Reputation Management Goes Digital
IN 2013, THE GENERAL MANAGER OF L’HÔTEL QUÉBEC filed a lawsuit against a guest who had posted a review on TripAdvisor, stating that he had encountered bedbugs while staying there. The hotel did not dispute that there were bedbugs, but argued that the incident was a one-off and claimed $95,000 for reputation damage and lost profits.
Concerned about the reputational damage caused by negative reviews, a group of hoteliers in the UK discussed bringing legal action against TripAdvisor for what they regarded as unfair and incorrect reviews. Service providers often suspect that such reviews have been written by rivals or disgruntled ex-employees. Indeed, an executive with the France-based hotel chain Accor admitted to posting five-star reviews for Accor properties and negative reviews about rival hotels.
The reputational stakes are enormous — and not just for hotels. It has been said that ‘everyone’s a critic’, but this phrase has assumed heightened meaning today as digital technologies make it easy for people to publicly review every aspect of a company. From ‘best of’ lists on magazine websites to employer reviews on Glassdoor, product reviews on Amazon, and service reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor, companies are continually being judged, and those assessments are easily accessible to everyone, everywhere.
In this article, we will discuss two types of online reputational ratings — curated and uncurated — and describe the impact they can have on organizations. We will also provide some guidelines for how managers can begin to use these ratings to their advantage.
Curated Reputational Ratings
Curated ratings are produced by a third party (often a media outlet) that is considered neutral because it’s not involved in transactions as either a buyer or a seller. Some are intended to rank entire organizations against their peers. magazine, for example, publishes an annual list of ‘The World’s Most Admired Companies’ and ‘The 100 Best Companies to Work For’; lists the ‘Top Green publishes annual ‘World University Rankings’. Other curated ratings are intended to provide comparisons among products or services. CNET, for example, provides reviews of technology products; publishes wine ratings; and ranks MBA programs.
