BlogmyQuery – BMQ

Being a small business owner today can be a rewarding experience. Thanks to the rise of the digital landscape, you can access consumers from across the globe, alongside benefitting from tech tools that boost efficiency. Nevertheless, finding success can still be quite challenging.

As with so much in life, knowledge is key. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to head out and get a master’s in business administration. Rather, you must have a good understanding of some essential principles and why they can impact your company’s trajectory. So, we’re going to explore a handful of areas you should get to know better and start implementing.

Prioritize Staff Engagement

Even as a small business, your staff will be among your most valuable resources. It’s in your best interest to keep them engaged, which can boost not just productivity but also satisfaction and retention.

Some aspects to focus on here include:

• Fair pay and benefits: The most basic way to help keep your staff engaged is to ensure a fair pay and benefits structure. This should include salaries that are at least in line with averages for your industry and each role. You must also set up a measurable and transparent evaluation structure for informed raises. Alongside benefits like healthcare and 401(k) matching, extras like subsidized local gym memberships that support worker well-being can be positive.
• Development: Another way to keep workers engaged is to invest in their professional development. For small businesses, this can begin with getting to know what directions your staff would like to professionally progress in and train them in the skills for these. As your company grows, you could consider subsidizing eLearning courses and industry certifications. Not only does this engage your staff, but it opens your company up to a more diverse range of skills.

Additionally, take the time to assess staff engagement at least a couple of times a year. This may be providing them with anonymous surveys on how they feel about their time with your business and what would make a difference to their satisfaction levels. This enables you to collaborate on changes or additions that help everyone to thrive.

Track and Respond to KPIs

Seeking a better understanding of your company’s performance is crucial to its success. The better data you have on operations, the more empowered you are to make informed decisions. This is where tracking your key performance indicators (KPIs) comes into play. These are measurable metrics that enable you to see how effectively you’re moving toward your business’s short and long-term goals. They can also highlight where there may be consistent inefficiencies that impact your performance.

Some of the most important KPIs to track include:

• Total and qualified leads: Understanding the total number of new leads gives you a good overview of how impactful your marketing is in drawing attention. Knowing the qualified leads number lets you know how well you’re hitting demographics that have a likelihood of engaging with your business. Indeed, establishing the ratio between these two lead types can show you how efficient your marketing is and whether you need to make improvements.
• Total labor ratio: This KPI gives you insights into your company’s productivity. It simply involves dividing the total cost of labor by the revenue your business has brought in. As this includes the payroll of all staff across the organization, you get a better picture of the wider efficiency. This shows you whether you need to make adjustments to boost productivity in ways that justify the payroll outlay. In efficient organizations, it can also highlight if there is space for company-wide pay increases that might influence engagement.

Remember that we live in a technologically advanced business landscape. One of the ways technology can help small business operations is by improving access to data, including your KPIs. There are KPI tracker dashboards available that you can tailor to automatically collect and report on the specific metrics you want to monitor.

Once you have this data, it is important to respond to it. Work with your staff in reviewing what the information means. You can then collaborate on the most productive ways to make improvements.

Be More Sustainable

Sustainability is an increasingly vital characteristic in small businesses right now. This isn’t just because all companies have an ethical duty to minimize negative environmental and social impact, though that is vital. Sustainability can also influence your small business’s success and growth.

This is because consumers are more environmentally informed, to the extent that many are making purchasing decisions based on the brand’s commitment to sustainability. This could not just affect individual purchases, but also long-term loyalty. Sustainability can affect staff engagement, too. A recent Deloitte report — titled Engaged Employees Are Asking Their Leaders to Take Climate Action — found that 27% of workers have considered switching jobs in favor of a more sustainable employer.

As a result, it’s essential to adopt sustainable actions that go beyond carbon off-setting credits. This can include utilizing renewable energy sources, either by buying electricity from renewable providers or utilizing solar panels on your business premises. Circular economy practices — such as reducing waste production and returning materials to the earth through methods like composting — are also positive steps. Collaborating with partners in your supply chain to agree on environmentally friendly and ethical practices makes your company and the industry more holistically sustainable, too.

Avoid Compliance Issues

Even relatively small errors in your regulatory and legal responsibilities can see your company facing fines from authorities and lawsuits from those who may have been victims of compliance breaches. You should, therefore, put practices in place to avoid potential issues. Some of the general areas of compliance all businesses need to be cognizant of include the following.

Safety

Maintaining a safe environment protects your company from accident lawsuits by consumers and worker compensation claims. It’s vital to perform regular safety inspections of your environment. This should include assessing for obstructions that inhibit safe navigation and the responsible storage of hazardous materials, among others. You should also ensure managers review the Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA) requirements for your type of business and assess whether appropriate measures are in place. For instance, if there aren’t enough trained first responders on staff, arrange for employees to attend courses.

Bookkeeping

Your financial records are an invaluable tool for compliance. Even if you don’t operate in a regulated financial industry, you still need to conform to local and federal tax laws. Navigating tax season can be challenging if your records aren’t up-to-date. Therefore one of the basic ways to support compliance is to adopt strict bookkeeping and accounting practices. As a small business, utilizing automated bookkeeping software that maintains your records can be a useful tactic.

Conclusion

Building a successful small business requires consistent attention to several areas. This includes gaining and using KPI data, alongside adopting transparent sustainability actions, among others. It’s also important to regularly assess the efficacy of these protocols, too. Not every business has the same shape, goals, or environments. By tailoring your approach to the specifics of your company and adjusting as you develop, you can give your business a good framework to build its success upon.

Featured image by Fox

The post Key Insights for Small Business Owners: Essential Knowledge for Success appeared first on noupe.

Property technology or proptech has changed the real estate industry, and video is a strategic part of this technology.  The incorporation of AI, AR & VR, like advancement, has significantly improved the property-viewing process; making it a more client-centric approach. As a result, the role of commercial real estate video editing to boost marketing approaches has skyrocketed in many ways. 

If you are a realtor and want to create a stunning effective property video, know about property video editing, its types, and how to make your videos stunning. Without further ado, let’s get started.

What is Commercial Real Estate Video Editing?

Commercial real-estate video editing is the type of post-production work specially categorized for property owners or realtors. 

For people looking to rent, or purchase land, apartments, homes, or office spaces, the real estate industry demonstrates its properties with commercial video editing to spark viewers’ interest and interaction. 

Types of Videos to Use in Commercial Real Estate

Businesses use different types of marketing videos to promote their product and services. Considering the subject, purpose, platform, and audience requirements, the usage of videos varies. Here is a list of the 6 most used video types for commercial real estate promotions. 

1. Regular property video 

A common property video most realtors upload. You will show your audience the property, and surroundings- whether it is inside a commercial, residential area, developed, or rural area from different angles. It gives the potential clients an idea of what they can expect from their budget. 

2. 360-degree virtual walkthrough video 

360-virtual walkthrough videos help spice up viewers’ engagement. This type of video helps your viewers have a nearly first-hand experience inside of a property or house, such as the number of rooms, if those are spacious, the facilities, etc. Being interactive gives an immersive experience to the audience.

3. Drone/ Aerial view video 

When buying or renting a property, inhabitants look for convenience, which you can show with a drone video. It aims to give a view from the top to your target audience. 

• The exact spot where the property is located 
• The surrounding area; is modernized or has a nature-touch 
• Position of markets, hospitals, educational institutions, etc. 

4. Realtors videos 

This type of video is direct from the companies, and agents who deal with real-estates. With this type of video, you tell the audience about your entity, the services you offer, and what value you provide to them. Realtors’ videos generally include information about 

• Company/ Agent introduction 
• Area of working or service 
• Portfolio, team, skills, and expertise, etc. 

5. Client’s testimonial video 

Testimonial videos marketize your service, on behalf of you. People share their experience working with you, how you help solve their problems and find solutions, highlight your expertise, etc. You get online exposure round the clock, no matter which platform you publish them. 

6. Expert guideline video 

Property buyers and tenants have different requirements and look for answers so that their money is invested in the right level of comfort and convenience. You can cater to these specific needs by creating videos on guidelines for real estate, sharing tips and what they should look for, informing the viewers about the market, how to guide, etc. 

Advantages of Outsourcing Real Estate Video Editing

Combining several clips into a single video, keeping the sequence in line, and making the transitions appealing is the targeted outcome. However the advantages video editing brings to a real estate company are far better. Some of those are:

New strategy for promotional activities 

About 75% of homeowners prefer working with real estate agents who use video marketing. The video provides an extensive view and more connected experience, making it one of the most demanded content on digital platforms. You can beef up your promotional and marketing strategy volume by showing your property videos. 

High-quality videos for public sharing  

People remember moving visuals more than still images. Low-quality videos drive viewers away, outsourcing video editing for real estate ensures you get high-quality videos that display your properties in the best way and maintain the brand’s professionalism. 

Exposure to online platforms 

5.17 billion social media users in the world. You will get a huge exposure if you can choose the platform and the medium of marketing right. Video quality decreases once you publish them on social media or online platforms. Edited videos not only increase watchtime but also social share. 

Attract and engage potential customers 

Getting videos edited for real estate gives your business a competitive edge. Well-edited videos enhance your property look and convince viewer’s decisions. Viewers who see a video like this can easily catch the information and show interest. 

Resource-saving in-detail content 

Video editing helps strategically improve your marketing approaches. Professional video editing services are cost-effective yet they ensure so much detail for your property; you get interactive and livelier videos explaining property, benefits, facilities, and locations. 

Better ROI for your business 

By assigning experts to edit your video, you get powerful digital content to keep brand consistency. Good quality videos have a long lifecycle, as those are engaging and visually pleasing, many people watch them and feel encouraged to take the next step towards conversion. 

How to Ensure High-Quality Commercial Real Estate Video Editing?

Video editing is a lot of work. Making a powerful video for real estate requires an organized approach from the get-go. On that note, here are our 5 tips and tricks for using real estate video editing for your commercial purposes. 

1. Draft your storyboard 

Having a plan for your property video story, and how you want to display is as important as considering what the viewers want to see. While preparing your storyboard:

1. Read your audience: Every property has a specific target group with diverse preferences and requirements. Know what would hook them, and what they find convenient. 

2. Keep it short: Short videos have more traction than long ones. So, aim to make your property video 2-3 minutes long. Also, you can make reels of any specific part of your property and publish them on your social media pages. 

3. Keep it relevant: Consider what matters most to the target group and plan to prepare the scenery relevant to them, so that they know what to expect. Let’s say you are selling an apartment in an urban area, then showing the window view is a greater selling point than showing the interior design. 

2. Display property benefits  

Property is a large product to sell. You will see there are many aspects to show. What would you do? Sort them out and show the features that people are mostly interested in and yours are unique. Show some features fully, and some at a glance. 

3. Use a variety of shots

What types of shots are most effective for real-estate videos? Wide angle, medium shots, detail shots, and aerial shots.  

• Wide angle: Captures the detail of a room. 
• Medium shots: Highlights a specific side. 
• Detail shots: Display a specific feature to the point. 
• Aerial shots: Scale the property and show the surroundings. 

Make sure to include shot variations to keep the video engaging and not monotonous for the viewers. 

4. Include testimonials 

Testimonial works as the approval and proof by your old clients that assures the potential clients. By including testimonials or reviews, you build credibility and attract quality customers to close the deals. 

5. Use Professional Editing Software 

Honor the viewers’ perspective by editing your videos. Poor-quality videos don’t address the viewers no matter how informative or feature-rich they are. Your stance differs only when you walk an extra mile. That is ensuring high-quality videos by using the software. 

When you are editing the videos, make sure to take notes of the following must-haves. 

• Organize the footage: Sort out images you have and then organize what to keep and exclude. Rather than showing a big wall, show what it is dividing. Cross out unnecessary objects, reflections, and distracting scenes. 
• Ensure footage correlation: Scene by scene the footage needs to go like a serial so that the viewers can relate and connect. Let’s say, you are showing the dining room, don’t just move to the living room, rather show the kitchen. The scenes have to make sense to the viewers. 
• Pace your footage as well: Pacing means, when you attach one footage to another, don’t make it too flashy. Use simple graphics during transitions, or make some key points so that viewers don’t feel out of the space. 
• Have the right color correction: Refrain from using too many highly ranged colors that feel deceptive. Your purpose is to demonstrate the property in its real look, as natural and authentic as possible. So, balance the color, saturation, hue, exposure, and lighting in a consistent way. 

• Use Text when necessary: Use text overlays to describe features or parts where you want viewers to pay attention. The text should be simple, short, and easy to read.
• Use relevant audio: Ensure high-quality audio in the video, and remove the background noise and unnecessary voices. Put relevant music to use as well, such as, if you edit a real estate video for an office space in a bustling city, the background music shouldn’t be something heavy or loud, rather, aim for a calming melody. 
• Include a CTA: Last but not least, add a CTA for the customers to take action when their minds are in the right state. Just when your video is finished, there is a high chance, they will be somewhat convinced. Placing the CTA in front of them will put a note in their mind to contact you. 

How Much Does Commercial Real Estate Video Editing Cost?

The cost of editing real estate videos depends on the project requirements, level of detail editing, experience, project type, complexity, and video lengths. Taking these factors in here is a chart on real estate video editing prices in different categories. 

Per Hour	Around $50
Per Day	Above $500
Length-based	Short video: Over $100
	Long video: Over $300
Advanced Level	Above $2000

Hiring a commercial video editor costs much more than outsourcing. Glassdoor reported that over 54,000$ was the average salary of a video editor in 2023. So, outsourcing video editing is a cost-effective solution. 

What is the difference between hiring professional video editors and DIY? 

The main difference between hiring a professional editor and DIY is the level of expertise. Anyone can do it, no matter what level of skills they have, however, professional video editors have advanced level skills which they hone by working with clients worldwide. 

So outsourcing from a professional video editor:

• Ensures high-quality works 
• Involves the least risk  
• Guarantees security  
• Quick services and accurate services 
• Is budget-friendly 

FAQs about Commercial Real Estate Video Editing

What is the best software for commercial real estate video editing? 

Some of the best real estate video editing software to edit real estate are Blender, Substance Painter 3D, After Effects, ZBrush, Marmoset Toolbag, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator. Each software has an upgraded version with new features, which are pretty effective in bringing out the best of property videos. 

How do I determine the optimal length for a commercial real estate video? 

Take note of property or real-estate size, locations, features you want to show, and complexity to determine the length of a commercial real estate. 

What Are the Best Video Settings for Real Estate Video? 

Start with ISO Low, Shutter speeds 1/50, aperture F/5.6 to F/8, and adjust accordingly. For aerial video, start shooting on the lowest ISO, shutter speeds to 1/200, and aperture f/5.6 to f/11.

How long should a commercial real estate video be?

The length of videos is decided based on purpose, such as if the video is showing an overview, it may be 1 to 3 minutes, if the purpose is to demonstrate features of an apartment or house, it may take longer. 

Conclusion 

Editing real estate videos allows you the opportunity to have more room, save resources, access expertise, and explore your business potential. With the right approach, you get visual videos that attract potential buyers and make your real estate business thrive in the billion-dollar competitive industry.

The post How to Use Commercial Real Estate Video Editing to Attract Buyers? appeared first on noupe.

When considering network implementation, businesses frequently choose between Wide Area Networks (WAN) and Local Area Networks (LAN). Understanding the WAN meaning as a broader network that connects multiple locations over large distances, and how it contrasts with LAN, which serves smaller, localised areas, is crucial.

Cost is a critical factor in this decision-making process. Each form of network has distinct financial ramifications, ranging from installation and maintenance to operational costs. In this article, explored are the key cost considerations for LAN vs. WAN deployments that will help businesses make informed choices.

Cost considerations

Infrastructure costs

WAN deployments often bring significant costs in the domain of infrastructure. For example, dedicated hardware for this includes powerful routers, switches, and leased lines, all to transfer an enormous volume of data over a distance. The configuration complexity of WAN might automatically and inevitably impose MPLS or VPNs with a more prominent cost. LAN networks can have simpler hardware with less cost, such as basic switches and routers because the network covers a small area of geography. Thus, it is possible that the net investment in infrastructure could make LANs more viable to small and medium business establishments.

Installation costs

The setting up of LAN is easier and less time-consuming and therefore installation costs are lower. Most LAN configurations, with standard networking equipment, can be finished within a few hours. Installation of WAN is much more time-consuming as it includes complicated wiring of multiple locations especially in cases when multiple service providers are being used. That complexity is usually handled by professional technicians with WAN installation experience, making labor costlier. Moreover, WAN installations often require elaborate planning and coordination, which forms part of the increased overall setup costs.

Maintenance and support

WAN systems can be much more expensive to support as they are intrinsically complex. WAN management typically requires technical, highly professional individuals familiar with advanced networking technologies. As this expertise is in short supply, the associated wages or consulting fees are higher for a WAN solution than for LAN solutions. By comparison, LANs are generally simpler and more practicable to support; most organizations will have reliance on their internal IT staff. That makes maintenance costs much lower for a LAN system.

Operational expenses

WANs are likely to incur much higher operational costs on account of their greater bandwidth demands and constant data transmission over greater distances. In most cases, organizations have to pay extra for leased lines or committed bandwidth, which quickly adds up. LAN operational expenses tend to be lower in that they often work with internal traffic and make use of local resources. In a LAN, since devices are kept close, no long-distance costs affect the capability of transmitting data.

Bandwidth requirements

WANs generally require more bandwidth than LANs, primarily because they typically have to support more than one site, particularly when there is large amounts of data handling or significant application traffic. That means the overhead in recurring costs is higher because businesses need higher speed connections so that these can deliver good performance. LANs are all confined to one location and usually place much lower demands on bandwidth. The overall result is much cheaper for bandwidth.

Data transfer costs

In a WAN environment, there usually are the costs of data transfers. However, the scenario is different for such transfers between LANs since these are performed locally within the organization and therefore incur very negligible costs, with free internal data movement, especially on a LAN.

Scalability costs

Most commonly, WAN scaling is expensive, particularly when it involves additional hardware or leased lines that need to be added to accommodate new locations. Each subsequent location will probably also involve greater investment in equipment, as well as ongoing fees unless it is built on one of the hub locations. In a LAN, growing typically entails very low incremental costs because it is inexpensive and relatively easy to add new devices like switches or access points.

Hardware costs

The hardware cost for WAN deployment is way higher compared to LANs. This is because WAN equipment requires more complex routing and management functions, which contribute to the increased cost. LAN setup arrangements can use standard off-the-shelf equipment, a characteristic that makes it cheaper and suitable for small organizations or branches of larger organizations.

Backup and redundancy

To offer high uptime across many sites, WANs may require more heavy-duty backup procedures, and such measures raise the cost. The introduction of redundant links or more sophisticated failure recovery systems adds both the setup cost and running cost of LANs. Nevertheless, LANs can more frequently use simple, less expensive redundancy measures, such as basic failure recovery switches, to ensure costs remain relatively low while maintaining an acceptable degree of reliability.

Security measures

WANs are exposed to public networks so the security demands for them are also more complex. Translation: it translates to a relatively higher cost since typically, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and continuous security monitoring are more complex.

For LANs, the security demands are often less sophisticated; hence organizations can apply the most elementary solutions: basic firewall and network segmentation.

Training costs

In organizations that deploy WAN technologies, cost training for the employees may be necessary for workers to handle and maintain systems properly. This is likely to be expensive and time-consuming especially if special knowledge is required. LANs are easier to handle by the staff. Training for this is mainly less required and thus reduces training costs overall.

Cost of downtime

The financial implication of WAN downtime is that lost connectivity may affect several sites and cause a shutdown in operations; thus, the organization would lose money and have horrible customer service. On the other hand, LAN typically affects only one location, and other branches or departments will function normally, so the financial impact is usually reduced altogether.

Government regulations

Compliance costs for WANs can also be much higher because of more regulations toward data handling and security within states. Organizations must ensure that they do not run afoul of the various state laws regarding data transfer should they operate in different jurisdictions. In comparison, LANs have fewer compliance issues as they are confined to a particular location, but the need for regulatory compliance is reduced further.

Long-term ROI

Evaluating the long-term return on investment is crucial. While WANs may offer greater connectivity benefits in the long run, such as supporting remote work and collaboration across locations, the upfront and operational costs are significantly higher compared to LANs. Businesses must assess their connectivity needs and determine whether the benefits of a WAN justify the costs, particularly if they have limited geographic expansion plans.

Conclusion

When comparing the costs of WAN vs. LAN deployments, firms must examine a variety of aspects, including infrastructure, operational costs, and long-term financial repercussions. While WANs provide greater connection, they are more expensive, making them ideal for organizations with large geographic requirements. LANs, on the other hand, provide a low-cost alternative for localized networks, particularly for small businesses. Finally, recognizing these cost concerns enables firms to match their network plans with their financial capabilities, resulting in a more informed and strategic approach to connection.

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Consider this data: 94% of consumers say that reading a bad review made them want to avoid a business.

That’s the power of reviews, especially in an industry like hospitality. In fact, 81% of travelers read reviews before booking a hotel. And nearly half won’t make a reservation for a hotel without reviews.

It just goes to show how much weight potential guests place on reviews. These reviews can actually be the difference between a fully booked hotel and dozens of empty rooms. 

Why Are Guest Reviews So Important in Hospitality?

Reviews are important in virtually every industry. They tell potential customers who are considering a brand if it’s worth spending their money on and what to expect when they do.

When traveling and staying at hotels, people want to feel at home. Of course, they enjoy exploring new cultures, cuisines, and landscapes. 

Of course, they want to make new memories and do different things they wouldn’t normally do or can’t do otherwise.

But when they go to a hotel, they want to feel safe. They’re not just investing their money hoping to have a positive experience. 

They’re making an emotional investment. Guests want to feel assured that their stay will be enjoyable and stress-free. 

Reading positive reviews helps potential guests feel safe when choosing a hotel.

An example of a hotel that constantly gets glowing reviews is the Slow Town Hotel in Taichung, Taiwan.

It receives high praise from guests due to its comfort and cleanliness, friendly and helpful staff, convenient location, and quiet environment.

These factors make the Slow Town Hotel a standout choice for travelers. As a result, it gets consistently high ratings and positive reviews across various booking platforms.

Screenshot provided by the author

How Positive Reviews Can Boost Your Hotel’s Reputation

In business, reputation is everything. That goes for the hospitality industry, too. Even if just one customer talks negatively about their recent hotel stay, many travelers will overlook that hotel in their search for the best accommodations. 

Let’s look at how good reviews can do wonders for your hotel’s reputation.

Build Trust and Credibility

Trust is everything, especially in hospitality. Potential guests are more likely to trust your hotel if they see other people talking about their positive experiences. 

And that trust helps build credibility. People view a hotel that consistently gets positive reviews as a reliable, trustworthy place to call their temporary home while traveling.

Enhance Online Visibility

Guest reviews can also help you boost your hotel’s online presence. By featuring your hotel’s reviews on popular review sites like TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Google Reviews, Yelp, Expedia, and Hotels.com, you can boost traffic to your own website.

Those backlinks can help boost your search engine rankings, resulting in even more traffic to your booking site.

Improve Guest Satisfaction

Did you know that positive reviews can also help you improve the guest experience? When you see that your hotel is doing something right to satisfy your guests, you’ll keep doing it, right?

Consider this glowing review a guest left on Hotels.com for their stay at the Darwin Hotel in Atlanta.

Screenshot provided by the author

Notice how the hotel specially accommodates the needs of the guest’s child by turning off the music in the lobby. The staff at Darwin made the guests feel safe and cared for in a new city.

The hotel can use this feedback to improve the guest experience further. For example, it can continue to make special accommodations for guests who need them to improve their stay.

Encourage Repeat Business

Guests who leave positive reviews about your hotel are more inclined to return, especially if they see that you acknowledged and acted on customer feedback.

Satisfied guests are likely to recommend your hotel to others, which helps drive repeat business and referrals.

Gain Competitive Advantage

Positive reviews can set your hotel leaps and bounds above the competition. This can increase the chances of a traveler choosing your hotel over others.

For example, let’s say a family is going to Disney World for their vacation. They’re considering two hotels: yours and a competitor’s. They like both options, including the amenities, proximity to major attractions, and other factors that make it hard to choose.

So, they decide to compare customer reviews. Your hotel’s review rating on TripAdvisor is noticeably higher than that of the other hotel. Ultimately, they choose to book a room at your establishment.

Practical Steps for Hotel Reputation Management

Maintain a strong reputation for your hotel by taking the following steps:

Encourage Guest Feedback

Ask guests to leave reviews about their stay. You can do this through follow-up emails, at check-out, or via in-room information.

Whatever you do, make it easy. To simplify the process, you can provide direct links to review platforms.

Monitor Online Reviews

Check online regularly to see what guests are saying about your hotel. Start by registering your property on popular review sites.

Use reputation management software to track mentions and reviews across multiple platforms. You can set up alerts to stay updated with new reviews in real-time, which enables quick responses and proactive management.

Respond to Reviews in a Timely Manner

Acknowledge all reviews, whether positive or negative. Kindly thank all guests when they leave positive feedback, and always address any concerns that you see in negative reviews. Fast responses show that you value guest feedback and are committed to improving their experience.

Screenshot provided by the author

Takeaway

It’s amazing how much power a few positive words about a brand can wield. When you consistently deliver a memorable guest experience, you can expect glowing review after glowing review.

That’s just the way it works. So, continue to keep your guests happy and watch how eager they’ll be to rave about their stay. Then, look at how many more guests you can attract. It’s a beautiful, ongoing cycle of growth that enhances your hotel’s reputation and success.

Here’s to landing more positive customer reviews to boost your bottom line!

Featured Image by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Pexels

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We’ve all had the annoying experience of clicking on a website or opening an app only to find it’s down for maintenance or not working. In that situation, we’re either left frustrated that we couldn’t do what we needed to, or even in some cases, look for what we want elsewhere. 

That’s why downtime is such a serious business: ultimately, it can mean lost sales and spoilt customer relationships. While updates and maintenance are necessary, users want an uninterrupted service, which makes zero downtime deployment (ZDD) the ideal approach. 

ZDD allows you to make the required changes in the background without affecting the user experience. But how does it work in practice? We’re going to cover strategies, tools, and best practices that can help you achieve successful zero-downtime deployment. 

What is Zero Downtime Deployment? 

Traditional deployment methods usually require that a web application goes temporarily offline whenever any updates need to be made. This is counterproductive to overall business objectives and therefore something that senior management and business architects are keen for development teams to avoid. 

A zero downtime deployment strategy makes it possible to make changes without disrupting usual service, with techniques like blue-green deployments or canary releases. We’ll go into more detail on those later, but the general idea is to introduce changes gradually, and closely monitor the progress. 

This means there is less risk of things going wrong and users get a continuous experience, which helps keep them happy and engaged. Plus, it can make the difference between a customer choosing your business or straying to a competitor.

Zero downtime deployment also improves operational efficiency, as the pressure and the risks that come with traditional deployment are minimized. No elaborate planning is needed to take the system offline and coordinate multiple teams, as automated processes and continuous integration are used for a faster development cycle and less stressful deployment. 

Key Strategies for Zero Downtime Deployment 

ZDD is not just a single technique but a combination of strategies that take different approaches to minimizing disruption to user experience (UX) during deployment. 

Blue-Green Deployments

For this method, two identical environments are maintained: the active (blue) environment and the idle (green) environment. Initially, updates are deployed to the idle environment, allowing teams to conduct thorough testing without any impact on users. 

Once everything has been verified, the traffic is switched to the green environment, and so the updated version goes live without any downtime. The main upside of this approach is that if any issues arise, it’s possible to quickly revert back to the blue environment. The downside is that blue-green deployments require double the infrastructure, which makes it an expensive choice. 

Canary Releases

In the case of a canary release, updates are rolled out to a small group of users, known as the canary group, before they are deployed to the entire user base. The team can then monitor the stability and performance of the new release under controlled conditions. Any issues that come up will only have minimal impact in the context of the wider user base. 

This is a great way to validate new features or changes without risking all users encountering potential bugs. However, it’s important to note that very careful monitoring and a quick response system are essential to tackle any issues that arise in the canary group. 

Rolling Updates

A rolling update makes incremental changes to applications across servers, one or a few at a time. Traffic is, therefore, able to continue uninterrupted through the unaffected servers. This creates a balance between canary releases and blue-green deployments, as there is an incremental update alongside targeting specific servers (as opposed to users). 

The result is a continuous deployment model that copes with live traffic effectively. Rolling updates are popular because they’re resource-efficient, as there is no need for duplicate environments. However, they do require careful management of load balancers and monitoring systems so that updated and non-updated servers can interact without causing problems. 

Feature Toggles

Feature toggles are used to deploy code changes with new features that are turned off by default. The idea is that they can then be selectively turned on for specific users or environments, giving teams control over the visibility of features without full deployment. 

It’s an approach that supports iterative testing and experimentation, meaning it aligns well with a broader UX strategy by allowing features to be tested and refined based on real user feedback. The drawback is that managing toggles can become complicated, particularly when the number of toggles increases, requiring disciplined cleanup and version control. 

Technical Considerations and Challenges 

When implementing zero downtime deployment, you need to be prepared for these technical considerations and common challenges. 

Database Changes

Updating a database schema with zero downtime represents a significant challenge. There are a few strategies you could try to tackle this issue, such as: 

• Using backward-compatible changes
• Using new fields rather than altering existing ones
• Using database versioning techniques. 

It may also be wise to adopt a phased approach, whereby the database is updated in stages – first to support the old and new application versions and then to refine it once the transition is complete. This keeps the application functional throughout the deployment. 

Load Balancing

When you’re managing traffic flow during updates, effective load balancing is of utmost importance. Load balancers always play an important role in distributing traffic evenly among servers, to avoid overloading and potentially ruining your website’s user experience. During ZDD, they become even more important, as they must direct traffic only to the servers working correctly.

To make sure service continuity is maintained, employ techniques like session affinity to keep users sessions on the same server, or health checks to automatically redirect traffic away from a problematic server. When properly configured, load balancers help prevent disruption and keep performance levels consistent. 

Monitoring and Rollbacks

The impact of deployment must be closely monitored to spot any issues early before they cause major problems. Real time monitoring tools should be used to flag when any errors crop up or performance degradation occurs.

A rollback plan should also be established, so that when issues arise, you can revert back to the stable version. Wherever possible, automate rollbacks to minimize reaction time: problems will then be nipped in the bud as swiftly as possible and the effect on UX will be negligible.

Tools and Testing

The effectiveness of zero downtime deployment is highly dependent on the tools and practices employed. 

Essential tools

These are three of the technologies most vital to zero downtime deployment. 

• Kubernetes: This tool manages containerized applications across multiple hosts, making it easier to handle scaling and deployment without downtime. 
• Docker: Lightweight containers create consistent environments from development through to production, allowing this solution to reduce issues related to differences in configuration.
• Jenkins: A technology that automates the CI/CD pipeline, handles builds, tests, and deployments to speed up release cycles and reduce human mistakes.

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

Much of the deployment workflow can be automated with CI/CD pipelines. Continuously integrating new code changes and deploying them automatically means these pipelines can be rolled out quickly and with little risk of disruption. This is an approach that is considered integral to ZDD, as it keeps the user experience reliable and stable. 

Testing

Automating testing provides the chance to check updates for problems before deployment. Testing can be integrated into the CI/CD pipeline to catch any issues early on, creating a safety net that stops faulty updates from reaching users. 

In the future, this is likely to be an area where we increasingly see the impact of machine learning in web development, as it optimizes and speeds up the development cycle and makes testing more efficient and accurate.

Implementation Tips and Best Practices

The best place to start to make sure zero downtime deployment runs smoothly is with gradual implementation. Begin with non-critical services first, before scaling up as the team gains experience and confidence with the process. This gives everyone the opportunity to learn and make adjustments in the early stages, so you have the best chance of success when it comes down to the big changes. 

With ZDD, it’s also important to remember that team collaboration is vital. All relevant parties, including developers and operations teams, must be aligned on the deployment strategy and should fully understand the potential effects. Tools like Ardoq can help you map dependencies and visualize the impact of deployment across the organization, all of which support better communication and collaboration. 

Finally, as with any kind of deployment, risk management is essential. Although you can take every precaution to make sure everything goes well, you need a plan for dealing with potential failure that includes a solid recovery plan. Consider automated rollbacks or failover strategies to help deal with the unexpected and protect the continuity of user experience. 

Keep UX consistent with ZDD

With zero downtime deployment as an option, interrupted user experience is no longer necessary. You can update applications whilst still maintaining a continuous service. 

This keeps users happy with an uninterrupted service and stops customers from taking their business elsewhere. Zero downtime deployment really is the best solution for both web development teams and the wider business. 

Featured image by Nangialai Stoman on Unsplash

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