The Worst Reviews are (sometimes) The Best

Walk into any hotel, holiday apartment or B&B and one of the first things you’ll see is a little sign:

‘We value your feedback, please let us know what you think’

From your local barista to actual barristers, AI chatbots to podcasters, everyone is always asking you to rate their service, write a review & share your feedback.

Asking for feedback from clients & customers is now second-nature for all of us.

But, have you ever stopped to think about why?

Of course, if you’re in the property business and advertise on Booking.com, Airbnb or any of the platforms, you’ll know how important it is to have (a lot of) great reviews, if you want to keep your occupancy rates high.

But there’s so much more you can do with all that feedback.

To me, feedback is data (and you all know how much I love crunching the numbers!), and a successful business uses all available data to optimise.

I’ve consulted with plenty of clients who feel genuinely upset if a holiday guest leaves a review of anything less than 10/10. And yes, I know it can be frustrating when you’ve worked so hard to make sure everything is perfect.

But it’s these reviews that help to grow, refine and finesse the business.

There are plenty of reviews, especially in the early days, where customers made suggestions about ways we could improve.

Additional seating, extra bits & bobs in the kitchen, even moving things around the property.

In hindsight, they were great reviews. But, at the time, knowing we were less than perfect, burned. But when I took the emotions out of it, and put my businessman head back on, I realised they actually incredibly helpful.

If one of our first guests wasn’t happy with this, it meant future guests wouldn’t be, either.

It allowed us to make changes, so we didn’t keep repeating the same mistakes.

It also taught me an important life lesson: to receive feedback graciously, to take a pause if your emotions threaten to take over rationality, reflect and then react… by implementing positive changes that improve the business.

And the second thing it taught me, is that feedback (and, therefore, data that can help turbocharge your business) isn’t just about guests reviews.

There’s an almost limitless amount of feedback out there.

Business Partners, Suppliers, Team Members, Friends, Family… Anyone & everyone in your network can be a resource to help you see yourself & your business from a fresh perspective.

But… I’ve found there’s a catch.

A lot of these people feel uncomfortable giving you 100% honest feedback. They worry they’ll upset you, or don’t feel it’s their place to say.

Even when I promise not to be offended, I’m sure people are often holding back.

So, how do you convince people to give you raw, constructive criticism?

The simplest method I’ve found to get really useful feedback is -

The Stop, Start, Continue Method.

If you ask people to tell you one thing they think you should stop doing, one thing you should start doing, and one thing you should continue doing, it gives them a structure to work with, and supplies you with loads & loads of feedback you can put into a spreadsheet, and start analysing.

Of course, sometimes, after all that reflection, you might decide that you don’t agree with the feedback, or it isn’t actually valuable.

Anyone else remember the Baz Luhrmann Sunscreen song?

“Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it”

Well, it’s up to you to choose to take it on board, or not.

But it’s become a non-negotiable for me to at least ask, and listen with openness & gratitude, when people take the time to give me feedback.

Because if I didn’t, our apartments still wouldn't have a potato masher, or a seat by the window... And we definitely wouldn’t be smashing those 10/10 reviews.

And if you want to give me any feedback, let me know if you find the newsletters valuable, or if there's something you'd love me to write about...

... You know what to do!

Dean