Customer reviews to sell your outdoor and adventure activities

Why collect opinions 🤔

Buy = photos + reviews + price

Customers are looking for ease, and this is also the case when they are looking for outdoor activities and adventures to discover during their holidays or weekends. This is especially true for online purchases, and particularly for activities that are not always part of customers' daily lives.

There are 3 major points which, if combined, will trigger a customer purchase 95% of the time:

1. Pretty photos: take a look at our article on 10 tips for getting the best photos and videos to sell your business online.
2. 5-star reviews from customers who say good things about you and your business, and who validate what you are promoting on your websites.
3. The price, even though a large proportion of customers are less careful when it comes to their leisure time, and even less so when they're on holiday.

Languages reassure foreign customers

With Manawa.com's 4-language translation service (French, English, Spanish and German), we see every day how important it is to ask foreign customers to leave a review in their own language. In fact, if a Spanish customer leaves a review saying that the activity was fantastic and that they can't wait to come back, the following Spaniards who are interested in your activities will be all the more reassured that they can be made to feel at home and make the most of the activity.

One example is a paragliding activity in Annecy organised by our partner Flyeo, where 3 customers of different nationalities left their reviews in their respective languages:

They are curious and want to reassure themselves.

Beyond the photos, customers need to know what to expect on site through the words of people who have already discovered (and enjoyed) your activities. The simple fact that customers have experienced the same sensations that you highlight in your descriptions (and what they see in the photos), helps to reassure them and increase their desire to buy.

Here's a typical reassuring opinion for customers who are hesitant about the activity(600-metre winter zip line):

They are synonymous with quality services (rightly or wrongly).

The quantity and rating of customer reviews sells. Between an outdoor adventure activity with 120 reviews and an identical one with only 2 or even no reviews, the customer will find it much easier to book the former. They'll simply say to themselves: "This activity has 120 reviews, so obviously it's a success and meets my expectations". This also implies that the description of the activity is in line with reality and adds a notion of reliability: 120 people have done it, so it really exists, it's not a scam.

Another important point, admittedly difficult to analyse and quantify, is that customer reviews can increase traffic to your site and your pages. Google reviews are now visible on the Google my Business page alongside your contact details, address, website, etc. If a customer sees your site with X Google reviews, this will increase the chances of generating clicks and therefore bringing traffic to your site, but this is not yet on the scale of the business. On the other hand, having 120 reviews on your site will naturally increase its natural referencing, because you'll have more "precise and specific" keywords on each of your business pages, which should cause search engines to rank your pages higher.

Part 2: Designing and preparing the questionnaire 📝

You will now find some advice on how to design and format your customer review questionnaire, to add even more value to your outdoor activities.

The objective in the quest for customer reviews is, of course, the overall 5-star rating, which will enable you to sell your outdoor and adventure activities more effectively. The closer you get to 5 stars, the more interested customers will be and the more they'll want to come and discover your activities. The overall rating of the activity will be one of the first things they check, along with the photos and the price.

When setting up a customer review questionnaire, the stars are the main point, while the text is optional and complements them. Don't hesitate to put it to the fore and write "leave us a 5-star review of your business" in the title.

What questions should you ask your customers?

In this section you'll find our recommendations on what to include, and what not to include, in the questionnaire you send out to your customers. What do we want to know about the customer experience? Here are a few examples of what you can ask:

• What do you think of access to the meeting point?
• What do you think of the location of our structure?
• What do you think of the reception?
• What do you think of the activity itself?
• What do you think of the framing/organisation?

The customer should be able to fill it in quickly (less than 5 minutes). Generally speaking, the questionnaire should remain fairly general and unique. You need to be able to send the same form to customers over several years, without having to change the names of activities, etc.

At the end of this questionnaire, don't hesitate to invite them to leave a review elsewhere too, for example on Google, Ekomi, Avis vérifiés, Facebook... depending on what is most legitimate and interesting for you.

Google is obviously a must!

Which format?

As for the different formats you can use to share your questionnaire, the simplest are email, SMS or QR code. The best way to set this up is to combine them as follows:

• A QR code displayed on your facility that redirects to a form that customers can scan and fill in directly after the activity. Encourage your instructors to ask customers to scan it and leave you a 5-star review.
• An email or text message to customers (or whatsapp for foreigners), two days after the activity, thanking them for coming to discover your activities and asking them to leave a review of their experience with a link attached. There are several booking software packages that can automate this (see article Online booking to promote your activities).

For our part at Manawa :

Here is a screenshot of the form that Manawa customers receive by e-mail, 2 days after completing the activity:

Once the customer has filled in this form, they appear on our partner's pages on Manawa.com. The different headings are then separated to go to the partner's page (which groups together all its activities with a description of the company), the page for each specific activity, the spot page (with all the other activities available on site) and Manawa via our Ekomi page, which contains the more than 22,000 customer reviews collected since we started.

Part 3: Gathering and making the most of customer reviews 🚀

Once your form is ready and you've thought about how you want customers to fill it in, the next step is to set it up and use it.

Harvesting and storage :

The first step in introducing the form to customers who have just discovered your activities is to talk to them about it. Once the activity is over, on the way back to base, when they are taking off their equipment, at the ticket office to look at the photos, etc., tell them that their opinion counts!

Let them know that customer reviews account for a large proportion of bookings and explain how to leave them (a good way of highlighting the QR code). Customers don't necessarily know how important their opinion is for a business offering outdoor and adventure activities, but don't hesitate to highlight it and explain that it's an important part of welcoming new customers and helping them discover your activities. I insist on this: if they were satisfied, invite them to leave you a 5-star review!

Analysing opinions :

When validating reviews, remember to analyse them by reading them. It's quite common for customers to point out things that you can easily improve/modify, things that you may not be aware of because it's your day-to-day business.

It's the best way to continually improve your business.

Publish notices quickly:

As soon as you receive reviews, make sure you put them online quickly on your website. Every new customer review adds value to your business and helps you to promote it 😉

What's more, all reviews count. For Manawa, even though we have over 22,000 reviews with 4.7/5 stars, we still get some negative feedback. Many customers, but also potential professional partners in the business, ask us questions about the few negative reviews we may have on Ekomi (where we group 100% of Manawa's reviews), but also on Facebook and other places where customers can leave reviews.

Replying to notices :

Bad or good, leave a comment under your customer reviews. For good reviews, a simple "thank you" is appropriate and will help to build customer loyalty and, above all, show consideration. For bad reviews, take the time to explain the situation clearly and transparently, and if there is a solution to the problem the customer has encountered, this will show your professionalism to future customers who pass by. Remember to take a step back from their message!

If you are already a partner, you can retrieve Manawa customer reviews via your partner area in order to promote them directly on your websites. Don't hesitate to write directly to your regional manager. If you are not yet a partner and would like to find out more about Manawa, you can also make a contact request: Become a partner.