Canadian Marketing Blog

How to Impress the On-Demand Consumer

One of the attributes of what we at work call the new "On-Demand Consumer" is that when 'Joe On-Demand' is in-market, he looks for fellow consumer reviews and ratings of the product or service he is interested in. Sure, he cares what official experts have to say on the matter, but the opinions of his friends and peers and the guy next door are what will really influence his purchase decision.

So, if Joe is trying to decide between a Sony plasma TV and a Panasonic plasma TV, he will browse the consumer reviews at epinions.com. If Joe is hunting for a decent hotel, he'll visit TripAdvisor to read what people who have stayed at the hotel thought of their experience.

I recently stumbled across a great example of a company that is managing this new "consumer-as-reviewer" reality. While browsing TripAdvisor looking for consumer reviews of a handful of hotels in Montreal, I discovered one hotel that clearly recognizes the importance of the On-Demand Consumer.

Like many of the hotels I had short-listed, the TripAdvisor listing for Hotel Omni Mont-Royal had over a 100 TripAdvisor Traveler Reviews. Most of the reviews were favourable, but there were a smattering of negative reviews as well. Pretty much what you'd expect to see for all the hotels. You can't please everyone!

Except for one thing.

Every single Traveler Review - positive or negative - that had been posted this year was followed by a detailed written response by a management representative from the Hotel Omni Mont-Royal. That's right, someone representing the hotel had taken the time to read and respond to each of the reviews.

This was the first time I'd seen a hotel respond to consumer reviews on TripAdvisor, and it really impressed my wife and me. Rather than bury their head in the virtual sand and ignore what was being said about them, this hotel took a pro-active stance by participating in the online dialogue and - at the same time - demonstrating their strong commitment to customer service. I'm sure we weren't the only potential customers who were positively influenced by this smart move.

While we didn't end up staying at this hotel - we had a change of plans - its active participation in the TripAdvisor Traveler Review section certainly made a strong and favourable impression on us.

Bill - I've had nothing but positive experiences with TripAdvisor and your post was both a first and an eye opener for me. Imagine a Company actually reading and responding. WOW. It got me to thinking. I was in a Client meeting the other day and we were talking about a Blog for a CPG brand.One of their fears (and I'm sure you've heard this before) was opening their brand up to public commentary. In my next follow up meeting I plan to bring up your TripAdvisor story. In your experience, have you come across any CPG Companies or Brands that also respond to consumer comments on their blogs or forums?

More and more sites based on this are developing day by day. So there is a great confusion for the consumer to choose the right product. Do any one have a solution for this ?