Danziger on … the web
We mention to Danziger that we noticed that many of the group’s general mangers had been very proactive in responding to comments on TripAdvisor and ask whether a proactive online presence is company-driven.
He explains that there will be more of an association with the review site in the future and that it encapsulates the need for recommendations from other customers.
“When I ran a hotel I knew that I could save a disappointed customer by responding to them and showing them I cared — ‘give me another chance’,” he says.
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“TripAdvisor is no more than that, an opportunity for a hotel that back in my day was a phone call or a letter. So we encourage that opportunity to engage with the consumer, the bottom line is you improve your business when you listen.
“God gave us two ears and one mouth; you should listen twice as much as you speak. If you listen and do something, you make yourself a better business and save a customer who might otherwise have had a beef,” Danziger adds.
“A couple of months ago, a consumer staying at a Wingate was filming himself on his bed explaining a complaint he had and he posted it on YouTube.
I called him in his room and he was so impressed he took it off YouTube and put another one on — this is communication of consumers via technology — there is no comment card, it’s him filming it and posting it now.
“I said ‘uh oh, I have an unhappy guy, someone who is so unhappy and tech savvy that thousands of people will see his complaint’.
What better way of getting 7000 hotels to understand the value of responding than for me to do that, which I did and we saved him — that’s what matters.”
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