Without FaceBook and associated Travel plans, getting feedback can be a expensive process. In 2008 I stared trying to get customer feedback, and through trial and error we came up with this. http://www.capevillas.com/cape/villas/guest_comment.php?MainID=464
Unfortunately whilst creating the functionality was easy, administering proved expensive, for a start getting the reps to actually make sure the client fills in the form, took hiring a manger to nag them, then inputting the data, took time for the admin department.

Honesty and guest discomfort are other matters, if one was not really impressed with our rep, but did not want to make a public fuss, a “Could Try Harder” will soon move to a “I had a good time” if the rep is standing next to them at the time, as for direct dishonesty I had occasion to point out to one of my reps that the customer feedback form was written in her own handwriting.

Another thing to note was whilst my policy was to put all reviews on, good or bad, other company’s bosses may not have such moral resolve, so is the data to be trusted in the first place, some may think.

It did however see a sharp rise in our reps customer service which, in turn lead to a good number of repeat bookings and referrals... (Far more if we’d had the FB/CRM2 – Client Gifts Advance)

The biggest cost however was, with 100 or so guests filling our 2 page forms every month, was the dedicated employee needed to input the data to our website. So at the end of the day it was too much money spent, especially as I was putting every spare cent into research and development of my fledgling Experience Africa Brand

Well the good news is in a social networking environment where all reps communicate via a Client Information Suites, it can be done easily and for free, at the end of there stay, the client will get a message, and or sms asking for feedback.

Now it is incredibly important that the client fills in the form, so Its my current opinion that we make it really simple, at Cape Villas the questionnaire was 2 pages with a hundred or so tick boxes, and clients sometimes had to be strong armed into filing it out, as the rep would be in big trouble if it was not returned.

So to make this simple, instead of having 100 check boxes I suggest we just have just 6.

If it’s this simple, no one will mind making the effort.

What this means for our FaceBook Reps, however is they are constantly tested, bottom line if its to much effort to try to get “I felt like a VIP” every time, they are in the wrong job.

FaceBook Travel Reps will live and die by the sword that is “FaceBook Travel Service Ratings”
They will be available to see for all clients through all mediums, Travel Agents, Tour Operators, FaceBook Friends of Friends., Visitors to their real world websites, S-World Virtual Shops and on there own websites.

However, in protection of our FaceBook travel reps, results from clients that have often given “Could Try Harder’s” will be quashed.

This said if a FaceBook Travel Rep genuinely disappoints more than once, there out, there will be plenty wishing to take their place, for a peoples person it’s really a dream job.

All in all, we really have it all covered as far as motivating our Reps to continually excel, but there’s another factor to consider, the accommodation rating.

Every time a client ranks accommodation, the client makes an adjustment to the FaceBook Travel search results displayed to guests, agents and reps. These rankings will be displayed as an average, and be a large factor in which venues or services , the FaceBook Travel system recommends first. Other factors, like agent rating, researchers rating and awards rating will be factored.

And you can see what we’re doing here; we are creating a much more customer centric search engine for all travel. Where ratings are per human experience not.... just inbound links, and because of this we have a strong argument that search engines in general should prioritise FaceBook Travel Results over other results as they are per human experience.

For further reading.

http://www.s-world.biz/FaceBook/Friends_of_Friends_New_Business_Opportunities.htm