to our guests, I asked a fellow Customer Experience Strategist, Larry Leung of Transformidy, to join me for a conversation.

For additional resources including highlights and complete show notes from this interview, please visit adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews/

Link to this episode and the accompanying blog post with more tips on how to have humanity and technology with together to elevate the guest experience :https://www.adelegutman.com/post/solving-the-guest-experience-with-technology-and-humanity

Website: https://transformidy.com/ and adelegutman.com

LinkedIn: Larry Leung and https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelegutman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/_larryleung and https://twitter.com/AdeleGutman

If you have any questions about how to inspire five-star reviews, please send your message or comment to [email protected] and we will be sure to answer them on an upcoming episode and/or directly with you.

Thank you, in advance for subscribing, and sharing your heartfelt reviews. It means the world to us when we hear that you find the content helpful, and what's more, it helps others find our content too.

Have a wonderful week. Let's all sparkle some sunshine on our guests, our friends, our families, our co-workers, and our neighbors and send a bit of kindness throughout our country and our world. Everyone could use a break from these challenging times and enjoy a generous helping of hospitality right now.

Be the change,

Adele

Throughout the world, there are many hoteliers who are hard at work doing their best to "do Reputation Management". These hoteliers are reading articles and getting tips from friends, suppliers, or consultants on how to do it right. But are the industry standards really working?

Many of the commonly accepted practices are not actually helping hoteliers significantly move the needle when it comes to reputation. And in many cases, behaviors like cutting and pasting templates are inadvertently frustrating travelers, making them feel that we care more about the show and about showing we genuinely care.

As someone who has led the hotel collection with the highest level of guest satisfaction, and interviewed many of the most successful hoteliers in the world, I am excited to share with you today five of the most common mistakes when it comes to responding like a superstar to negative reviews.

In addition to the video, please be sure to read the accompanying blog posts on my website www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews.com

American Industrialist and Innovator Henry Ford famously said, "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do." I find this quote so practical and useful when thinking about hospitality reputation cultivation and responding to negative reviews.

That's because it's important to know that reputation isn't based on what you say, but rather on what you do. What powerful management responses have in common is that they are based on actions already taken.

Today, most negative reviews go unresponded to according to a study done by ReviewPro. In my own observations, negative review responses rarely show true authority, personal responsibility, and progress in action. That means that for those willing to put in a bit of effort up front, you can set your business up for success and stand out from the competition with ease.

If you are ready to outshine the competition, Adele Gutman presents 5 things to do before you begin to write your management response to a negative review.

For lots of free resources including the complete show notes to this episode and more, visit https://www.adelegutman.com/getgreatreviews

https://www.adelegutman.com/post/master-the-management-response-five-things-before-you-write

Welcome to Get Great Guest Reviews! I hope you enjoy the podcast and the accompanying article. Each episode is designed to help everyone move forward on their journey towards progressively heightened levels of guest loyalty and delight as well as employee engagement and growth. Please be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode or an opportunity to inspire five-star reviews. The hospitality industry, like most service industries, is filled with people who love to make a positive difference in people's lives. But, when you have a dream of how things at work should be, it can be disheartening when the "realities" of work-life seem to conspire to keep you or your business from fulfilling your potential. But not all barriers to success are actual "realities". Often it is our own unexamined mindset that inhibits us from taking the very actions that move us closer to our goals. In this episode, I am joined by hospitality expert Cheryl C. Jones, owner of Simply the Best Results and the author of the book, Emotional Self Mastery. We discuss some of our suggestions and insights on how to take charge of your destiny and gently step around any self-talk that isn't empowering your happiness and success. As Cheryl says, mindsets are neither inherently positive or negative. We as humans simply have patterns of thinking and beliefs that we gleaned from life. These could have come from our parents, our schooling, our self-talk about personal experiences, and even from "experts" on webinars and podcasts. So sometimes we need to reflect and ask ourselves, "Why do I think that?" and, "Is that really true?" For example, I have heard and read, dozens of times hoteliers and experts saying that most people who write reviews are motivated to do so because they want to complain. That seems like it makes sense, right? But the reality is that according to Tripadvisor the average review is 4.1 -4.4 depending on the year. The new study released by ReviewPro in collaboration with Cornell University says that in a sample of 7,500 hotels around the world, the average review score was 84.6%. Clearly, what is considered a common belief doesn't act stand up to statistical data. So let's take some time to reflect on some common beliefs that may be holding us back from taking positive action and fulfilling our goals. To access lots of free resources including the complete show notes and more visit https://www.adelegutman.com/. To find out more about Cheryl Jones, visit: https://simplythebestresults.com/ Adele mentioned some statistics you can find at the source on ReviewPro: https://reviewpro.shijigroup.com/essentials/global-review-index#see