Hotel industry insights to help Aged Care providers ‘get ready’ for Consumer Ratings

Amora Hotel Riverwalk Melbourne General Manager Tim Bilston is head of one of the nation’s many hotels who have welcomed, accepted and used the industry’s ratings and review system to its advantage, saying it is now a key part of not only his company’s marketing strategy, but also to drive operational improvements.

He says that these days consumers expect to be able to leave their responses about their hotel experiences and operators have had to adapt their approach and learn to manage consumer ratings as part of their day to day operations, and says the research is there to suggest that guests look at reviews before making a booking.

“Star ratings are no longer a factor for hotels, it is all about the recommendations and reviews,” Mr Bilston explains.

“Through this, we can improve problem areas based on the feedback received, which means we are continually improving our operations.

“We review and track all consumer responses plus our ranking for all of the departments or ‘touch points’, and we do this three times a week.

“We look at benchmarking reports weekly which allows us to compare and see how we are tracking with our competitors.”

DPS Chief Executive Officer Mark Ogden says DPS’ Consumer Ratings initiative will have all of the same features for aged care, and that while the system is there for consumers, there are also many key benefits and positive outcomes in it for providers.

“This is something that has been coming the industry’s way for a long time, and now it is here at scale, we are able to assist consumers and work with providers to maintain the best outcomes for all, while making positive change in the sector,” Mr Ogden explains.

“Providers can use this platform to drive real improvement within their organisation based on this consumer dialogue – this helps create conversations and drive real positive change in the industry.

“Through our collaboration with Care Opinion Australia, providers will be able to invest in a leading and established back-end tool, where based on reviews received, they can see where the areas of improvement are needed as well as what is working well.

“Providers need to see that there is a two-fold opportunity here for them in one, marketing these powerful communications, and two, operational improvement.

“With the ratings, providers can manage how people perceive them by looking at people’s feedback, and it gives the provider an opportunity to respond because we know that with reviews, people are also looking at the responses.

Following the pilot of the consumer ratings initiatives, DPS will conduct a review, with a full official launch to follow.