Reaching for the stars: Identifying drivers of online reviews for proactive customer review management.
(A2022-106299)

AUTHORS

Konstantin Kremslehner, Department of Marketing / Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration; Filipe Sengo Furtado, Department of Marketing / Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration; Nadine Schröder, WU Wien; Thomas Reutterer, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

ABSTRACT

Online customer reviews have become a mainstay in service quality management. However, despite significant studies on the impact of reviews on sales and optimal responses to reviews, less is known on how to proactively manage customer reviews. We contribute to this important aspect by both looking into the process of opting-in for reviewing and examining factors of how to manage reviewing behavior in a hotel setting. Furthermore, we investigate how managerially actionable insights can be derived. Preliminary results suggest that certain factors related to the customer journey, such as the time span of advance booking, can help to identify reviewing customers. Additionally, we find that on-site interventions significantly impact the customer experience, and thus reviewing behavior. Based on our empirical findings, we derive recommendations for customer and review management along the customer journey, such as considering review affinity in targeting or perks & room assignment.