Why don't F&B outlets in Singapore check out their customers reviews before they arrive?

It always amazes me in this day of so much data that the brand owners with the most to gain by using it never do. Have you ever experienced a travel brand or F&B brand that you have booked with using the data from your social media postings to make your stay more personalised or your meal extra special? Nope, me neither.

If you're a TripAdvisor blogger like myself or a HungryGoWhere contributor, there is a huge amount of data that people have included in their reviews that could be used by a smart thinking hotel operator or restaurant. This could ensure that the person coming to your outlet doesn't have a similarly terrible experience or to match the great experience that they have or I have written about. Why do none of these outlets ever use it?

Is it really too much trouble to look up a customer's TripAdvisor, facebook, LinkedIn, HungryGoWhere, Instagram account and see what could be done to enhance their experience? To tailor their visit, to go beyond their expectation?

Anything from the type of food they like if someone likes; if they are vegetarian, for example, a vegetarian menu could be awaiting their arrival to the kind of room they like if they have posted about always getting terrible views, or the lack of towels in previous places could easily be used to personalise the service and gain rave reviews instead of more mediocre ones.

There is a more pertinent business point to actually looking at a customer's TripAdvisor/HungryGoWhere reviews and an obvious one. If they have posted many times, they will post about their experience with you. If they don't post previously, then they are unlikely to.

Consequently where should a hotel or F&B outlet's focus be? On someone who doesn't post or someone who could influence others one way or the other to visit your establishment?

In an ideal world of course, yes, everyone gets equal focus but we know the world is not like that. The affluent, the celebrities, the millionaire business owners with aggressive PA’s, the complainers, the articulate, the bloggers get more attention and more service than those that suck it up and never outwardly complain to anyone else and just moan to the person they're with.

Shout the loudest and you will get a reward of some kind, a discount, a freebie, special attention. That's just the way of the world.

A more proactive approach to enhance brand advocates and drive more customers and therefore sales would be for travel and F&B brands to actually go and look up their future customer's social media profile and comments and prepare their room, meal, table, drink just how they like.

Wouldn't that be great and very personalised customer service? Wouldn't you write a rave review if they did that? You would truly be delighted and surprised and forever advocating that brand both on social media and in person with friends.

Travel brands do this for high-end hotel and airline club loyalty card holders (everyone has seen Up in The Air) but what happens if you're more discerning and choose a different hotel for every different location and are not brand loyal? You don't count? You stay shouldn't be personalised?

Thsi is especially true with regards to Singapore hotels and the whole "staycation" phenomenon that is pretty unique to Singapre. If a hotel couldn't find that guest in their loyalty scheme, how hard would it be to look them up on TripAdvisor to get a feel for the kind of customer they're going to be? Or on LinkedIn to see if they will needing fast wi-fi and a desk/club lounge access?

Is that guest going to be picky, are they going to complain, and more importantly are they going to tell everyone about their experience with you? How hard would it be then to translate that social media data that is everywhere and available to the public into a more personalised service?