Before the internet, people would ask their friends or family what to do or where to go. With the internet, that circle of influence has expanded to a
wider community. It has become so ubiquitous that now it would be unimaginable to not refer to a review site before choosing which hotel to book or
what places to see when traveling. It very rare for a consumer to make a purchasing decision without first researching and educating themselves before
taking the leap. TripAdvisor has risen through the ranks of popular review sites to a leadership role in all things tourism-related. At Champ we work
with many businesses who service tourists, and they know that a positive review on TripAdvisor holds a high value. The overall TripAdvisor ranking
is extremely important, so how do we improve it?

We worked with our client Grand Jewelers with the goal to rank #1 for shopping in both St. Thomas and St. Maarten and they were able to achieve it this
year. Grand Jewelers serves as an excellent example of how superior customer service paired with an intelligent digital marketing strategy can help
businesses succeed on review sites like TripAdvisor.

Get genuine reviews by your real customers

Its first essential to understand what not to do when hoping for promotion through TripAdvisor. They will penalize profiles if they have reason to believe
that the profile has fraudulent reviews. They do not allow people to review their own businesses, pay others to review their business, incentivize
customers in any way, or participate in other activities that might skew the rankings in your favor in disingenuous ways.

Thus, its essential that your reviews are submitted by real customers that you do not hand pick because they are happy. When a customer has a good experience,
it’s now expected. As a business you need to go above and beyond in order for people to leave a glowing review. Whereas a customer who left after an
experience that didn’t live up to their expectations will be way more likely to head to TripAdvisor and leave a negative one. Either way, you need
to make it easier for your customers to submit reviews by reminding them with signage at your location and listing links to your profile on TripAdvisor
from your website and other media.

How to increase reviews

Because Grand Jewelers has numerous marketing channels, it made sense for all of them to provide a supporting role to help improve rankings. We created
customized modules for their email marketing newsletter template to make it easier for their customers to navigate to Trip Advisor and leave them a
review.

We also took advantage of their homepage sliders to highlight their ongoing success on Trip Advisor and their desire to have customers review them there.
Grand Jewelers also used their active social media presence to let their fans know about their ongoing TripAdvisor successes and encourage reviews.

In additional the normal marketing channels, we also developed a system where Grand Jewelers could send all customers that visit their store an thank you
email. Employees of Grand Jewelers enter emails of recent customers into a private database which generates an automated thank you email asking for
the customer to submit a review for them on Trip Advisor as well as on other popular review platforms.

We also helped Grand Jewelers write blog posts to promote the four consecutive Certificates of Excellence they have been awarded by TripAdvisor, and to
explain this significance and rarity of this recognition. These posts were also promoted via Grand Jewelers robust email marketing campaigns, which
were set up to include easy calls-to-action for readers to go and provide a review themselves. It’s best practice to let your customers know when you
win awards, especially if they played an integral role in helping you win the award!

Leveraging Rankings for Future Success

Now that Grand Jewelers has accomplished the great feat of two number one rankings. We are helping them to leverage the benefits of getting approval on
such a trustworthy and well-known travel site. When potential new customers visit the Grand Jewelers website they will quickly see promotion of their
rankings and be able to go and read all of the wonderful things that their customers have been saying about them. This is an important avenue to bring
in new business and promote recognition of the Grand Jewelers brand for the future.

Grand Jewelers is a second generation, family-owned jewelry boutique with locations on both St. Thomas and St.
Maarten in the US Virgin Islands. They have built their business on a foundation of excellence in both quality of jewelry and superiority of customer
service. Grand Jewelers has been a client of Champ since 2015. At the start of 2018 they set themselves the goal of making it to the top of the TripAdvisor
rakings, and through a strategic effort, they did. Congratulations to the team at Grand Jewelers, it is your customer service and dedication to quality
that made this possible!

We are so pleased to be the marketing partner of Grand Jewelers. Be sure to check them out on your next trip to the islands.