Trekaroo for Business Owners

What is Trekaroo?

Trekaroo is where thousands of moms and dads look for the inside scoop on family-friendly attractions, restaurants, and hotels.

 

In 2010, a million users visited Trekaroo seeking advice from other parents on how to travel and what businesses are worth spending their precious fun dollars with.

 

Families turn to Trekaroo to plan both their big vacations of the year and weekend outings with their kids. They also look to Trekaroo for kid-friendly restaurants that offer great food in a family-friendly setting whether they are traveling or just out for a treat.

 

Is your business looking to attract families as new and repeat customers?

 

Trekaroo is the perfect place to keep tabs on what families are saying about your business. You’ll be able to see who your most loyal and vocal customers are as they spread the word about you not just to their immediate circle of friends, but to the thousands of families that make up Trekaroo.

 

In a few simple steps, you can take advantage of our free business owner tools to:

 

      Join in the conversation that families are having about your business.

      Get notified right away when customers write a review or update any of the details on your page.

      Put your best foot forward by keeping all business info up-to-date and uploading great pics that show off what you have to offer.

      Promote yourself to new and repeat customers with offers on Trekaroo.com and Trekaroo’s iPhone app.

      Get the word out about special events and new openings and products you want families to know about.

 

Claiming Your Business on Trekaroo

Claiming your business on Trekaroo takes just 2 minutes and it’s free. Once you do, you’ll have access to private business owner tools and you’ll be on your way to connecting to Trekaroo families.

The first step in claiming your business is to join Trekaroo. If you’re already a member of Trekaroo, you can skip this step. Click "Join" at the top of the page. Fill in all the requested information and hit the "Join" button.

Next, find your business on Trekaroo. Click on "write a review" to search our database. Type in your business name, select if you’re an activity, hotel or restaurant, then select what state your business is located in.

If your business comes up in the search results, click on the name to go to your business page. On your business page, click the link that says, "Is this your business?"

If your business is not yet listed on Trekaroo, you can add your business by clicking on "Add New" under the search results. Fill out the details about your business and check the box that says, "This is my business and I'd like to claim it".

To claim your business, you must enter your phone number, add a photo of yourself, then click "claim".

Congrats! You’ve claimed your business. Now you can start taking advantage of the private business owner tools.

 

How to Use your Business Account

Editing your business information

Keeping your business information up-to-date is the first step in putting your best foot forward.  Make sure the description accurately describes your business, keep all your contact information current, along with hours of operation and prices.  You want to make sure that your potential customers can find and contact you easily, and that families know exactly what they should expect when they walk through your doors.

To edit your business information, go to your business page and click "edit details".  Please do not put offers and announcements under the description or more details area.  There is a special prominent display spot for offers and announcements.

Add photos of your business. Photos speak a thousand words. To do so, click on "add photos"

If another user updates your business page, you’ll be notified immediately via email.  Return to your business page to see what they changed to verify whether it's correct.  If it isn’t you can revert back to the previous version.

Respond to reviews about your business

We'll send you an email every time a new review is submitted. You can respond to reviews privately or publicly.  Private messages can be sent by clicking "Send a message" under any review.

To respond publicly, click on "Respond publicly to review" under any review.  Your response will appear under the review where anyone can see it. 

We advise you to read our tips on how and when to respond to both positive and negative reviews. You can respond either privately or publicly.

Respond to questions

When a user asks a question about your business, you will receive an email.  Simply click on the link in the email and enter your reply.

Tips on Responding to Reviews

Trekaroo parents are generally a positive bunch.  They spend a lot more time sharing about businesses they are enjoying as a family.  Parents are exceptionally busy people, so when they take the time to share with their friends about your business you can be sure they either really love you or in some cases, had a particularly bad experience.  Keeping tabs on and responding to reviews is a great way to learn from and build goodwill with your most vocal customers. You can do this privately or publicly.

However, do remember that communicating with your customers in a public setting should be approached with careful tact.  To help you set the right tone, keep in mind:

1)     These reviewers are your customers

2)     Reviewers tend to be vocal and opinionated

3)     Kindness goes a very long way and can ease most tense situations

Send a private message

To respond to a review privately click "Send a message" under the review.

Sending a private message is best when you need to have a dialogue with the reviewer.  In the case of a negative review, you can work with the customer to understand what happened and work towards winning back their trust.  When there has been a resolution, you can add a public response to the review explaining the steps you took to address the reviewers concerns and the outcome.

Respond publicly to a review

To respond publicly to a review click on "Respond publicly to review" under any review.  Your response will appear under the review where anyone can see it.  Responding publicly to a review is a great way to tell your customers how much you appreciate their feedback and the time they took to share about it with their friends.

There is no back and forth conversation when responding publicly to a review.  You cannot edit your response, so choose your words carefully.  Even when a review is negative, responding kindly always casts you in a good light.  All customers like to know that business owners are listening.

Responding to Positive Reviews

We all love hearing positive reviews.  Keeping your response simple and appreciative is the best approach. Resist the temptation to shower them with thank you gifts even if they made your heart leap for joy. These gestures though well intentioned, can be misconstrued as a bribe. You don't want to risk taking away from the power of a glowing review.  A simple thank you is enough to give them a warm fuzzy feeling about you and to draw them back to your business again. Avoid tagging on marketing messages to your responses because it just doesn't sound as sincere.  Keep the agenda simple – letting them know you appreciate the time it took them to share about their great experience.

Responding to Negative Reviews

You’ve built your business with blood, sweat and tears – believe me, we can identify.  It can totally be deflating to hear negative feedback.  First take a deep breath.  Never respond when you are feeling very angry.  Remember, this a very public setting and what’s out there cannot be taken back.  If you need to, walk away and come back when you feel calmer.

There are two ways you can respond to negative reviews – a simple thank you and acknowledgement communicates that you are willing to listen to your customers.  This will reflect well on you even without writing a rebuttal or explanation.

The good news is that reaching out with kindness helps you to genuinely build relationships with your customers.   In some cases, there may have been a misunderstanding that needs to be clarified.  Other times, they may hit on something that may be somewhat justified.  Seeking to make amends can win back their affections.  Always remember that these are your most opinionated and vocal customers. 

Even when you aren’t able to fully resolve the matter, you can respond and explain the steps you took to make good with your customers.  But always communicate with kindness, never in a rude or condescending manner.  You want to diffuse the tension not escalate it. 

Getting Reviews on your Business Page

We do not encourage you to push or bribe customers to write reviews on Trekaroo.  So, what are some ways to get some unbiased reviews from your loyal customers?

1)     Post a Trekaroo Badge on your Website

Make it easy for moms and dads to write reviews about your business.  If you already have a few positive reviews, you may request that we send you a "Parent-Approved on Trekaroo" badge.  Other parents will catch on once they see the badge on your website.

2)     Post a Trekaroo sticker on your business window

Trekaroo has both a mobile site and an iPhone app that makes it easy to write reviews. Capture them in the moment by reminding them that they can review you from their smartphones.  Request a Trekaroo Sticker for your business window.

3)     Arrange for an in-depth review from our most respected Superoo elite reviewers

At Trekaroo, we have a special group of travel-savvy families called Superoos. Our Superoos are the most influential members of our community. They love to travel with their kids and can’t stop telling people about it. They are prolific reviewers and tipsters who share about kid-friendly attractions, hotels, campsites, restaurants and more.

Superoos are available for media visits to your business and will write an in-depth and well-written review of their experience within two weeks of returning. Traveling as a family is expensive and cost can prohibit them from trying too many new experiences.  Taking advantage of complimentary stays and tickets, enables the Trekaroo community to research and test what’s fun and new for families and cover a much larger swath of places.

When a Superoo accepts a complimentary stay or tickets, they’re ready to tease out all the details that other families are dying to know about. Trekaroo provides each Superoo with a checklist of topics to unpack that moms and dads want to know about.  Although Superoos accept complimentary or discounted stays, tickets or meals, they always retain the freedom to express their honest opinion. Trekaroo also believes in 100% transparency and the trust of our community is most important, so whatever is received complimentary or at a discount is always disclosed alongside the reviews.  Undoubtedly, there can be varying degrees of bias with such reviews, but the breadth and depth that a Superoo covers in their report provides more than adequate upside.

To invite a Superoo out for a media visit, contact editor@trekaroo.com. 

Promoting Your Business on Trekaroo

Why Promote your Business on Trekaroo?

Trekaroo is:

1) Trusted: parents trust the collective voice of other parents on Trekaroo
2) Targeted: we provide businesses with direct access to savvy parents who love to explore with their kids
3) Multi-channel: we allow you to reach parents through our website, on their mobile devices, and through Twitter and Facebook.

Trekaroo’s goal is to provide a place where businesses who are making the extra effort to meet the needs of families get the recognition from this influential community of parents.  We also seek to make it easy for businesses who have great offerings for families to reach them in a targeted and effective manner.

Quick and Easy Marketing Solutions

Sponsorship of Weekly Digest Emails
Our weekly digest is sent out via email to our entire membership base each week.  We highlight seasonally relevant content as well as the hottest topics being discussed in our community.  Reach our members via email by sponsored our weekly digest.  We’ll include a tip highlighting your business that read less like advertising and more like a Trekaroo tip with a link of your choice.  Here are some of the upcoming topics we’ll be covering.  Newsletter sponsorship rate: $50 per email issue.

Custom Marketing and Advertising Solutions

Trekaroo offers a host of customized advertising and marketing solutions that we design to meet your unique maketing goals.  This includes customized display advertising campaigns, dedicated emails, and sponsored tips and blog posts. 

Request our Media Kit

media@trekaroo.com for more information and for stats on our reach.

Contact Trekaroo

If you have a question that has not been answered, you may contact our business support at business_support@trekaroo.com