The COVID-19 pandemic was a disaster for each one of us, and it costed a huge bomb to the businesses in case of their reputation.

Managing the online reputation is critical for recovery during the pandemic and future sales. It's important to give time and resources to improving your property's online ratings, responding to reviews, and incorporating input into the guest experience.

What impact has the pandemic had on marketers' reputations?

As you may recall, many media outlets temporarily switched off reviews for numerous businesses towards the beginning of the global epidemic.

This was due to an influx of bad reviews when businesses were closed or couldn't provide the same level of service to consumers as usual. Companies that had little choice in the matter and did not want unfavorable evaluations to harm their reputation when through it. 

While the goal of large media was excellent, the downtime reduced the number of positive evaluations. As a result, many marketers and business leaders, including yourself, have had to work even harder to restore those crucial reputation-based metrics.

Businesses that go above and above in times of adversity will stand out to their customers and contribute to developing that reputation. It demonstrates that you live in the solution and attempt to present your consumers with the best accessible alternatives.

Some of the steps are as follows:

1. Set the tone for your visitors.

Overpromising and under-delivering only lead to disgruntled customers and negative feedback. That's why it's crucial to create the right expectations right from the start, starting with a realistic representation of your property's stay experience on your website.

While pandemic precautions are in place, it is critical to notify customers about your business health and safety regulations (such as sanitation procedures, mask-wearing rules, social distancing policies, and service closures) to reassure and inform potential guests (and what is expected of them).

Use pre-arrival communications in addition to your website to make customers feel valued, eager, and prepared for their upcoming visit. Include any extra amenities or services available to make their stay more comfortable or pleasurable, as well as any safety requirements and limited services.

2. Exceed the expectations of the guests

It is the care to detail that separates the guest experience. Small gestures can make a great impression on visitors and make them feel valued. Please pay special attention to service delivery, properly train workers, and encourage them to go above and beyond for visitor pleasure to exceed guest expectations. From reliable cleaning supplies to software solutions, it's also essential to provide your team with the support they need to do their tasks well.

In the present pandemic, customers' key worries and expectations are health and safety, particularly hotel cleanliness and social distancing practices. Right now, doing this right is critical—customer pleasure is on the line. Because the work of the housekeeping staff is so important, make sure that personnel is given the training and resources they need to maintain higher housekeeping standards.

3. Request feedback from your visitors.

While review sites allow dissatisfied customers to air their grievances, experts say the most common motivation for submitting travel reviews is to share happy experiences with other travelers.

Most consumers are glad to share their positive experiences and provide feedback that can assist owners in fine-tuning the customer experience, especially now that everyone is learning to adjust to the new standard together and making an effort to support local businesses. Now is a great moment to solicit feedback from your customers.

In fact, in these uncertain times, it's more critical than ever to generate new reviews to demonstrate to potential visitors that your business is a safe location to stay. Automated post-stay mailings, which connect to your business's listing on your favorites review site, are an efficient approach to encourage guests to leave a review. Use your PMS to send post-stay emails to guests based on reservation data, either directly from the PMS or via integration with reputation management software.

4. Keep an eye on online reviews.

Observing and reacting to what customers are saying online—and acting on comments to improve the customer experience—is essential for maintaining a solid online reputation. It's critical to reply to unfavorable reviews and share positive feedback to demonstrate that you care about your clients.

You may set up an alert for your business's name (or any other search term) using Alerts (a free service), and it will notify you anytime new content involving your property's title is published on a webpage. Social media management solutions (both free and commercial versions) allow you to monitor social media channels for mentions, schedule posts, communicate with followers, manage social media marketing campaigns, and access analytics from a single dashboard.

Consider investing in a specialist reputation management service. These sophisticated tools collect all of your internet reviews and social media mentions into one dashboard where you can reply to reviews across all networks, issue feedback requests, manage your social media profiles, and check sentiment statistics after a pandemic to prioritize adjustments.

5. Conduct formal tests

According to the data, marketers typically implement new, unplanned techniques without fully comprehending their effects. In 2021, they must reverse this trend: Social media channels are great places to test new brand messages, advertisements, and products, as well as obtain immediate, measurable responses from your target audience. Marketers must learn how to use these tools.

6. Invest in the best social media talent available.

Social media directors are now demanded to oversee a pricey but highly influential component of the marketing budget and a function that frequently needs them to wear numerous hats (copywriter, graphic designer, customer service rep, etc.). As a result, marketing executives must carefully consider who should occupy this critical job. While the most useful social media administrators can have a beneficial impact, a social media director who is untrained or unqualified can harm a company's brand.

As the pandemic made people spend more time online, social media has become a more vital aspect of the association between brands and clients, both existing and potential new ones. To adjust to the new panorama now is the time to spend developing a combined and active social media management function.

Improving the online reputation post-pandemic is not challenging, if you have the right experts and strategies in place, then it helps the business to improve the overall online reputation. The professionals at Build Your ORM are always here to help you out.