Allowing
User Generated Content on Destination Sites
The
7 August 2007 edition of the Zeitgeist z-news:
An interesting
exchange in one of the sessions at DMAI
last month went something like this:
 “We
are Destination Marketers. It’s our job to market our Destinations
in the most positive light possible. How then can you say that we should
allow negative customer reviews and comments to be available through
our website that is paid for with money from the very businesses that
are getting slammed?”
“Because if your site is nothing but joy and sunlight, the consumer
won’t believe it.”
It is a dilemma...one that Gregory Pierce of the Atlanta
CVB answered by saying, “You have to decide whether
you are serving your members or the visitor. In Atlanta, we’re
serving the visitor.”
I know. Easy for him to say. His members may be more sophisticated that
those of other DMOs. Or maybe not.
But, I tend to agree with him. It’s ALL about the consumer. They
are in control and they don’t trust traditional institutions as
they once did. They trust each other. Thus, to sell a destination, DMOs
need to facilitate the networking and sharing of opinions that will
go on regardless of our participation in the process. If we don't, we’re
not even in the conversation.
In fact, facilitating the posting of the occasional negative review
might just help the destination. Think your industry partners are checking
in regularly on each of the myriad of review site that already exist?
Maybe (not). Think they’ll be checking the DMO site? Oh yeah.
And when a negative post emerges, they have the opportunity to engage
the customer and make it right. Which shows others consumers that this
business gets it.
It also alerts management to problems they may never have considered,
allowing them to turn that criticism into better operating policies,
products and service. Without the periodic negative post, how do businesses
get better?
And, if these businesses engage non-plussed customers and improve their
practices, products and services, doesn’t it follow that the destination
is improved? And, isn’t that what DMOs want?
The stray member that blows a cork because the DMO is facilitating negative
posts about them? They’ll leave, you’ll get to drop them
from the website and the visitors guide and, now, your destination looks
even better.
‘Cause you were always embarrassed to list them anyway.
On the outside, negative posts look bad. But, like a Rube
Goldberg machine, the result is quite possibly just what
the doctor ordered.
Bill
Wanna
comment on this or other topics. E-mail
Me!
And...here
are a few of our recent blog posts you might enjoy:
•
VisitPA
v3.0. The Pennsylvania website keeps
getting better.
•
e-Marketing Insight Conference: Day One. Highlights
for Day One.
•
e-Marketing Insight Conference: Day Two. Highlights
for, er, Day Two.
•
Seeing your Destination through Different Eyes.
A suggestion...
•
Randyland. Economic Development on a Grass-Roots
Level.
Bill
Wanna comment on this or other topics. E-mail Bill
at bill@billgeist.com.
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