Enhancing Kowloon’s Online Reviews

Terms of References

The report is regarding the online reviews given by the customers regarding the products and services provided by the company. The purpose of this report is to recommend a suitable Online Review Management Strategy for the client company. This report is for the restaurant name Kowloon which is present in London. This report will evaluate in detail, the need for the ORMS by the company to analyze the online review received by the company.

Introduction

In today’s competitive business environment, online reviews have become essential elements to establish stronger online presence and reputation so as to attract the newer customers and differentiate one self’s from the competitions (Revinate, 2015). Nowadays, consumers are highly relying on online resources so as to assist in making purchasing decisions. With an enhanced number of consumers finding the services as well as transaction online, the review of business has become the important assets to produce the newer business. Online reviews help in boosting the search ranking and also give customers voice cement for their loyalty (Filieri & McLeay, 2013).

This report will possess terms of references along with a brief introduction regarding online reviews. The data collection process will also be analyzed in this report along with the report findings achieved after reviewing the task objectives. The effective recommendation will be given to the restaurants regarding the needs of application of Online Review Management Strategy (ORMS).

Procedure

The data are collected by the means of both primary and secondary data collections where secondary data is collected by the means of RULDiscovery which includes academic papers and journals. On the other hands, primary data are collected by the means of interviews where five staffs from customer’s relation management (CRM) departments of Kowloon restaurants were interviewed on the Kowloon Restaurant itself. There is 6 questions which were asked to each of the staffs. The findings were reviewed as per the secondary data collected and primary data achieved after interviewing the staffs. All the data were organized and a collective conclusion was received based on the findings achieved. All the data collection was being ethical in nature and there was no manipulation in the result.

Findings

Task a) Secondary Research on the Needs of ORMS

Impact of Online Reviews

Nowadays, consumers not only review the sites so as leave the comments regarding the business but also turn to the internet so as to take decision path for business. It is very important for the business to have a good online reputation as it has a direct impact on the revenue potential. Positive online reviews not only attract newer customers but also attract new staffs and also keep the existing customers and employees happy and satisfied (Filieri & McLeay, 2013). A single negative post on the internet could undo all the good works done previously and thus destroys the reputation, brand perception, image and loyalty of customers.

Online reviews in the Restaurants Industry

Social media has changed various aspects of the operation of the restaurants which possess marketing strategies and customer’s engagement policies. It had been analyzed that restaurants make the use of social media so as to create strategies of marketing (Revinate, 2015). On the other hand, Consumers achieve information by the means of social media tools like Twitter or Facebook as well as Consumer-driven sites like Yelp.com prior to dining at a restaurant (Hennig-Thurau & et.al., 2004). Social media has offered the consumers of restaurants to express their views regarding the services or products. However, consumers of restaurants have not only started consulting to friends while selecting a restaurant but also takes into consideration the social media sites. Thus, consumers always try to check the Word of Mouth (eWOM) information from the former diners (Hennig-Thurau & et.al. 2004). As a result, eWOM is considered as an effective marketing strategy for the restaurant industry and is termed as the critical factors which influence the restaurant selection behavior of consumers.

Online Review Management Strategy

There have been various local search services such as yelp which helps the customers to find the events, lists and post the reviews regarding the restaurants. However, since consumers possess an unprecedented amount of power and the popularity of the review communities such as yelp could drastically change the restaurants for either better or for worse (Connor, 2010). Thus, the restaurant industry should possess a strategy to find out the random complaints on such communities and manage it. This strategy is important as they can directly message the customers and settle the errors (Filieri & McLeay, 2013). The online review management strategy is needed as it can boost the number of customers and can come up with a number of solutions.

Case of Kowloon Restaurant

Kowloon Bakery China Town London is the china bakery which serves Chinese and Asian cuisines. It provides the meals till late night and possesses the features of takeout, seating, server’s alcohols and wait for staffs. There are beautiful windows displays from the restaurants. It had been analyzed from the reviews obtained that this restaurant doesn’t possess any Online Review Management strategy as there is a larger number of negative comments which is posted by a number of customers regarding restaurants services (Kowloon, 2019). It is thus, important for this company to make the usage of ORMS as it could help them in enhancing reputation and trustworthiness. Moreover, it can also change the online consumer behavior of the employees. Since online reviews are the alternative forms of E-WOM, so it has a direct impact on consumer’s selection criteria (Kowloon, 2019).

Task b) identify and analyze the online reviews which the company receives (through primary research)

Interview Findings

This task will be showing the empirical findings on the staff’s views regarding the online reviews received by Kowloon Restaurant in London. Consequently, a total of five interview participants were interviewed who were from customer relationship management (CRM) department. It was seen that all the participants were from London.

Table 4.0 will provide us the basic information regarding the participants who had taken place in the interview at the time of the study of the research.

After analyzing Table 4.0, it is acknowledged that every participant is in the same position in an organization. To make the references regarding the obtained responses from the interviewed, participants are short coded where the response of the first participant is referred to as “A1”.

Does your company possess any ORMS?

When this question was asked to the participants, it was found that all of them said “NO”.

“No, we do not possess any ORMS in our restaurants” (A2)

“No, our company does not possess any ORMS” (A4)

Which platform is applied for the appearance of the online reviews?

When this question was asked to the participants, it was found that all of them said that restaurant make the usage of both dedicated review sites and social networking sites platforms for the appearance of reviews.

“Our restaurant makes the usage of social networking sites like Facebook and dedicated review sites like Trip Advisor and yelp to appear reviews.” (A2)

“Kowloon restaurant use both social network site and dedicates review sites for reviews to appear.” (A4)

What are the criteria’s being used for online reviews?

When this question was asked, many of the participants said that taste and value for money are the criteria for reviewing while some said that service and ambiance are the review criteria for this restaurant.

“Value for money is the criteria which are used to review our restaurant.” (A2)

“Service and ambiance are the two criteria which are used by our restaurant.” (A3)

“Service, ambiance, value for money and taste are the criteria for reviewing Kowloon Restaurants” (A5)

What are the recurring themes and patterns used in online reviews?

When this question was asked, all the participants replied satisfaction/dissatisfaction to be the recurring themes and pattern in the reviews.

“Our company makes the usage of satisfaction /dissatisfaction themes and patterns in the reviews.” (A5)

What is the company doing to control negative or fake reviews?

All the participants stated that the company has no strategy or ideas to control negative or fake reviews.

“No, we are not using any software or another process to control reviews as it is costly.” (A1)

“Our company is planning to execute some software but in the present context, we are not using any strategy or software’s to control fake or negative reviews.” (A3)

What kinds of responses are given by the company to the consumer’s reviews?

It was analyzed from interview participants that the company makes a reply to its customer in a random fashion. Most of the positive reviews are answered with thank you for greeting.

“We do not reply to reviews given by customers in regular fashion but reply to some of them randomly.” (A2)

“There is no staff allocated for this work so any of the company staffs on behalf of the company reply to positive reviews sometimes.” (A4)

Recommendations and Conclusion

It has been analyzed after reviewing primary and secondary data that Kowloon Restaurant has not made the usage of any sorts of Online Review Management Strategy (ORMS). Moreover, this company has also not applied any sorts to procedures to control the fake or negative reviews so it is recommended to Kowloon Restaurant to manage their online review in an effective manner. it is recommended to this restaurant to claim their business on all review sites as it will help them to respond to all the reviews with direct messages on public comments (Park & Allen, 2013). It can also help the company to track the customers and add photos to the websites. Since Kowloon restaurant does not implement any procedures to track reviews, thus finding the right review management software is essential to track the reviews. It could help the restaurant to monitor all the top reviewed sites and ask the clients for reviews in different top review sites. Apart from that, this software could also help the company to maintain full control over the messages and their brand interaction with the customers. Since, there is a larger number of fake and negatives reviews for these restaurants so it is recommended to the company to generate reviews from happy customers (Connor, 2010). However, messaging or requesting each of the customers manually is time-consuming so it is essential for this company to take the help of software. Good review management software would help the company to directly contact the customers prevailing in any platform via emails. There are various software’s which post the good reviews directly to the platforms but doesn’t share bad experience directly in the platforms yet send an internal feedback form to the customers. The usage of such software by this restaurant would help them to escape themselves from fake or negative reviews (Sparks & Browning, 2011).

It is analyzed from the interview findings that this restaurant doesn’t make any efforts who give positive comments so it is recommended to the company to responses to the positive review with a polite response. The usage of words like “thank you”, “visits again” could make the customer happy and will also have a positive impact on them. Lastly, it is also important for the restaurant to take the reviews either positive or negative for their own benefits (Hennig-Thurau & et.al., 2004). Kowloon Restaurant should improvise their services by the help of negative feedbacks. The restaurant should evaluate the major areas which are being followed by the customers as negative points and then, they should improve it as a whole. Negative reviews should be taken as strength to improvise the workability of an organization. On the other hand, positive glowing reviews could be taken as testimonials in the sales materials and thus, the company should constantly update their list of happy customers on their homepage and landing pages (Park & Allen, 2013). This could also influence people to give positive actions and drive the business higher.

References

Connor, P., 2010. Managing a Hotel's Image on TripAdvisor. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, Vol. No. 21, No. 2, pp. 754-772.

Filieri, R., & McLeay, F., 2013. E-WOM and Accommodation: An Analysis of the Factors That Influence Travelers' Adoption of Information from Online Reviews. Journal of Travel Research, Vol. No. 2, No. 3, pp. 44-57.

Hennig-Thurau, T., & et.al., 2004. Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet? Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. No. 13, No. 6, pp. 38-52.

Sparks, B., & Browning, V., 2011. The impact of online reviews on hotel booking intentions and trust. Tourism Management, Vol. No. 32, No. 6, pp. 1013-1023.