Category Archive: Marketing

How to use TripAdvisor to your advantage

Posted by Milena Regos on November 7, 2010

Two sides to this post are 1) using TripAdvisor as a consumer and 2) using TripAdvisor as a travel brand. According to AllFacebook.com there are over 9.5 mil monthly users of TripAdvisor. I love the site as it gives me real reviews about a place I’d like to visit. Just be a little cautious when you read the reviews as sometimes only the most passionate and the really unhappy people will go through the trouble of posting a review. In an effort to get good reviews, TripAdvisor actually makes the review process fairly lengthy.

1. If you are a consumer make sure to read the reviews on TripAdvisor prior to booking your trip. You may find insightful information about a place you would like to visit. I usually glance at the reviews before pulling out my credit card and committing to a reservation. You may not always see positive reviews about a place, but sometimes people just like to complain. Personally, if most reviews are good and there are a few bad reviews I would take them into account but put more emphasis on the positive. I like to think the glass is half full. Big points go to the property that has responded to a negative review. Seeing a response usually makes me smile as this means the property is actually monitoring their reviews and responding to complaints. When I see negative reviews and no response, this usually is enough for me to look elsewhere.
2. If you represent a travel brand (think hotels, restaurants, cruises, vacation properties and even airlines) you can use TripAdvisor to gather feedback and correspond with your customers who are reviewing your place while you are reading this. Here are a few tips for travel companies on how to use TripAdvisor to their advantage:

• Get your business listed on TripAdvisor and make sure you give as much information as possible about your property. Photos are KEY!
• Sign up to receive reviews by email and every time someone posts a new review you will be notified.
• Read the reviews and respond if necessary with a thank you or a comment. If the review is negative, proceed with caution. Sometimes an acknowledgment and stating the facts may be sufficient but be careful not to make an already angry person even angrier. It’s a very fine line what you say and how you say it.
• Encourage your guests to spread the word for you with signs at your property, links on your website and in your email newsletters.
• Track your performance and see how you rank against your competitors (this service is offered to accommodations only)

TripAdvisor offers excellent and free business owners resources online to help with getting more reviews, best practices including how to respond to reviews, links and badges for your website/email newsletter, and content ideas.

They recently added user generated lists and tours to their mobile application which will continue to increase TripAdvisor’s popularity with travelers.

Don’t ignore online reviews as part of your social media strategy. With a huge audience, TripAdvisor is a popular place for people to turn to when researching their trip. I know I do.

Do you use TripAdvisor as a consumer? Have you implemented it in your social media efforts for your company?

Categories: Blog Business Customer Loyalty Customer service eMarketing Marketing Social Media Social Media Marketing Travel & Recreation Web 2.0 Web 2.0 tools Word of Mouth | 5 Comments »

3 ways to get happy customers for life

Posted by Milena Regos on October 26, 2010

Dr. Seuss

Running your own business is complicated enough. How do you make sure your customers are happy and they bring you referrals and positive word-of-mouth? Here are 3 tips to follow:

1. Under promise and over deliver. Return their phone call, email, tweet, question within reasonable time.  If you are completely swamped then tell them you will get back to them upon review. Deliver on what you promised. Take it a step further – under promise and over deliver. Make sure you meet the deadline you suggested in the first place. Always go above and beyond to make sure you are over-delivering on their expectations. Just meeting their expectations doesn’t cut it anymore.

2. Be consistent. This means be consistent in everything you do – from your marketing to the way you answer emails. Again, this is based on creating expectations. People doing business with you get used to doing it a certain way. People don’t like change. If you are planning on improving anything, make sure to give people plenty of notice and allow them to opt out. An example is how Twitter and Facebook change their platforms. Twitter allows people to go back to the old version of the platform. Facebook makes the change whether you like it or not. People don’t like change. Be consistent and you have a better chance of making people happy. This doesn’t mean be consistent at under delivering, you will only create a complete failure.

3. Treat everyone with respect and give them special attention. Respect your customers and they will respect you back. People are all individuals an they deserve the utmost respect until proven otherwise. Everybody wants to feel special. You can make them feel special by finding out what they like and jotting it down in your computer. If you have some type of customer relationship program, record it there. Otherwise, attach it to their name somehow, electronically is the preferred method. Remember their birthdays. Remember little things they said in your every day conversation that could lead to a special recognition or gift. For example, if someone likes tea instead of coffee, get them a special tea set for the holidays with a hand written note from you. If you make them feel special, they will remember your business. Once they need your service, they will come back to you.

Happy people spread positive word of mouth – the most affordable marketing your small business can purchase.

Go ahead and make your promise. Just make sure you actually over deliver on it, be consistent and give them individual treatment.

What’s your best advice for small business owners?

Categories: Blog Business Customer Loyalty Customer service Marketing Small Businesses Word of Mouth | No Comments »

Ralph Lauren “Gets It”. Do you?

Posted by Milena Regos on October 10, 2010

Case Study: Ralph Lauren

This blog post is way overdue. It happened two winters ago and I just haven’t gotten around to write about it. It absolutely impressed me as a situation where clearly a company “Gets It”.

The company: The company is Ralph Lauren and more specifically their Polo Blue Cologne Fragrance. They created a brand new campaign to help launch their Red, White and Blue product line.

Photo Credit: JustBeMagazine.com

The Concept: A special edition under the Polo Blue franchise inspired by the Ralph Lauren Spirit and the icy invigoration of winter sports. Experience a fragrance celebration of exceptional athletic achievement. Come “push the boundaries” of BLUE.

The Promotion: Ralph Lauren teamed up with Warren Miller film tour and showed their product to 250,000+ moviegoers right before an incredible skiing and snowboarding footage from around the world. They created a 30 sec film combining the new fragrance with exciting skiing and snowboarding scenes. In addition, they had the product available for people to touch and smell prior to going in the movies. More promotions included YouTube video, Twitter contest, Facebook and newsletter promotions.

I participated in their Twitter contest initiated by @SkiingExaminer whom I have been following for a while and trust. I retweeted a short message from the company announcing the product in connection with the upcoming Warren Miller movie premiere.

The Results:

1. Established authenticity for winter sports positioning.

2. Sales increased 70% at Macy’s and 50% at other retailers for the week following the movie premiere.

3. Created excitement among youthful audience.

This so far looks like a well thought out and executed marketing campaign. Great product, good positioning and good tie in of traditional and new media.

What Impressed me?

Following the Twitter contest I was notified that I had won the product and it’s on its way. I completely forgot about it until 2-3 weeks later I received a package in the mail. Inside the package there was the new Ralph Lauren Red White and Blue Men fragrance. In addition, there was a ladies Red White and Blue fragrance bottle and a handwritten note from their Marketing Director. The note said: Dear Milena (Yes, that’s me) Thank you for participating and congratulations. We are including an extra fragrance bottle for you (they figured it out who they are sending the prize too; extra bonus). We hope you enjoy the new fragrance. Sincerely, Ralph Lauren Marketing Director. Did I mention it was a handwritten note? You bet it made me feel very special and appreciated. They way every company should make you feel if they want to keep you as a customer.

I was so impressed with the results that I tracked down the contact information for the Marketing Director from @SkiingExaminer and asked her to send me some information about the campaign to include in my blog. That’s how I know what the campaign generated in the Results section. She sent me an entire PowerPoint presentation with impressive slides, numbers and examples from the campaign some of which I have used in this post. This blog post is the least I can do to show my appreciation for a big brand that “Gets It” and tell you how a big company can actually be personable.

Ralph Lauren obviously gets what it takes to make people feel special. Do you do the same? Share some of your stories here in the comments section.

Categories: Blog Brands I like Business Case Studies Customer Loyalty Customer service Facebook Marketing Social Media Social Media Marketing Success Stories Twitter Word of Mouth | 2 Comments »

Superb customer service at the dentist office

Posted by Milena Regos on September 7, 2010

If you are like most people you probably dislike going to the dentist. I have to agree with you. Except that this dentist is very special.

I’ve been seeing him for over 15 years now despite of changes in dental insurances and 45 min drive to the office one way. He’s one of these older, nice gentleman who can make you feel very comfortable.Even in the dentist chair.

What I like most about this dentist is his attitude towards his clients and his high and I mean really high standard for customer service.

Dr. Donald Orme (in Truckee, CA) by far wins my award for customer service for a local Lake Tahoe business. He knows how to treat his customers and by that I don’t mean keep their teeth healthy but treat them with respect. He understands what it takes to make them feel good, how to make things right and how to keep his clients happy.

He “gets” how word-of-mouth and referrals work and he practices it every day. I wished more Lake Tahoe small and large businesses would learn from Dr. Orme and apply his unwritten policy: Do whatever it takes to make the customer happy.

I wrote a review about him on DentistDig. If you end up going to see him, feel free to write your opinion as well.

Have you run into a good or bad customer service experience lately? Leave a comment on this blog.

Categories: Blog Brands I like Business Customer Loyalty Customer service Lake Tahoe Marketing Small Businesses Success Stories Word of Mouth | No Comments »

Don’t Miss these Social Media Events coming to Lake Tahoe and Reno

Posted by Milena Regos on September 6, 2010

In the next months, a few social media events in the Lake Tahoe – Reno area are on my radar and they should be on yours too.

1. Tahoe Tech Talk 2010 is coming to beautiful South Lake Tahoe Sep 30-Oct 1. This event is promising high interaction with some excellent social media and tech people, such as Gary Vaynerchuk (Host of Wine Library TV), Kevin Rose (Founder of Digg), Ben Kaufman (Founder of Quirky) and many more interesting venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and overall smart people. Check out the complete speaker list. Why I like it? It’s close to home and the price is right. Only $399 to meet some really cool and smart people. It’s only 1 day. I highly recommend it.

2. It’s 2010. Is Your Business Social? This is a Social Media Workshop, 3 hour long, in Incline Village, cost is $10. This one is a bit of a self-promotion. I already wrote about it in a previous post. It’s a 3 hour workshop with topics covering from how to create your social media strategy, how to come up with engaging content, what to measure and who’s doing it well. It’s on Oct 7th in Incline Village. The price is only $10 and it benefits Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation in Incline Village. The reason I’m mentioning it again is because I want to hear your thoughts on what you would like to get out of this workshop. Let me know and I’ll work on getting it on the agenda.

3. Smart Social Media 2010 Reno- Tahoe is shaping up to be a great conference in the region. (Full Disclosure: I’m totally excited to be speaking there!). This social media conference in Reno is scheduled for Dec 8-10, 2010. The list of presenters include David Nour and Scott Klososky among other excellent speakers. The reason I highly recommend this event is because of its travel & tourism track where you will hear from Mike Sloan, leading the marketing digital efforts for Vail Resorts, Chad Hallert from the Eldorado Hotel Casino,  Rick Saake from the Reno Convention and Visitors Bureau, and many others on how to use social media for travel & tourism brands. Early registration is only $595. Don’t miss out on this local event. It will be a great opportunity to meet some amazing people, learn from each other and share some knowledge. As with the previous event, I’m asking you for input on what you would like to see in my presentation. This is your chance to be a part of it and to help me out with some ideas. I really appreciate your input.

Do you know of any events happening in the area between now and the end of the year? If you do, please, share them with everyone in the comments section.

Categories: Blog Events Marketing Social Media | 2 Comments »