MackCollier.com

by

Revolutionizing Travel and Hospitality: Crafting an Intuitive, Frictionless Tourism Booking Experience

Tourism booking

In the ever-evolving world of tourism and hospitality, one key element remains timeless – the power of a seamless and intuitive booking experience. For key decision makers in these industries, ensuring that potential travelers can effortlessly plan their getaways is essential for success. In this article, let’s look at some strategies you can leverage to create an intuitive, frictionless tourism booking experience that will captivate your audience and drive conversions.

Understanding the Essence of a Seamless Tourism Booking Experience

Tourism and hospitality decision makers know that every detail counts when it comes to attracting and retaining customers. Your website’s booking experience is often the first and most significant interaction a potential traveler has with your brand. To make a lasting impression and encourage bookings, an intuitive and frictionless booking process is imperative.

Crafting User-Centered Design

Designing a successful tourism booking experience begins with putting the user at the forefront. Here are the key steps to ensure a user-friendly booking process:

  • Know Your Audience – In the vast landscape of tourism, understanding your diverse audience is paramount. Tailor your website to accommodate the typical visitor to your area or destination. Create personas for the audience you want to target, then create content and a visitor experience that meets the needs of this group. BONUS: Here’s a detailed guide on how to create personas in your content marketing strategy.
  • Streamlined Navigation – Your website’s navigation menu should be clear, intuitive, and labeled with descriptive titles that cater to the info your visitor wants. Help users find what they’re searching for with labels like “Accommodations,” “Activities,” and “Special Offers.” Implement new terms as needed based on user feedback.
  • Mobile Optimization – Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices. It’s no longer 2010, a mobile-responsive website is no longer an option, it’s a necessity.  A mobile-optimized site provides a consistent booking experience, regardless of the device used, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.  If your website defaults to ‘desktop view’ on mobile devices, it immediately sends a bad message to visitors, and many will immediately leave your site as a result.
  • Simplified Booking Forms – Keep booking forms concise and straightforward, requesting only necessary information. Utilize autofill features to expedite the process and save travelers valuable time. Simplicity = convenience.
  • High-Quality Visuals – In tourism and hospitality, captivating visuals can evoke wanderlust and entice bookings. Utilize high-resolution images and engaging videos to create a sense of anticipation and encourage travelers to commit. Pro tip: Work with professional photographers to visually capture your destination or location. If your budget is limited, consider working with a local college or university in an internship program that could give you access to photography students. A good photographer will understand how to take pictures that tell a captivating story about your destination.

Building Trust and Credibility

In an industry heavily reliant on trust, conveying credibility is of utmost importance. To build trust with potential travelers, consider these strategies:

  • Transparent Pricing – Display pricing for accommodations, activities, and services clearly. Include any additional fees or taxes upfront to foster trust and transparency.  Travelers expect to see content that is clear and easy to understand. If you make it difficult for the visitor to properly assess the costs involved with securing a trip, they are less likely to spend money with you.
  • Guest Reviews and Testimonial – Satisfied travelers are your best salespeople. Leverage visitor recommendations and testimonials on your site, and especially promote this content on order pages or any page where the visitor tends to leave the site without confirming a reservation. Remind the visitor that other travelers committed to the trip, and enjoyed it.
  • Secure Booking Process – Implement robust security measures to safeguard your website and user data. Display trust badges and security certificates to assure users that their information is safe. Clearly promote and detail your privacy policy to put visitors at ease.
  • Accessible Customer Support – Provide easy access to customer support options, such as live chat, email, or a dedicated phone line. Responsive customer service can swiftly address traveler inquiries and boost confidence in the booking process. Also include an FAQ so travelers can do their own research and proactively answer questions that may arise during the consideration phase.

Optimizing the Booking Experience

A frictionless tourism booking experience depends on several factors working together harmoniously. Let’s explore these critical components:

  • Clear Calls to Action – Strategically position clear and enticing calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your website. Employ action-oriented phrases such as “Book Now” or “Reserve Your Stay” to prompt immediate action. Survey visitors and identify potential bottlenecks in the UI. Often, a visitor is ready to commit to a reservation, but the page they are on may not have a clear CTA. Add when necessary.
  • Progress Indicators – Progress indicators can help visitors see the progress they are making, while bringing clarity to the booking process. The additional level of transparency helps create trust while also encouraging the visitor to complete the booking process.
  • Personalization – Offer personalization options, such as room preferences, meal plans, and activity choices. Allowing travelers to customize their experiences enhances engagement and satisfaction.
  • Dynamic Pricing – Consider offering dynamic pricing options based on demand, seasonal events, and local packages. This gives the traveler more options, and it increases booking opportunities for your destinations and attractions.
  • One-Click Bookings – Simplify the booking process for returning travelers by offering one-click booking options. Returning guests can make bookings swiftly, enhancing their user experience.

Leveraging Data and Analytics

Data-driven decision-making can significantly improve the booking experience. Always make use of data and analytics to fine-tune your website’s UI. Areas to consider include:

  • Conversion Tracking – Implement conversion tracking to identify which parts of your website and booking process are most effective in converting potential travelers into guests. Also, identify areas where travelers are leaving without booking. Attempt to diagnose why the traveler abandoned the booking process, and rectify the situation by adding the appropriate support, content or CTA that the traveler was looking for.
  • A/B Testing – Conduct A/B testing to experiment with different elements of your website, such as button colors, form fields, and layouts, to optimize for conversions. Again, survey visitors to get insights into potential improvements. Then publish and A/B test different options to find the one that leads to more conversions.
  • User Feedback – Solicit user feedback regularly through surveys, on-site feedback forms, and online reviews. Valuable insights can reveal pain points and areas for improvement.

Addressing Common Challenges

As the traveler goes through the booking process, there are a few common issues that may crop up. Work to address these potential issues proactively, to help ensure a frictionless booking process for the traveler:

  • Booking Modifications – Implement clear and user-friendly booking modification policies to accommodate travelers’ changing plans and reduce booking-related stress. Clearly communicate what happens if a change is made in their itinerary, as well as the process for any changes the traveler might make. Giving the traveler options to change after booking helps ensure peace of mind with the decision to commit to the booking.
  • Local Regulations – Stay informed about local regulations, such as tourism taxes or accommodation restrictions, and ensure that your website complies with these rules.
  • Multilingual Support – For international travelers, provide multilingual support. Translated content and multilingual customer service can enhance the booking experience for non-English-speaking travelers. Also, regularly survey your visitors to make sure the most frequently used language options are available.

Commitment to Ongoing Improvement and Innovation

Staying at the forefront of the tourism and hospitality industry means being committed to continuous improvement and innovation:

  • Competitor Analysis – Keep a close watch on your industry peers. Analyze their booking processes, website designs, and user experience to identify opportunities to outperform them. If something is working for a competitor, attempt to determine why, and see if changes can be implemented in your own booking process.
  • Embracing New Technologies – Stay updated with the latest technologies and trends in web design and user experience. Implement innovative solutions to enhance your booking process. Focus first on user-feedback to find potential bottlenecks in the booking process, then investigate if emerging technologies could help in these areas.
  • User-Centered Workshops – Organize workshops or focus groups with real travelers to gain insights into their booking experiences and gather suggestions for improvements. Mack has been conducting on-site workshops, focus groups and breakout sessions with customers and users for over a decade. Email Mack to get more information on setting up a custom user feedback system for your CVB or destination.

Conclusion

In the highly competitive tourism and hospitality industry, crafting an intuitive, frictionless tourism booking experience is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. By implementing user-centered design principles and continuously optimizing the booking process, you can maximize conversions and leave a lasting, positive impression on potential travelers. As the tourism landscape continues to evolve, staying ahead of the curve in user experience innovation will help ensure the success of your destination or attraction.

by

Innovative: Inside Elon’s Plan to Turn Twitter in 2023 into CompuServe in 1996

The slow, incrementalist march toward turning Twitter into a ‘pay to play’ platform continues. Here’s the latest news, which I mentioned in yesterday’s Monday’s Marketing Minute:

Call me a cynic, but it seems pretty obvious to me that this is simply part of a larger plan to eventually have all Twitter users pay a fee to use the platform. I think Elon knows that this will be another in a long line of highly unpopular moves, so he’s easing Twitter users into this. First he does it in select countries, like New Zealand and the Philippines, and it only affects new users. Later, he claims the trial in those two countries was a rousing success, and rolls it out worldwide to all new users.  Later, he claims that move has also worked, then he expands it to ALL Twitter users, regardless of how long they have been on the platform.

At that point it’s simply a matter of raising prices as much as he feels he can.

This whole episode reminds me of my days on CompuServe on the mid 90s, with a twist.  When I started using CompuServe in the mid 90s, its pricing was $25 a month, for 10 hours. If you went over 10 hours of access, you paid $2.50 for every hour over. Imagine my shock that one month when I received a $100 bill, yikes!

That bill was for about 40 hours on CompuServe for that month. I cannot remember the last month that I spent 40 hours on Twitter.  It’s been years, maybe over a decade.

And that’s the point: While CompuServe was expensive, it was also FUN TO USE! I got entertainment, business and social value from being on CompuServe. It was an experience worth paying for. We could argue how much, but it was worth something.

The experience on Twitter, honestly isn’t worth much, and hasn’t been for a long time. In the mid 90s, AOL became a competitor to CompuServe by offering similar functionality and features, at a LOWER PRICE.  While CompuServe charged $25 for 10 hours, AOL charged $25 for UNLIMITED access. It allowed AOL to quickly take massive amounts of market share from CS, and within a few years, AOL dominated the online services space and CS was all but done.

Elon seems to be attempting to do the opposite with Twitter in 2023. He’s taking a platform and differentiating it from his competitors by CHARGING users when they can get a similar experience on a competing site…for free.

Let’s go back to the AOL/CompuServe example. Let’s say AOL and CS were both offering unlimited access (I believe CS later switched to this model, but by then it was too late) in 1996. AOL announces it is launching AOL Plus, and it will be $50 a month for 50 hours a month of access.

What would need to happen in order for that move to be a success for AOL?  Obviously, AOL Plus would have to offer a MUCH better experience for users than they could get from AOL or CompuServe. Right?

Yet, Elon is trying to move Twitter from being free to paid…and he really isn’t improving the experience that much, if at all. Bots are still a massive problem on the platform. Every new ‘feature’ rollout that Twitter adds that charges users has the same disclaimer that ‘this is necessary to combat the bot problem’. Yet the bot problem continues, apparently unabated. As do the moves to charge users for features that have been free for the last 17 years.

A few months ago, Elon announced that users could participate in revenue sharing. They could actually make money from using Twitter!

Then the fine print: You had to be a Twitter Blue subscriber.

Moving from a free to paid model for a social media site only works if its users can see a clear value in the fees which they will be required to paid. I’m not seeing the clear value in any of Elon’s moves so far.  We finally got the ability to edit tweets…and you have to pay for it. Bots are still a problem. Censorship is still a problem. Porn and trolls and toxicity are still problems.

But I did lose my verified status, so there’s that.

This was Elon’s biggest mistake

He never embraced Twitter’s user community. To be fair, neither did Dorsey and his crew.  Elon came into Twitter, guns blazing, and made a ton of sweeping changes to the platform. And he did so without really consulting Twitter’s users.

That was a big mistake. One of Elon’s top priorities when joining Twitter and BEFORE making huge moves should have been to establish a board or council of Twitter users and let that board/council have a say in his decisions. This would have ensured that Twitter’s user community always had input into moves, and they could have helped communicate the need for any moves to the larger community.

Instead, Elon came in shooting from the hip, making decisions with little or no input from users, and as a result many of those moves were a disconnect to the Twitter userbase. Then we watched as Elon made move after move that wasn’t aligned with what we wanted for Twitter, or what we thought it needed.

The reality is, Elon had a lot of supporters when he first took over Twitter. Many of those supporters have since left Twitter as a result of the moves he’s made.

I remember in 2009 having a conversation on Twitter with several other users about why Twitter needed a Community Manager. We concluded at the time that Twitter was really starting to grow, and now was a good time for Twitter to invest in its community and incorporate feedback from users into its decisions.

Almost 15 years later, and we are still waiting for Twitter to make that commitment to its users. I hate to say, but if it hasn’t happened by now, I don’t think it ever will. As a result, Twitter has never reached its full potential.

by

Monday’s Marketing Minute: Twitter Begins Charging Users to Tweet, NICKMERCS’ Massive Kick Deal, B2B Marketing Growth Slows

Happy Fall, y’all! We are just 8 days from Halloween and this is my favorite time of the year! The days are warm but crisp and the nights are cool but not yet cold. Here’s some business stories that have caught my eye over the last week:

 

It just feels like the long. slow march toward irrelevance is underway for Twitter/X. Elon seems determined to turn X into a pay to play platform. Since taking over, he’s been introducing numerous ways to charge users for services that were formerly free.  First there was Twitter Blue. Now, he’s begun hinting that users will eventually have to pay to tweet. In fact, such a program is currently being trialed in select countries. New users in New Zealand and the Philippines are being charged $1 a year to tweet. The name of the program is called ‘Not a Bot’ and Elon’s spin is that this will help fight the proliferation of bots on the platform.  The same justification he gave for Twitter Blue, limiting daily tweets, etc. The reality is, bots are just as big of a problem as they ever were.  This is about Elon introducing the idea of paying for Twitter. It’s incrementalism, once the idea has become accepted that core services now will cost something, then he can over time raise the price as much as he wants. I may have more thoughts on this tomorrow, I want to mull this over, but it seems like Twitter is entering that long, slow death spiral.

 

If you’ve read this blog for the last few years, you know I am a big fan of NICKMERCS. He just signed a $10 Million, one year deal with Kick, a Twitch rival. Perhaps the most amazing thing about this deal is that it’s apparently NOT exclusive! Nick will still be streaming on both Twitch AND Kick. Nick is one of the most popular streamers in the world, and he is a masterclass in building and leveraging a community. Nick started streaming in 2010, with an audience of zero. On one of his streams I watched, he mentioned that when he was first starting he would go to a local gas station and buy $20 Amazon gift cards to give away to subscribers during his stream. And his parents were NOT happy with his initial decision to become a full-time streamer. So he went from zero to being one of the wealthiest streamers on the planet, in under 15 years. And a big part of that was due to him creating and SUPPORTING his community of fans. He has given away hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe more?) to his fans over the years. He loves the people that love him.  Well done, Nick, now how long before that first Nick/Doc/Timmy stream???

 

The economy is hitting B2B Marketing spending as it is all areas of our lives right now. Projected spending on B2B marketing data in 2023 will be almost half what it was the last two years. Spending growth is forecast to see a marginal improvement in 2024, before increasing solidly in 2025.

 

So that’s it for this week’s edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute. I hope you have an amazing week, look for a new post tomorrow and another on Thursday. Oh and likely a post on the Bible over the weekend. Have a wonderful and productive week!

by

Mapping the Ideal Omnichannel Journey: How Retailers Can Delight Customers Across Touchpoints

omnichannel retail customer journey

Today’s consumers expect seamless shopping experiences engaging with retail brands across devices, channels and physical locations. Crafting and optimizing a successful omnichannel retail customer journey is difficult, but can be a solid revenue driver for your retail organization.  Companies that can deliver superior omnichannel customer engagement realize a 9.5% yearly increase in annual revenue.

Yet mapping and optimizing a unified omnichannel journey is complex for retailers. This article will help you map out and optimize a superior omnichannel journey for your customers.

Conduct In-Depth Journey Mapping

Your retail brand can gain a granular understanding of all touchpoints and customer pain points through:

  • Creating detailed omnichannel customer journey maps from the user perspective across web, mobile, in-store, social media and beyond.  If you want to get started creating a customer journey map for your retail brand, this link has a great primer.
  • Performing observational research and usability tests to uncover gaps and friction points in key journeys. Monitoring users as they navigate your website and other digital presences (such as your mobile app) can help uncover issues that are slowing or stopping the flow of the customer along the purchase journey.
  • Surveying shoppers on difficulties experienced and desired improvements in their omnichannel journey. Ask shoppers where they hit a ‘snag’ in the buying process. Most often, a shopper can identify an exact point that triggered a decision to end purchase consideration. Use this valuable feedback to improve the flow for all shoppers.

Journey insights help your retail brand design a customer journey that flows with little or no bottlenecks.

Bridge Platform and Channel Gaps

Eliminate transition friction across digital and physical by:

  • Enabling tight integrations between platforms to maintain context. Allow moving activities between channels seamlessly. Crafting a seamless experience is the name of the game. The shopper should view the journey as one process, they shouldn’t be able to notice when they move from one device or location to another. If they do notice, it’s because their experience changed, for good or bad. Try to eliminate this so the experience is consistent across all touchpoints.
  • Providing consistent commerce capabilities like buy online pickup in-store or return in-store. This is a convenient that modern retail shoppers demand. Allowing customers to buy and return in a more convenient fashion results in higher sales, customer loyalty and satisfaction.
  • Sharing customer data and history across channels to enable personalized, contextual interactions. Don’t silo customer history, make it equally accessible across all devices. Tie to the customer account, if possible.

Frictionless cross-channel experiences feel unified and that leads to more convenience for the shopper, which increases the number of purchases as well as loyalty and engagement.  Starbucks does this well, the brand allows ordering ahead via app, picking up in store, earning and redeeming rewards across channels. Messaging is integrated in its app for real-time support. All of this provides a consistent experience from app to in-store.

Design Consistent Branding and Messaging

Inconsistency across channels causes confusion. Consumers expect and demand a brand that gives them a consistent experience across channels and touchpoints. Maintain alignment through:

  • Auditing each touchpoint to ensure visual identity, voice, tone and terminology are aligned.You are looking for a smooth flow from one touchpoint to another. Try to identify ‘breaks’ in voice and branding, and correct those snags so that the flow continues.
  • Creating knowledge bases, style guides and templates for human and automated engagements. This not only provides more value and convenience for the customer, but it also meets an anticipated need: Some customers will visit a website, for example, needing support moreso than product information. By giving customers access to both product information and material for self-support, you are meeting two potential needs at once.
  • Monitoring across channels frequently to rapidly address inconsistencies. Keeping a close eye on customer flow through every channel helps you quickly identify potential problem areas. These can be corrected and a smooth customer flow can be maintained.
  • Coaching associates and optimizing AI chatbots to represent the brand appropriately. Remember that the point of AI isn’t to replace the human connection that your brand has with its customers; It’s job is to enhance it. Leverage AI to provide more convenience to customers, but it shouldn’t be obvious when its a human or AI helping you. Consistent branding, voice and tone is paramount.

Consistent experiences build familiarity and trust as shoppers traverse channels.

Personalize Intelligently

Leverage data to tailor experiences across the journey, Analyze the data you collect from the journey your customers take, and apply it to improve the process by:

  • Individualized content recommendations based on interests, purchase history and browsing behavior. Offer customers a unique content experience based on their interest and behavior patterns on your channels.
  • Omnichannel promotion consistency:  For instance, offer discounts synchronized across online and in-store. Customers should see no break in the promotion flow just as they wouldn’t expect it for other forms of content.
  • Contextually relevant assistance like help messages at decision points. Track user patterns and note where visitors abruptly leave your website. See what triggered their decision and attempt to correct by giving them access to additional content that meets their needs.
  • Recommendations aligned to buyer lifecycle stage based on past purchases and activity. Promotion of complimentary products is appreciated, if relevant.

Personalized journeys can help the customer feel appreciated and lead to higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty.

Drive Mobile Experience Excellence

With mobile dominating, relentlessly optimize mobile apps and sites through:

  • Streamlined navigation, minimal data entry, and contextual help for seamless completion of key tasks. Keep in mind that mobile apps are primarily used when the customer is mobile, or on-the-go. Factor that in when considering how the customer will be using the app and in what environment.
  • Core functionality availability offline for convenience. Give mobile app users the ability to access basic functionality when offline or mobile coverage is inconsistent.
  • Location awareness bridging digital with nearby physical interactions like in-store pickup prompts. Additionally, add in-store signage to encourage app usage. Making customers aware of the convenience of a mobile app helps drive adoption.

Optimizing the mobile app experience leads to a more dynamic and profitable customer journey for your retail brand.

Orchestrating seamless, personalized journeys across an exploded digital landscape is complex yet invaluable. We hope this article provided insights into excelling at networked omnichannel experiences that powerfully differentiate your brand.

by

The Tourism Power List For October

Welcome to The Tourism Power List for October! The Power List features the Top 10 professionals in the tourism industry! You can view September’s Power List for the Tourism and Hospitality industries by clicking here.

Sponsorship options are now available for The Tourism Power List! If you want to sponsor this month’s list, click here for prices and info on sponsorship levels.

If you want to be eligible for The Power List, do this:

1 – Follow me on Twitter. Make sure you have your position and the technology company you work for listed in your profile.

2 – If you want to nominate someone else to be on the Power List, tweet me their username on Twitter and I will be happy to check them out.

 

Here’s where you can find all the candidates for The Tourism Power List. If you’re on that list, you are eligible for the Power List.

So before we jump into the Power List for October, a couple of takeaways:

1 – The tourism pros, especially those in the Top 5 of the Power List, are competing against themselves as much as they are the rest of the list. Sometimes if I am torn on where to rank two pros, it can simply come down to activity over the last month. This is a very strong group, but that also creates more competition and means everyone has to be on their A game each month.

2 – I see a lot of reposting of content versus sharing content with an explanation of why it’s interesting. I think part of this is due to experience, the more experienced tourism pros seem more likely to share an original take on the content they are sharing, while their less experienced peers seem more likely to share and move on.

3 – We have three new entries this month! I feel like this makes a strong group even better!

 

Here is the Tourism Power List for October.  There will be a number after their name in parentheses that shows the change in their score this month versus last:

1 – Kathryn Shea Duncan, Sr Director of Social Media, Lake Charles CVB, Power List Score – 94(-). Another solid month for Kathryn, she is a content machine! A good mix of different types of content; Articles, pictures, podcasts, all focused on the Lake Charles and surrounding areas of Louisiana. She did go a bit heavy on reposts this month, but she also mixed in more tweets with her original content than most tourism pros put out in several months. Well done, Kathryn, you again lead the pack!

2 – Jim Hagen, Sec of Tourism for South Dakota, Power List Score – 92 (+1). Jim had a very good month.  His volume of tweets was up, and although the majority were reposts, he did include his original take on several of the tweets that he reshared. This was honestly the difference between Jim being 2nd or 3rd on this list. Well done, Jim.  Keep it going!

3 – Leisha Elliott, Executive Director, Marion Co, WV CVB, Power List Score – 91(-2). A solid month for Leisha. It felt like her content output dipped slightly, but it was still really good. Almost all of her content was resposts, but it does a great job of helping to promote the Marion County area of West Virginia.

4 – Kyle Edmiston, President/CEO of Lake Charles CVB, Power List Score – 89(-). Status quo this month for Kyle, and that’s not a bad thing. His volume of tweets drops versus the Top 3, but he also does a better job of adding his original take on the content he shares. This really does help increase engagement, especially replies. This of it as if you are adding ‘This is why I think this article/picture/podcast/video is worth your attention.”

5 – Ben Berthelot, Lafayette Travel CEO, Power List Score – 88. New entry alert! Congrats to Ben for joining the Tourism Power List this month AND an impressive debut at #5 in a very strong group! Ben has a lot of content, and a good mix promoting the Lafayette, Louisiana area. Sports, music, nightlife, food, and festivals. Solid mix of content, a lot of it, and a few original takes sprinkled in.  Nice job, Ben!

6 – Adriana Cruz, Executive Director, Texas Economic Development & Tourism, Office of Gov Greg Abbott, Power List Score – 82.(+2) I again struggled a bit with where to rank Adriana’s profile this month. Adriana wears multiple hats, and much of her content is focused on  economic development news in Texas, as well as coverage of what Texas Gov Greg Abbott is up to. She does post a lot of content, but I would still like to see a little more content devoted to actual tourism in Texas.

7 – Diana Plazas,CSMO Caribbean & Latin America at Marriott International, Power List Score – 80. (-3) There is a noticeable decrease in posting volume for the last 7 spots on this list, starting with Diana. I enjoy her content and the mix, I hope to see more of it next month!

8 – Jessica Blankenship, Exec Dir of KY Music HOF, Rockcastle Co Tourism, Power List Score – 79. New entrant alert! Congrats to Jessica for joining the Power List! Jessica is like a few others on this list, she wears multiple hats. The majority of her content is focused on music events and functions associated with the KY Music HOF. So this content does work from a tourism angle as well. Congrats on joining the list, Jessica!

9 – Chris Landry, CEO Louisiana Travel Assoc., Power List Score – 73. New entrant alert! Congrats to Chris for joining the Power List this month. Chris’ frequency is a bit lot compared to the other members of the list. Hopefully that will increase as we move forward, and his score will follow I am sure.

10 – Robin Bloom, Director of Content, Philadelphia CVB, Power List Score – 70 (-3).   A quiet month for Robin, I hope that changes soon.

 

So there’s the FIRST update to our Power List for Tourism! And THREE new entrants, congrats again to Ben, Jessica and Chris!

Please follow the people that made this list, you can click on their name and it will take you to their Twitter profile so you can follow them. If you would like to nominate yourself or a peer for inclusion in The Toursm Power List, please follow me on Twitter, and make sure you have your position and the company you work for clearly listed in your Twitter profile. That’s it! All candidates for the Power List are on this list.

Would you like to sponsor The Power List for Retail? Here’s information on available options as well as prices.

by

Revelation and God’s Plan For Christians in the End Times

In January, I committed to reading the Bible every day. It’s been a wonderful experience, and on Saturdays (and sometimes Sundays) I like to write a post about what I am learning from Scripture. You can read my past posts on the Bible here.

Today, I want to talk about Revelation and the End Times. Before I do, I need to put a disclaimer that any discussion of Revelation typically involves much speculation. Revelation is the final book of the Bible, and it details what will happen leading up to, and after Jesus’ second coming. Much of Revelation is to be taken as a symbolic telling of what will occur, rather than a literal account. For instance, there is a passage describing a massive beast with 7 heads, this is considered by most biblical scholars to be symbolism for an empire on earth that will have 7 kings, a head for each one.

So anything I write here, you should assume it is my speculation on what I think Revelation could mean, because that’s all it is.  My guess.  And since I have very little experience reading the Bible, it’s quite possible that a year from now, I could believe something different.  I think my main hope for what I am writing is that you would read my words, and want to investigate further for yourself.

Now, as I have mentioned here before, when I decided to start reading the Bible in January, I had it in my mind that I should read the first book of the Bible, and then the last.  Genesis, then Revelation. Almost everyone agrees that a new reader to the Bible should NOT tackle Revelation early on, but I can be quite stubborn and like to do things differently.

So I read Genesis, then read Revelation, and quite frankly in my first reading of Revelation, much of it was over my head. Which is to be expected. So I went back and read Exodus, then shifted gears and started reading the New Testament from the start.

As I was working through the New Testament, I loved all of it, but especially Paul’s letters to the churches. What struck me about Paul’s writings is he kept impressing to both jews and gentiles that being a Christian is a gift. And that you can glorify God by being a positive example for others, especially non-believers. Paul’s instruction was quite empowering as he encourages us to do more, to be more active, to walk stronger in our faith, and to understand that our eyes should be set on our eternal home in Heaven, not on a quite temporary time in human form.

So still inspired by Paul’s encouragement about growing into your role as a Christian, I continued throughout the New Testament, and finally reached Revelation, which I read for a second time. This time, the messages were slightly clearer, and at this point I decided that I wanted to stop and do some research on Revelation and get a better handle on exactly what I was reading.

The basic story of Revelation that I had understood it to be up till this point was: The world will continue to fall deeper into despair. At some point, a person will arrive who many will believe is Jesus, but who is actually the antichrist. Things would get even worse. Then Jesus would return, and save us all from the horrors of this world.

In short, things would get worse and worse and finally Jesus would come back to save us from ourselves. We just have to wait till His ‘appointed time’.

But after reading Paul’s letters and his constant encouragement that Christians should be more proactive, it seemed to be a bit of a disconnect with what I thought I understood Revelation to mean. Basically, it didn’t seem to agree with the theory that Christians are powerless to do anything but wait on Jesus to come back and save us in the final days.

So I started doing some research into the teaching of Revelation. I started exploring what biblical scholars say about what Revelation could actually mean.

A large part of the Revelation story, as I understood it, involved the breaking of 7 seals, with each seal pouring out a different type of judgment on sinners on earth. My assumption has always been that these seals will be broken in the final days. However, many biblical scholars actually believe that some of these seals have already been broken, and some of the periods of violence we have seen thus far reflect this. A few teachers even make a case that ALL the seals have already been broken.

But what really struck me was the disagreement about the role that Christians will play in the final days. As I said earlier, I had believed the basic story of the end times to always be that things on earth will progressively get worse, until Jesus has His second coming, and in effect saves us from ourselves.

The more I read about Paul’s writings, I began to notice that this thinking of how Christians should be bold and feel empowered didn’t really coincide with a story that ends with Christians being weak and powerless and having to be saved from ourselves by Jesus.

Then I found a biblical scholar/prophet named Johnny Enlow who has a different interpretation of our role as Christians, and what will happen in the end times. Enlow’s contention is that when Jesus is called The King of kings, that the ‘kings’ doesn’t refer to the rulers on earth. Actually, what this means is that all Christians are royalty, we are all kings.  And Jesus is our King, and Jesus is waiting on Christians to assume their role as kings on earth.

Enlow believes that when satan tricked Adam and Eve into eating of the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, that besides introducing sin into the world, that satan also took over authority of the earth from Adam and Eve. Authority over earth was gifted to Adam and Eve by God in the Garden of Eden. But when satan tricked Adam and Eve into sinning, satan took their rightful authority over earth.

Until…Jesus died on the Cross.  When Jesus died on the cross, according to Enlow, He took over all authority on earth from satan. And that means man now once again has authority on earth, and satan no longer does.

Let’s look at a few scripture passages about authority on earth.  First, Luke 4:5-8 (NKJV):

5 [d]Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”

8 And Jesus answered and said to him, [e]“Get behind Me, Satan! [f]For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

Now let’s look at Matthew 28:16-18 (NKJV):

16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

See the difference?  When satan first tempts Jesus, he says he has authority over all Jesus can see, and offers it to Him.  Yet after Jesus has risen, He states to His disciples that all authority on earth has been given to Him.

These two passages, the first before Jesus died on the cross and the later after, seem to say that there was a shift in authority from satan to Jesus between the time before and after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

The contention by many biblical scholars, including Enlow, is that when Jesus died on the cross, He not only paid the debt for our sins, but He also reclaimed the authority over earth than man lost in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God (I say Adam and Eve instead of Eve because while Eve did eat the apple first, Adam was there with her and did not stop her, then he ate it as well. So it’s unfair to try to position this as if Eve was responsible for man’s fall in the Garden of Eden, Adam was there with her, and they both agreed to disobey God together. Eve did not act alone).

So….this means that by dying on the cross, Jesus reclaimed authority on earth, for man. So man has authority over earth that before Jesus’ first coming, had belonged to satan since he deceived Adam and Eve.

The issue is, man hasn’t been exercising his authority over earth. This also completely reframes the book of Revelation and what will happen in the end times.

For instance, many biblical scholars have long contended that the breaking of the seven seals of the scroll will be the spilling out of judgment on earth for man’s sins.  And that this breaking of seven seals will happen at a point in the future, the seals will be broken, God’s judgment will pour out on the earth, and this will pave the way for Jesus’ Second Coming to save us.

Enlow, however, claims that the breaking of the seven seals has already happened.

Further, the breaking of the seals wasn’t to signify the beginning of judgment, it was to signify the END of satan’s authority to harm the earth! When the seven seals were broken, satan’s authority over earth was also broken.

So if this is correct, that means the breaking of the seven seals would have happened most likely when Jesus reclaimed authority over earth, ie His death on the cross. When Jesus died, He became worthy to take the scroll from God, and loose its seals.

At this point I’m sure your head is spinning because mine was when I first started studying this theory. But the more I researched this theory, it seemed to line up.  For instance:

  • The Bible repeatedly references that the earth is GOOD, and that it will endure FOREVER.  In fact, the Bible even says that after Jesus’s second coming, that there will be a New Jerusalem on earth. This doesn’t make sense if Revelation is telling us about how the earth will be destroyed in the end times.
  • In Revelation, John is brought up in Heaven to the throne room, and he sees that God is on His throne holding the scroll. And an angel in a loud voice asks if anyone is worthy to take the scroll and open it? And the Bible says John wept, because no one could be found worthy to open the scroll. Until, the Lamb (Jesus) was found worthy, and He opened the scroll. And Heaven cheered and celebrated because someone was found that could open the scroll.  Now….if the opening of the scroll meant a pouring out of death and destruction on earth, why would all of Heaven be celebrating that???  But if the opening of the scroll and the breaking of the seals was really about ENDING the death and destruction, then Heaven celebrating makes perfect sense.
  • Which version of the end times would bring more glory to God:  First, if man fell further and further into sin until God had to step in and cleanse the earth with death and destruction, then Jesus came to earth to defeat satan and save man from his own sin (again) or……Second, if man instead stepped into and began to assume his authority over earth, and acted as God intended, and we began to defeat satan by removing him from the areas of the earth where he no longer has power. Then in the final battle, Jesus returns to earth to lead us into the final battle, which sees satan’s ultimate defeat. Personally, I think the second version would bring more glory to God, because we would be in a position to help Jesus by claiming the authority that He had gifted us.
  • Jesus is referred to as The King of kings.  I always assumed that meant that Jesus was the King over all the kings (rulers) on earth.  But the kings on earth ARE CHRISTIANS. From Revelation 1:5-6: “5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Ok, that’s probably enough for now, so I wanted to leave you with a video from Johnny Enlow that will help get you started learning more about Revelation. If you enjoy Enlow’s teachings, he has hours and hours of instructive videos where he breaks down what Revelation means in great detail. Here’s the first video, and his detailed analysis of Revelation starts around the 25 min mark if you want to fast forward:

Now again, if you’ve read this far, and you are thinking ‘I just don’t agree with that!’, then that’s ok. I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind about Revelation or the end times. I’m just sharing what I have learned, and all I would ask is that you investigate for yourself and do your own research. Pray about it and ask God to give you the wisdom to discern what is real from what is not. That’s exactly what I do before I start reading the Bible every single day.

by

Crafting Seamless User Experiences Across Devices: An Essential Guide for Tech Companies in the Omni-Channel Age

cross-channel user experience

In today’s digital landscape, users engage with technology products and services across an ever-expanding array of devices and touchpoints. For tech companies, delivering a fragmented and inconsistent user experience can have dire consequences, eroding user adoption and loyalty. In this guide, we will explore the complexities of orchestrating a seamless cross-channel user experience and provide tech leaders, including CEOs, with proven strategies to optimize UX and usability throughout the user journey.

Mapping the End-to-End Journey

Research from Forrester has found that a frictonless user experience could boost customer conversation rates by as much as 400%. A cohesive and consistent UX is vital in all business categories, none moreso than in the technology industry.  The first step towards crafting seamless cross-channel user experiences is gaining a comprehensive understanding of the user journey. Here’s how tech companies can do that:

  • Customer Journey Mapping: Create detailed customer journey maps from the user’s perspective across various devices and channels. This exercise not only identifies gaps in the cross-channel user experience and opportunities for improvement, but it also helps your tech company gain a greater understanding of the experience you are delivering to your customer. This can greatly aid in providing customer support for that experience.
  • Usability Testing and Research: Conduct usability testing and research to uncover friction and inconsistencies in the cross-channel user experience. This step allows you to pinpoint pain points and areas in need of enhancement. The idea is to identify potential bottlenecks in the buyer’s journey, as well as areas that are performing well. This helps you spot areas for improvement across the entire process.
  • Gathering User Feedback: Actively seek feedback from users about their expectations and unmet needs regarding the cross-channel user experience. This can be done via email, social media, or a user message board of forum on your website. After you collect the feedback from your users, circle back with them and let them know how you addressed their feedback and what changes were made as a result. This encourages your users to give you more feedback in the future, and it improves user loyalty.

Bridging Platform and Channel Gaps

Seamless cross-channel user experiences hinge on eliminating transition friction. Here’s how to bridge the gaps:

  • Close Gaps Between Social and Online Support: One of the most frequent support issues that tech companies face is an inconsistent experience between the support experience that users get from the social media team and the main customer support team. Often, these teams are siloed and it can lead to a user having to ‘start over’ in their support request when it is handed off from social to the main CS team. All employees engaged in customer support should be given the same support training so that a consistent experience is delivered throughout the process.
  • Tight Integrations: Enable tight integrations that seamlessly share data, context, and user history between platforms. As stated above, all areas of support should have seamless access to user data so that a consistent support experience can be delivered. This is keep to developing user loyalty and satisfaction with the support process.
  • Continuity of Activities: Allow users to effortlessly switch or transfer activities between devices and pick up where they left off. This added level of convenience communicates to the user that their attention is appreciated.  This also helps facilitates all areas of the customer journey.  It’s worth remembering that tech customers frequently do a good deal of research prior to a purpose. This research can take several days or maybe even weeks. Making it easy for users to remember their search history and continue their research when it’s convenient to them is a key driver of loyalty and satisfaction.

Embracing Mobile-First Design

Mobile users are five times more likely to abandon a website that doesn’t deliver an optimized experience for mobile devices. In today’s digital landscape, mobile devices dominate usage. Optimizing for mobile is no longer an option but a necessity:

  • Responsive Mobile Experience: Mobile users should enjoy the same level of usability and satisfaction as users on other devices. Talk to your IT department and check your website’s traffic. You will likely find that half, if not more, of your overall website traffic originates on a mobile device. If you aren’t optimizing your user experience for mobile, you are intentionally alienating roughly half of the traffic to your website. That’s crippling for a business, regardless of industry, but its disastrous for a company in the tech sector to not offer an exceptional mobile experience.
  • Streamlined User Flows: Streamline forms, navigation, and content presentation to facilitate quicker task completion on mobile devices. This optimization doesn’t compromise the cross-channel user experience but enhances it. Users now spend roughly half their time connected to the internet on a mobile device, according to HubSpot. Designing for mobile is no longer an option, it’s a requirement.

Intelligent Personalization

Leveraging user data and artificial intelligence is key to tailoring cross-channel user experiences:

  • Contextual Help Messages: Offer contextually relevant help messages precisely when users need assistance during their cross-channel user experience. This personal touch enhances user satisfaction. Track your site’s analytics and identify which pages or posts are most likely to lead to a click onto a Support of Contact page. This signals intent; The visitor needs further assistance after visiting these pages. You can improve the UX by proactively offering assistance in the form of a popup to alert them to chat help or point them to a contact page or form.
  • Predictive Issue Resolution: Proactively prevent problems in the cross-channel user experience by using AI to predict and resolve issues before users encounter them. Track and simulate how user experience their journey on your site, and identify potential issues. Once potential trouble spots have been identified, proactively offer assistance and the access to help (FAQs) and solutions, or the ability to contact your support team directly for additional assistance.

Keep in mind that something is only a bottleneck IF it stops the user in their journey. Identify these potential trouble spots, and proactively offer assistance to the user. This will help eliminate the possibility of a bottleneck.

Simplifying Navigation and Search

Intuitive navigation and efficient search functionality are vital to preventing user frustration:

  • Clean Interface Design: Design clean and uncluttered interfaces that focus on key user tasks and calls-to-action. A clutter-free design enhances the cross-channel user experience.
  • Intuitive Hierarchy and Menus: Create intuitive content hierarchies, menus, and flows that align with user mental models. This approach simplifies navigation and leads to smoother user interactions. Focus on user intent: Think about what information they are looking for on your site, and how they expect that information to be organized.
  • Predictive Search: Implement predictive search, autosuggest, and filters to help users find information faster. Context-sensitive help and tooltips provide seamless assistance when needed.

Continuously Optimizing Based on Data

A metrics-driven approach ensures ongoing improvement of the real user experience:

  • Data-Driven Insights: Utilize data and testing to identify areas of friction and opportunities for enhancement. Let user behavior guide your decisions.
  • Monitor Analytics: Keep a close eye on analytics across devices and channels to address inconsistencies or gaps in the cross-channel user experience.
  • Gather Qualitative Feedback: Regularly collect qualitative UX feedback through surveys, session replays, and more. User insights, not guesswork, should steer ongoing optimization efforts.

Orchestrating seamless user experiences across an exploding digital landscape is undoubtedly complex, but it’s also essential. By consistently championing user needs throughout every touchpoint and channel, technology companies can remove friction, enhance satisfaction, and ultimately earn user loyalty. The question remains: Will you optimize for omnichannel excellence? Your users are counting on it.

In conclusion, delivering a seamless cross-channel user experience in the omni-channel age is a multifaceted challenge that demands a user-centric approach, intelligent use of data, and a commitment to continuous improvement. CEOs of tech companies can lead the charge in optimizing user experiences, ultimately driving user satisfaction, loyalty, and business success.

by

Restaurant Reputation Management: The Data-Driven Playbook for Turning All Reviews Into Raving Fans

restaurant reputation management

If you are a CMO in the restaurant industry, few things keep you up at night like your online reputation. A handful of negative reviews can counter hundreds of positive interactions in the digital age. But effectively encouraging, monitoring, responding to, and leveraging guest feedback online is complex. With fierce competition, restaurant reputation management becomes vitally important.

That’s why taking a proactive, strategic approach to managing reviews and amplifying authentic earned advocacy is now mission-critical. This playbook explores proven ways restaurant marketers can use data, processes, and creativity to turn any review into five stars.

Strategically Solicit First-Party Reviews

Don’t leave review generation to chance. Proactively collect feedback from delighted guests through:

  • Review links on receipts and emails surveys to lower barriers. Make it quick and easy for customers to leave reviews. Also, track your restaurant’s reviews online and point customers toward the sites that would help the most with your restaurant reputation management efforts.
  • Thank you follow-ups checking on the experience, offering review links. These can be done via a newsletter than also offers coupons on future purchases.
  • Occasionally offering a free dessert in exchange for a review. I am subscribed to Olive Garden’s newsletter, and they will occasionally offer a free dessert in exchange for my feedback.
  • Manager outreach to VIPs asking for reviews based on their satisfaction. VIPs can be identified by membership in your loyalty program, or by managers and staff simply identifying a frequent customer. Frequency of business obviously signals satisfaction with service and product, so your restaurant should encourage reviews from frequent guests.

Empower your happy customers to sing your praises via stellar reviews.

Leverage Servers to Solicit Reviews and Feedback

Your servers are in direct contact with your restaurant’s customers, and as such they have the best sense of how their meal is going. Servers need to remember to:

  • Praise in public, criticize in private. If a customer is pleased with their meal and experience in your restaurant, the server should encourage them to leave a review, and steer them toward the sites where a positive review would be the most beneficial to your restaurant.
  • If a customer is unsatisfied with their meal and experience, the server should encourage the customer to leave feedback or to even talk with a manager. This gives the restaurant an opportunity to address the customer’s problem, without it going public. Obviously, the customer could still leave a review online or tell others, but if they are unsatisfied, you want to know why so you can address their concerns.
  • Train wait staff to recognize if a customer is satisfied or unsatisfied with their meal and experience. Your staff will pick up on cues from the customer naturally throughout the course of the meal as to whether they are satisfied or unsatisfied with their experience. At the end of the meal, if the server believes the customer has been satisfied with their meal, ask them to leave a review and encourage them to review on the site that best helps your restaurant. If they appear to be unsatisfied, then ask them to leave feedback on their experience. If the customer does leave feedback, but it is positive, you can contact the customer directly and thank them for their feedback, then ask for a review at that time.
  • Have managers observe customers and check in with them. When doing so, the manager can also pick up on cues from the customer as to whether they are satisfied or not with their meal, and address appropriately.

Praise in public, criticize in private. Empower your servers to help create positive word of mouth for your restaurant.

Activate Brand Advocates

Happy, frequent customers are your best source for positive reviews and the frontline in your restaurant reputation management efforts. Empower them by:

  • Offering incentives like loyalty perks for shares and reviews. Tie this into your existing loyalty program. Remember, happy customers WANT to sing your praises, you are just giving them the tools to do so.
  • Making it effortless to post through review widgets and social media links. Offer to collect reviews on your site, and ask for permission to repost on your social channels. Communicate how this can help your restaurant, and true fans will jump at the chance.
  • Have staff help in identifying frequent customers. So a few years ago, I got on a serious kick for Pizza Hut breadsticks. Every time I was running errands in town, I would stop by my local Pizza Hut and grab some breadsticks. The staff quickly recognized me, what my order would be, and how I liked them made. They would then ask me while I was waiting if I would please fill our a survey for them, and then inform me that I could win a $10 credit toward a future order. I would do the survey while waiting for my order, then when my order was ready, the staff would let me know it was prepared the way I wanted it, and I would let them know I had filled out the survey. The staff was smart enough to recognize that I was a happy customer, so they encouraged me to offer reviews.
  • Spotlighting top advocates as “VIPs” on your digital customer wall of fame. Treat your happy customers like they are rock stars, because they are. Put the spotlight on them, it encourages them to give you more reviews and feedback, which is exactly what you want.

Proactively activating your biggest fans maximizes their impact. Oh, and read the best book on the topic, Think Like a Rock Star: How to Create Social Media and Marketing Strategies That Turn Customers Into Fans.

Monitor Third-Party Review Sites

Actively track guest feedback using tools like Hootsuite (Perch is another option) to:

  • Get alerts when new reviews are left. When a new review happens, it’s vital that you know about it ASAP. For instance, let’s say your server followed the above advice and encouraged a happy customer to leave a review. The customer did as soon as they got home. If you have their contact information, you can contact them personally and thank them for the review. This encourages them to not only return to your restaurant, but to spread more positive word of mouth about you both online and offline.
  • Identify recurring themes and systemic weaknesses. Actively tracking reviews and customer feedback helps you identify themes versus isolated experiences. Whether it’s a positive review or a negative one, you need to understand what triggered the review. If there’s a problem with service, that needs to be addressed. Likewise, if customers are happy, you need to understand why so you can replicate that experience for other customers.
  • Keep pulse on your average ratings compared to competitors. If possible, set up monitoring alerts for select competitors. Just as you want to identify recurring themes in your own restaurant, you can do the same for competitors. Perhaps another local restaurant has added a feature that customers are raving about. Could your restaurant offer something similar? Once you know what their customers are excited about, then you can evaluate if a similar feature could work for your location.

Proactively monitoring online reviews empowers you to act quickly and appropriately.

Respond Skillfully to Negative Reviews

Negative feedback is inevitable in hospitality. Yet if handled correctly, a customer’s negative experience can be defused, or possibly even converted into a positive. Here’s some tactics to employ:

  • Reply promptly, calmly and avoid defensiveness. Make sure that the member of your CS team that responds does NOT take the criticize personally, because it isn’t.
  • Do NOT admit fault UNTIL it has been clearly established that the customer’s negative review is a direct result of unsatisfactory service from your restaurant.  You SHOULD communicate to the customer that you are sorry they are unsatisfied with the service they received, as this communicates empathy for their concerns. But wait on apologizing for an error until you have established that an actual error was made.
  • Offer to move your exchange with the customers OFF THE REVIEW SITE or social channel. Give them a way to contact you or your staff directly. Emphasize that you value their privacy and the privacy of your staff, and can better address and server them in private.
  • If you find that the customer has a legitimate complaint, clearly communicate to them that their feedback will be addressed and let them know how. This communicates that you are taking their feedback seriously.
  • Share improvements made to address broader issues raised. Followup with the customer to let them know what you found and how you are addressing their feedback. This will also communicate to the customer that you value their feedback.
  • For false claims, politely correct with facts. Do NOT argue with the customer, especially if the exchange is happening online, in public.
  • Consider inviting unhappy reviewers back to improve perceptions. This is another way to illustrate how feedback is taken seriously and improvements made.

I’ve worked with clients for over 15 years in helping them deal with angry customers, and I can tell you this from my own experience: Angry customers can often be converted into your most passionate fans IF you handle their complaints correctly. Follow the above steps and you will be on your way.

Continuously Improve Based on Insights

Regularly analyze customer reviews and complaints to:

  • Identify recurring complaints and focus training to strengthen weaknesses. Frequent sources of complaints should be flagged by your customer service team and sent to management so it can be addressed at the frontlines in your restaurant by staff and management.
  • Identify what’s working. If there are features of your dining experience that are consistently praised by customers, highlight those features to make customers aware of them. This can encourage more positive reviews.
  • Set targets for ratings improvements by location and category. Set realistic goals and give management a plan of action to reach those goals. Make sure everyone on staff understands what the goals are, why it’s important to reach them, and how to get there.
  • Conduct text analysis of online reviews to detect shifts in sentiment and perceptions. Identify gains and losses and drill down to figure out what triggered the change.

Insights inform operational investments that can help your restaurant reputation management efforts exceed expectations.

Today’s diners heavily factor reviews into dining decisions. With strategy, creativity and commitment, restaurant brands can leverage guest feedback to perpetually improve and manage reputation. Are you ready to turn reviews into five-star raves? The impact on guest acquisition, loyalty and sales makes this effort well worth the investment.

restaurant reputation management

by

The Technology Power List for October

The Power List for Tech

Welcome to The Technology Power List for October! This will be the first update of the Power List for the Technology industry. You can view September’s Tech Power List here.

Why have a Power List for the Tech space? Because I wanted to highlight workers that are doing a great job of leveraging social media to connect with customers, partners and clients. It’s damn hard to work in the tech space and still carve out time to create engaging content for social media. I am hopeful that by putting a spotlight on a few of the tech all-stars, it will make their jobs a little easier.

If you want to view all the candidates for the Tech Power List, follow this list on Twitter. If you work in the tech space and would like to be considered for the Power List, then follow me on Twitter and reply to me and ask to be included.  Please state clearly in your profile bio what company you work for in tech, and your position. And the Power List isn’t limited to just big brands, startups and smaller tech companies are just fine.

Sponsorship options are now available for The Power List for Technology! If you want to sponsor this month’s list, click here for prices and info on sponsorship levels.

So enough yakkin’, let’s get to the Tech Power List for October!

The Top 10 will be ranked 1-10. There will be a number after their name in parentheses that shows the change in their score this month versus last.

I am SO excited for this list because we have some new entries!!! It’s so exciting to see people entering the Power List. Now those of you that will see your scores and/or rank drop, keep in mind that it’s likely due to there simply being a larger pool of candidates this time versus last month.

The Technology Power List for October:

1 – Pat Gelsinger, CEO at Intel, Power List Score – 91 (+1). Pat hits it out of the park, once again. High volume of tweets, good mix of reposts with original content as well. Mostly focused on Intel, but a few personal tweets around scripture mixed in as well.  Bravo. And it’s highly unusual to see the CEO at a major brand being this active on Twitter, and curating, creating and sharing such good content. Well done, Mr. Gelsinger, you continue to set the pace for the Technology Power List!

2 – Sergio Raguso, Regulation Manager @ Siemens, Power List Score – 86. (+6) So last month, the take on Sergio’s profile that he was prolific as a tweeter, but I wanted to see a bit of content with his personal take on the work he does, or even life in general. His frequency of content is still off the charts, but in September he’s started mixing in some tweets with more personal content, and that’s much appreciated. A nice 6-point jump in score for Sergio this month.

3 – Greg Joswiak, SVP of Marketing at Apple, Power List Score – 85. (-1) A solid month for Greg, even with a ton of big news coming out of Apple that could have kept him busy and off Twitter. Nice output of content, and he’s still solidly in the mix as one of the leaders in the Tech Power List.

4 – Sushail Kakar, Developer Relations @ Livepeer, Power List Score – 84 (-). Sushail’s content is so geeky and nerdy, I just love it! High volume of content, good mix, notice he gets very good engagement on his content, he’s focused on techy work that developers and even tech hobbyists can relate to. Great job, Sushail!

5 – Lauren Cooney, VP Java Cloud Services, Oracle, Power List Score – 80 (+3). So Lauren’s profile is the first one on the list that has a lot of personal content, even moreso than tweets about the work she does at Oracle. But that’s ok, because she does tweet semi-regularly about her work. And her volume is off the charts, and that’s why her score jumps 3 points this month, looking forward to what comes this month.

6 – Stella Low, Chief of Corporate Affairs and Communications @ HP, Power List Score – 79. New entry alert! Congrats to Stella who joins the Tech Power List at #6. Good volume, nice mix of content focused on HP, but also sprinkles in some personal content and her original takes on the industry and work she does. Nice, welcome aboard!

7 – Krithika Muthukumar, VP of Marketing @ OpenAI, Power List Score – 78. Another new entry, congrats Krithika! And wow, cool job title! Krithika was suggested by multiple people and she has a pretty good Twitter profile.  Solid volume of content, focused on her work and the AI/Tech space. As with most of the others on this list, as her volume increases, her score can only go up. Welcome aboard!

8 – Maria Poveromo, SVP and Chief Communications Officer @ Cisco, Power List Score – 77 (+5). So the analysis for last month was that I loved Maria’s content, I just wanted to see more of it. She increased her tweeting a bit in Sept, and her score jumped as a result. Awesome! Let’s hope this is the start of a trend so we can see her score soon hit 80.

9 – Jennifer Davis, Corporate Affairs @ Dell, Power List Score – 76 (-). So Jennifer and Maria had about the same advice last month, loved both of their content, just wanted to see more of it. Still the same, love Jennifer’s content, hope she can pull herself away from doing amazing work at Dell to send out a few more tweets.

10 – Chloe Jones, Gaming Brand Manager @ Lenovo, Power List Score – 73. YAS! I am sooo happy to see Chloe on the Power List this month. I wanted to put her on the list last month, but I just couldn’t justify it then, because she had only posted a few times this year, at the time. But since last month’s Power List, she has tweeted several times, so she earned her way onto this month’s Power List. I love her content and I’m such a fan of the gaming and eSports space. Chloe please keep tweeting at the same rate as you did in September! I love your content and want to see you keep rising on the Power List!

 

So THREE new entries in this month’s Tech Power List! Congrats again to Chloe, Stella and Krithika! And overall, the scores were mostly up, which is great to see. This group as a whole definitely feels like it’s improved over last month, let’s hope we can continue to see growth in November’s Power List.

 

by

Monday’s Marketing Minute: Amazon’s $4B Investment in Anthropic, Twitter Making a Profit, Gen Z’s Social Media Habits

Happy Monday, y’all! Welcome to October, probably my favorite month of the year, at least from a weather perspective. It’s starting out hot, but by Halloween the days and nights will be crisp and clear, I can’t wait! While we wait, let’s stay busy and immersed in a few stories from the business/marketing/web3 worlds:

 

As I’ve said before, Claude is my favorite AI tool. Well it’s parent company, Anthropic, just announced a massive $4B investment from Amazon. This makes sense, as Amazon would no doubt love to leverage the technology behind Claude to help with production recommendations, summarizing user reviews, etc.

 

So Twitter/X CEO Linda Yaccarino recently gave us an update on the platform’s performance. She claims that 90% of its Top 100 advertisers have returned to Twitter/X, and that the platform is on pace to return to profitability sometime early next year. When Elon announced Yaccarino as new CEO, I speculated that the main driver for this move was the sense that Yaccarino could coax advertisers to return to Twitter, and it seems that’s working. I’m still very much worried about the future of the platform, as Elon keeps hinting that he wants to take Twitter/X to a completely paid platform, meaning all users would have to pay a fee to use the platform.

 

How are Gen Zers (born approximately 1996-2010) using social media?  To watch videos…and some other stuff. If you want to create content that connects with teens and twentysomethings, it needs to be video first, at least that’s the findings we see below:

 

So that’s it for this edition of Monday’s Marketing Minute! What do we have on tap for the rest of the week here? Tomorrow, we will have the FIRST update to a Power List, as the October Power List for Technology will be revealed (Spoiler alert: We have THREE new entries!). And on Thursday there will be a new post up on restaurant marketing.

I hope you all have a wonderfully productive week!