Managing Customer Experience Reviews

Why are guest reviews more influential than ever, and how can venues leverage them? A TrustYou survey revealed that 95% of travellers read reviews before booking, and 53% won’t consider a property without recent positive feedback. Venues that actively respond to and act on reviews see measurable improvements in bookings and reputation. One story that has stuck with me since I first heard it over a decade ago was how the social team of a trendy Miami Beach hotel responded thoughtfully to a negative online review within 30 minutes of it being posted... Their thoughtful response, addressing the guests' complaints, led to a sequence of online messages that not only turned the guest into a loyal champion, but also led to new customers from those reading the conversations online. The power of customer centric proactivity. Headline Insight: ➡️ Properties that respond to 50%+ of reviews receive 12% more bookings on average. How do you use guest feedback to shape your service or offerings? #GuestReviews #ReputationManagement #HospitalityGrowth #FeedbackLoop

The more I work in hospitality, the more I realise this: Even profitable hotels fail when they optimise the wrong things. We have built an industry that worships spreadsheets, forecasts, and algorithms… yet the real drivers of performance are almost embarrassingly always human. Hospitality isn't real estate with room service (like many people think..) Its emotional logistics wrapped inside a performance report. And the research keeps proving it: 🔸 Breakfast is a top-3 driver of hotel selection. A 2022 study across Europe showed breakfast heavily influences the decision to book (FYI: top 1 is location, top 2 is price/value) Your €50k/year RMS vs. the pancakes. The pancakes win more often than we would like to admit. 🔸 Online reviews directly impact demand, occupancy and RevPAR. Meaning "TravelL0ver92" and this "anonymous raccoon" could influence your occupancy more than your marketing director. 🔸 80%+ of travellers read reviews before booking. Strangers on the internet are more trusted than your official website. And… I believe they aren't 100% wrong. 🔸 Most negative reviews are driven by service quality. Not the room. Not the WiFi. The human interaction (hence you understand this is applicable the other way around as well..) 🔸 Amenities only matter when paired with emotion. A lamp is a lamp. A bed is a bed. But how it makes you feel, that's the experience. 🔸 Better reputation = better profitability. Your ADR matters. Your reputation matters even more. 🔸 Review scores reliably predict real satisfaction. TripAdvisor/Google/OTA ratings predict return intention. Your culture spills online whether you want it to or not. And here is the part I wish someone had told me earlier in my career: Hotels don't win because of perfect spreadsheets. They win because humans feel something when they stay there. Revenue management matters. Tech matters. AI matters. But feelings and emotions still decide everything. The more I work in hospitality, the more I see one simple truth: Hospitality is not a math problem. It's a human one. #hospitalitymanagement #experience #onlinereview #human

The biggest bottleneck in building a great AI product is iteration speed. And the biggest drag on iteration speed? Generic, off-the-shelf annotation tools. Many teams default to these tools because it seems like the path of least resistance. Counterintuitively, It's often path of most friction. Every second a reviewer spends fighting a clunky UI, switching contexts to find necessary data, or trying to interpret a generic data dump grinds progress to a halt. This is why we often advise teams to build their own custom annotation tools. It's the single most impactful investment you can make in your AI evaluation workflow. I've seen teams that do this iterate up to 10x faster. Why? Two main reasons: 1. Frictionless Review = Exponential Gains: A custom tool is designed for your specific workflow. You can add keyboard shortcuts for common actions, custom filters for your metadata, and bring all the context a reviewer needs from multiple systems into one screen. A tiny reduction in friction for a single review, multiplied by hundreds or thousands of reviews, translates into a massive increase in the volume and quality of feedback you can process. 2. Domain-Specific Rendering: A custom interface lets you render data in a way that's intuitive for the domain. Evaluating AI-generated emails? Render them to look like emails. Reviewing code output? Use syntax highlighting. Assessing a RAG system for medical content? Display the retrieved sources alongside the generated summary in a clear, readable format. When you present data in a product-specific way, your reviewers can give you higher-quality feedback, faster. Below is a screenshot of a custom annotation app one of our students, Christopher Lovejoy, MD built for a medical use case. This is just one of the high-leverage strategies we teach in our AI Evals for Engineers & PMs course. For those interested in the full evaluation toolkit - from error analysis to production monitoring. Get 35% off with code evals-info-url. Next cohort kicks off Oct 6: https://bit.ly/4nahFmu

I recently found myself checking reviews for a hotel I was set to stay for an upcoming trip to New York in January.     With an overall rating above 8 and affiliation with a reputable hotel chain, I felt confident in this choice. The location was ideal, and everything looked promising.    However, my curiosity and a couple of minutes between meetings led me to dig deeper into the reviews, specifically filtering out the positive reviews. What I discovered was concerning: comments spanning several years highlighted a troubling trend of unpleasant interactions from the hotel staff.    This raises the following questions:  • How can such issues continue happening year after year within a well-established hotel chain?  • Why has the management team failed to address these recurring concerns?  • Is the high occupancy rate in New York causing hotels to overlook the importance of providing good guest experience?  • Why have these negative reviews not been responded to by the hotel?    According to a ReviewTrackers report, 94% of the respondents said negative reviews influenced them to avoid a business.    As someone who advocates for CX, it would have been odd to ignore all of the feedback and proceed with my reservation.    I ended up asking for another booking.    Customer experience is crucial, regardless of a brand's prestige.    In today's world, it's not about what the brand says, but what consumers say about it. With numerous choices and the significant influence of social media on opinions and decisions, neglecting the overall customer experience can have long-term impacts on reputation and brand loyalty.    Do you usually book hotels based on reviews? What key factors do you consider before booking a hotel stay?    #CXG #CXGLife #CustomerExperience #Hospitality 

Performance reviews are stressful because they turn months of work into a memory test. Every quarter, half year, or year, we are asked to write self reflections, set goals, and give peer feedback. All of this depends on recalling details from a fast paced environment where work moves quickly and context is easily lost. This is a problem I have faced throughout my career. But what if we could automate this process and make it less stressful and more fun? I built an app that acts like a career mentor, helping you log your work as you go and connect the dots between what you do every day and where you want to grow. Here is how it works. You log quick daily or weekly updates on what you worked on. Each update is connected to your goals, projects, and the people you worked with. Small details that demonstrate growth and impact are captured instead of forgotten. At the end of the cycle, you can generate a complete self reflection without stress. The AI then analyzes everything you have logged, identifies relationships between your work, goals, and outcomes, and asks clarifying questions to strengthen your narrative. It aligns your feedback with your company’s performance guidelines, your current level, and next level expectations. It also highlights gaps and helps fill them using best practices for effective performance feedback. I have been testing this workflow for the past six months, and for the first time my performance review felt joyful. Instead of scrambling to remember everything I had done, I could clearly see my impact, reflect on my growth, and confidently present my work. The experience shifted from stressful and uncertain to intentional and empowering. This tool does not exaggerate your work. It makes sure your work is seen, connected, and presented in the strongest way possible. Does this sound like something you would use? Comment below if this would make your performance reviews less stressful, or share how you handle them today.

I spent an evening with a hotel GM whose 75-room boutique property achieves 48% higher guest engagement scores than AI-powered luxury chains in Mumbai. When I asked what their competitive advantage was, they pointed to the most overlooked digital goldmine in hospitality... 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐥'𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲. While most properties treat review responses as damage control or courtesy replies, market leaders have quietly transformed their public response conversations into their most powerful prospective guest conversion engine. The traditional "thank you for staying" and "we'll improve" mentality has been completely reimagined with stunning acquisition results. My research across digitally-sophisticated properties reveals three review response psychology principles that drive substantial booking increases: • 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 – Crafting responses that speak to potential bookers reading reviews, not just the reviewer, increases direct booking inquiries by 67% within 48 hours of response publication • 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞 – Strategic mention of specific amenities, local partnerships, and insider knowledge in responses positions the hotel as destination authority, driving 52% higher average booking values from review readers • 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 – Consistent brand voice in responses that reflects hotel character creates emotional connection, resulting in 71% of respondents choosing the property over price-competitive alternatives A struggling independent property in Goa implemented this review response revenue psychology system. Within 75 days, their conversion rate from Google searches to direct bookings increased by 44%, while their average guest spend rose ₹2,800 per stay as review readers arrived with pre-established premium expectations. The breakthrough insight? Your review responses are read 15x more than your website's About page. Every response is a micro-marketing campaign targeting motivated travelers actively researching their stay decisions in real-time. Most surprising discovery: Properties achieving the greatest review-response-driven revenue gains aren't hiring PR agencies or response automation—they're training front desk staff in conversion psychology and strategic public communication that turns satisfied guests into booking ambassadors. 𝐈𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬, 𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥? #ReviewResponseRevenue #DigitalAcquisition #ReputationManagement #ConversionPsychology #HospitalityMarketing #DirectBookings

Yet another reason estimates are ridiculous. One of the silliest things about time estimates is that the vast majority of time it takes for a team to finish something is spent waiting. For the average development team to create something of value, only 10-20% of the total start-to-finish completion time is spent actively working on the item. The majority of the time is spent waiting. 🔵 Waiting for Reviews 🔵 Waiting for team member hand-offs 🔵 Waiting on other teams or departments So much time is spent waiting… instead of asking, “How much time will it take WORKING to complete this?” You’d be better off asking, “How much time will it take WAITING to complete this?” This, of course, is impossible to answer since most teams have zero control (or even awareness) of waiting time. You’re far, far better off ditching time estimates entirely and focusing on reducing wait states instead. But how? 1] Use Flow Efficiency ↳ Few teams are even aware of the most critical flow metric: Flow Efficiency. ↳ Flow Efficiency tells you how much time is spent actively working on increments of value (features, assets, stories, etc.). ↳ Flow Efficiency (%) = Active Time / Total Time X 100 ↳ Any good workflow tool will calculate your Total Time (Cycle Time). 2] Determine Active Time ↳ To figure out Active Time, you need to track your wait states by adding a “Done” state to every existing stage in your workflow. ↳ For Example: Development -> Development Done -> Testing -> Testing Done -> Review -> Review Done -> Released ↳ The “Done” columns are your wait states.  ↳ Now, you can effectively determine Active Time for each item in your flow vs. Wait Time. 3] Improve Flow Efficiency ↳ Once you can visualize and track wait times, you can focus on fixing the worst offenders. ↳ Add team members, reduce work in progress, remove dependencies… there are many ways to minimize wait states. ↳ Any reduction made to any of your wait states will improve Flow Efficiency An average team will have a Flow Efficiency of 20%. Your team should achieve a Flow Efficiency of 40% or greater to be considered high-performing. Will this take some effort? Of course! But far less effort and total team time (and annoyance) than asking for estimates. Plus, the increase in productivity will far outweigh any loss in imagined predictability.

If you want to save 10+ hours reviewing audit evidence, you might want to save this post. When I first got promoted to senior, reviewing evidence was chaos. Ten documents per control, multiple tabs open, follow-ups pending and still no clarity. It wasn’t that I didn’t work hard. It’s that I was starting in the wrong place. Most auditors begin with the request list. I did too. Until I realized the request list is not the control. And that mistake was costing me 10+ hours every week. So I built a simple 3-step framework that changed everything: 1/ Start with the risk, not the request. Before you open a single document, ask: What risk is this control addressing? Once you know the risk, you know what evidence actually matters. 2/ Review last year’s documentation. It’s your roadmap. It shows what the firm accepted as sufficient evidence before. Don’t reinvent. Just align and refine. 3/ Then, and only then, open the evidence. Match each item to the risk not the request. That’s where real efficiency begins. Since using this approach, my reviews are faster, cleaner, and far less painful. And the best part? I don’t drown in documents anymore. I’ve shared the full breakdown, examples, pitfalls, and how to apply it to your next walkthrough in a free guide you can download here. If you’ve ever spent a weekend buried in screenshots and sign-offs, this one’s for you. #audit #itaudit #internalaudit #cisa #crisc

Ever been a part of an endless content review cycle with too many reviewers, preferential comments all over the place, and people downloading the doc to 'take it offline'? I feel your pain. 😬 It's an unecessary and avoidable challenge. This is what I see when I get under the hood of a painful review process: 🔹 no one has time 🔹 file control issues (email - gah!!) 🔹 too many reviewers are involved 🔹 lots of preferential changes 🔹 comments are in dozens of places 🔹 people don't know what to review for 🔹 no one wants to make the final decisions Here’s how to fix this so it's easier for everyone: ✅ always use a track changes feature ✅ Give people an explicit time limit - 3 days is reasonable ✅ Use a project management tool to track dates, file locations, progress, and owners ✅ Designate who makes final calls and let the author him/herself make those final changes ✅ Find a way to work online, for example on Teams or Google Drive, and STOP emailing files around ✅ Choose MAXIMUM three people to perform reviews. Your blog posts do not need to go all around the company for approval. Nip that one in the bud. ✅ Tell people exactly what they are reviewing for - grammar? Flow? Accuracy? Tell them what they DON'T have to review for - ie, most often grammar, if you have an editor. ✅ Be very specific with your request: "Your feedback on this blog/ebook/newsletter is important. Can you complete it by EOD Friday? The link to the file is here. Please use the track changes and commenting feature. If you cannot make that date, please let me know as soon as you can. If I don't hear from you, I will assume that you approved the content.' What other tips would you give to teams trying to manage content reviews?