An open letter to the Community Manager - reviews

What is "hidden"I would have thought the contact us ,,would be the way to go for any query that is not under any other heading

Complaints procedures can have a very positive impact. If an element of a service isn’t providing what customers want, and onsite staff are passing this on, but getting little joy from further up the food chain (so to speak😁), then giving out comment cards, or encouraging visitors to express concerns more formally, and targeting where the decision making is really made (budget holder, safety officer, owner etc...) can have the desired effect!  

The LA I worked for decided that customer comment cards were a good thing so introduced them. I gave them out to visitors asking them to use them to put a case for new equipment (which I had been trying to get for months), voila.....what’s all this? Why weren’t we told? You were, but it obviously hasn’t filtered up to you...... No problem, here’s a budget, get it sorted! I won, the customers won. Easy. 

I personally think, that when leaving a review, if you were required to use your membership number or some other identifier other than your forum name then you would see a big reduction from the keyboard warriors using the review system to have a pop at Wardens, Dog owners and other groups the reviewer has issue with. 

FWIW,  on the many club sites we have visited, Wardens have always been very approachable and helpful and we have often witnessed them going the extra mile to help someone.

A piece of advice to said reviewers, treat them / speak to them how you would like to be treated and you may be pleasantly surprised.

T.W, I see you visited our favorite site and regular haunt in May from the reviews. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. ( just returned from there yesterday after a 5 night stay, 3rd time this year )  

I don't leave reviews, nor read them either....we make our own minds up where we want to be and take it from there...so I've not seen the 'offensive' narratives...

however, does the review have a pro forma approach (like many surveys) where comments are entered specific to a particular aspect of the site, or is it just a free form narrative?

surely, if the club wants to be more prescriptive in the type of feedback they get re a site (facilities, location, walking, public transport, cost and, yes, customer service) shouldn't reviewers be guided through these elements to produce more pertinent and helpful reviews?

perhaps better than 'please stick to the guidelines'?

“T.W, I see you visited our favorite site and regular haunt in May from the reviews. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. ( just returned from there yesterday after a 5 night stay, 3rd time this year smile) “

Milo, unless my memory has let me down, we were at C&CC Tavistock in May. I somehow can’t imagine that’s your favourite site. 🤔

Surely, if the club wants to be more prescriptive in the type of feedback they get re a site (facilities, location, walking, public transport, cost and, yes, customer service) shouldn't reviewers be guided through these elements to produce more pertinent and helpful reviews?

But do they? The opportunity is there for the conscientious reviewer to add all that into a review as it stands now and many do. It might seem an odd thing to say but I wonder whether the review section is more about checking that members are happy when they use the site and  providing information that future visitors might find useful is secondary? When you read a lot of the reviews they are only two or three lines long and often say "we had a lovely time" "the wardens were wonderful" "will certainly return" For the Club this might just be confirmation that they are providing what members want. If the objective was to provide more useful information then a pro forma review format would help achieve that. It may also mean that many fewer members would contribute and the number of reviews becoming more useful would not have that congratulatory element that the Club seems to encourage. I think all that is needed is for a dialogue box where reviewers have to tick they understand the Guidelines/T&C's and remove the comment button.

David

Apologies TW, just looked again and it was a 2018  post of yours . Note to self, look at dates properly 

Fairlight Wood is the site I am talking about.

Ah, that makes sense👍🏻  Can’t say it was my favourite site but I can see it has a certain charm. 

Tick a box is just trickery to give authorisation to remove a review.

We live in a social media world, members want instant access to vent their complaints.

Theres a review complaining about a warden saying "No" I just read, its was right to say "No" it appears, the request being against club policy, but the poster goes onto to say the Warden apologised for her manner in how "No" was said  when they met.

From this we can see a specific club policy isnt known about, we can see a Wardens manner on a specific site wasnt acceptable, this being informative to the club, on both counts, and me too.

If the club are saying they dont have the resources to monitor reviews, then I suggest to mine this valuable information, provide instant feedback, they either employ or divert resources, say from the Twitter team to cover.

Nothing wrong with complaining about poor service when the industry is about service!

If Wardens dont like it, one in mind, then dont set yourselves up for it, be polite, be informative, do the job, no complaints can then be levelled.

If I do my job as my employer prescribes then no comeback, and I have for 22 years.

A good example of a possible (I stress possible) malicious review is on the Brora Site. It is difficult to understand what happened without further details, but of course those are missing. The wardens applied the club policy perfectly in a certain aspect and you can see the result. Again a complaint to the club is better.

https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-together/reviews/club-site-reviews/brora-caravan-club-site/