Responding to reviews

Responding to your customers’ reviews matters- so let’s talk about how you can start leaving great responses today. Here’s what you’ll find in this article.

Why Responding to Reviews is Important

Many business owners don’t respond to reviews. After all, getting a review already feels like a win. This is a mistake. Responding to reviews is a great opportunity to engage with your customers and at times, even help you turn your unhappy customers into advocates.

Data shows that responding to reviews has a positive impact on your business. A study by Harvard Business School found that responding to reviews correlated with a higher overall star rating. After, all your customers appreciate engagement. A simple “thank you” can go a long way.

Responding to reviews also helps you rank higher on search engines. Google has confirmed that when you regularly responding to your customers’ reviews, it also helps with SEO. After all, Google values many of the same factors that your customers do. The more reviews you respond to, the more it shows that you care about engaging with each and every one of your customers.

How to Respond to Negative Reviews

No matter how great your services are, you’re going to get some negative reviews. While it can feel disappointing, negative reviews are a great opportunity to show off your customer service. If you manage to resolve the problem that the customer experience, you might just improve your business while also turning around your customer’s opinion. It’s a win-win.

Here are a few ways that you can start responding to negative reviews today.

Take a Deep Breath

It’s easy to be frustrated with a negative review, especially when you make an effort to create a fantastic experience for every single customer. But remember, a bad review isn’t necessarily a bad thing for your business. What could be bad for your business is the negative perception that your business could get if you react to the review angrily.

Start with a ‘Thank You’

The first thing that you should start your review with is with thanks. After all, every piece of customer feedback has the potential to help improve your business.

Get to the Bottom of the Problem

Chances are that the customer is frustrated with a specific issue. Find what the problem is that the customer has experienced so that you can fix this issue on your own.

Move the Discussion Offline

Don’t let the discussion become a long, drawn-out war between you and the reviewer. It’s much easier to resolve the discussion if you take it out of the public view. Leave a phone number or an email where the customer can reach you so that you can discuss the issue further.

Negative Review Response Templates

Not sure how to start responding to negative reviews? Here are some templates that can help you get started.

Thanks for bringing (issue/problem that the customer experienced) to our attention. While we typically pride ourselves on doing everything we can to make our customers happy, it’s clear that we fell short here. I want to make sure that you get the attention you deserve as a valued customer. Give me a call at (phone number) when you have the chance.

We’re sorry to hear about your experience at our business and we’d love to make things right. Please give us more details about your experience at (phone number) so that we can make sure that this problem doesn’t happen again. 

Thanks so much for your review. We try to make sure that all of our customers have great experiences. It’s clear we didn’t accomplish this, so we’d like to apologize. We’d love to get some more feedback from you so that we can further improve as a business. Please give us a call at (Phone number) so that we can discuss this issue with you further. 

Asking a Customer to Delete a Review

If you respond to a negative review to a customers’ satisfaction, you can go ahead and politely ask them to either delete or edit their original review. After all, their view of your business has most likely changed since their initial experience. Here’s a template that you can use to ask your customer to delete a review.

Hello (Customer),

Thanks for helping us to improve our customer experience. Because of your feedback, we’ve improved our overall customer experience. 

We do understand that your review of (Company) on Google was based on your initial experience. If your opinion has changed since then, we would appreciate it if you edited or deleted your original review. 

Thanks,

(Your Name Here) 

How to Respond to Positive Reviews

When you get a 5-star review, be sure to thank your happy customer. Here are a few ways you can leave a response to a positive review.

Say Thanks

First things first, thank the customer for taking the time to leave feedback for your business.

Encourage the Customer to Come Back

Tell the customer that they’re always welcome to come back to your business. This is an easy way to help build customer loyalty and show potential customers that you’re running a business that loves serving happy customers.

Keep it Short and Sweet

Remember, there’s really no need to write a novel here. Keep your response short with no more three sentences at the most.

Positive Review Response Template

Here’s a couple of templates that you can use to start responding to positive reviews.

Hey (Customer Name). Thanks so much for your 5-star review! We’re glad to hear about (positive experience customer mentioned in the review) and we hope to see you soon. 

Thank you for the 5-star rating, we are so grateful that you have chosen (business name). Reviews like these are why we’re so often called one of the best (business categories) in (City Name). Hope to see you soon! 

Hey (Customer Name), thanks for the positive review. We value all customer feedback and we’re happy that you enjoyed (experience mentioned in review). We hope that you decide to come back to (Business name) soon. 

How to Respond to Reviews with No Text

Some websites allow customers to leave reviews with no text. You might get a 5-star review rating with no comment attached. While in these cases, it’s harder to tell what was going through the customer’s head, here are some templates that you can use to respond to no text reviews. In these cases, it’s best to keep your response short and sweet.

No Text Positive Review Templates

Here are a few templates that you can use to respond to positive reviews with no text.

Hey (Customer Name), thanks for the review. Hope to see you soon.

Hey (Customer Name), glad you enjoyed your experience at (Business Name). See you soon!

Hi (Customer Name), I appreciate the good review. We work hard to create good experiences and feedback like this makes it all worth it.

No Text Negative Review Template

Here are some templates that you can use for negative reviews with no text.

Hey (Customer Name), we’d like to apologize for your negative experience. Clearly, we fell short of the mark here. Please call us at (phone number) so we can make this right.

Hey (Customer Name), thanks for your feedback. While we apologize for your bad experience, we hope we can use this to improve in the future. Please send us an email with more details at (email address).

Hey (Customer Name), thanks for the review. We appreciate hearing from all of our customers, though we’re sorry our service was not up to our usual standards. Please contact us at (phone number) so we can help make this experience right.

How to Respond to Neutral Reviews

While responding to a positive or a negative review might be a little bit more clear-cut, responding to neutral reviews can be a little bit trickier. How should you respond to a 3-star review?

Since a customer who’s leaving a neutral review had elements of both a positive and negative experience, your response should incorporate elements of a positive review response and a negative review response.

Start with a Thank You

You might be noticing a common theme here. Say “thank you” for all of the customer feedback that you get. After all, every piece of customer feedback gives your business an opportunity to improve.

Emphasize the Positive

If the customer is giving you a neutral review, chances are that there is something they did like in your service. In your response, be sure to reinforce the positive parts of their experience.

Address the Negative

Chances are that the customer did have some kind of a complaint. Just like in a negative review, make sure you understand the customer’s complaint and assure the customer that such a service failure will not happen again.

Move the Discussion Offline

Again, you do want to make up for the customer’s negative experience. Leave a phone number and/or email address so that the customer can reach out to you and you can make sure that their overall experience is a positive one.

Neutral Review Response Template

Here are some templates that you can use to respond to neutral reviews.

We’re glad to hear that you appreciated (Part of the review that spoke about your company positively) but three out of five is less than we aspire to be! Please contact us at (Phone number) so we can get to the bottom of this.

Thanks for the feedback. Since we’re always striving for excellence, we’re sorry to hear that you only had an average experience. Please call us at (Phone number) so we can find out how we can best improve. 

We’re grateful to you for letting us know about (positive experience). I also want to express my thanks to you for mentioning (negative experience). These kinds of comments are what helps us improve as a business. Please reach out to us at (email address) so we can understand what we could be doing better. 

How to Respond to Google Reviews

Remember, Google is the biggest review site on the Internet. So here’s how you can start responding to your Google reviews.

1. Sign in to your Google My Business account at business.google.com.

2. Click the three bars on the left-hand corner. If you’re managing a multi-location account, select the relevant location.

3. Click “Manage reviews”, then find the review you want to respond to.

4. Click “View and reply”, then type out a response.

How to Respond to Facebook Reviews

While Google is the biggest player in the review ecosystem, Facebook comes in second place.

Facebook gives you the options to turn off your reviews. The first thing you want to do is to make sure that this is turned on. After all, reviews are a valuable way for your business to get more visibility on the social media giant.

Here’s how you can turn on your Facebook reviews if they aren’t on already.

  1. Click on Settings at the top of your Facebook Business page.
  2. Click “Edit Page” on the left-hand side.
  3. Click on the section “Reviews”
  4. You’ll see a slider labeled “Show Reviews”. Turn this from “Off” to “On”
  5. Save your changes.

Once your reviews are turned on, simply leave a comment to the review in order to respond. It’s just like commenting on one of your friend’s Facebook pictures.

How to Respond to Yelp Reviews

Yelp gives you two options to respond to customer reviews: with a public comment or a direct message. Always start off with a public comment. While you can move the discussion to the direct message, you want to make sure that it’s clear to everyone that you’re willing to engage with all of your customers, whether they leave a positive or negative review.

Here’s how you can respond to a review through public comment.

  1. Go to the Reviews section of your Yelp business account.
  2. Choose the review you want to respond to and click “Add Public Comment”.
  3. Enter your text and click “Preview”.
  4. Review the text and click “Post Comment”.

Yelp also recommends that you add a photo as the business user. This helps to give your review response a more personal touch.

Here’s how you can send a direct message to a customer on Yelp.

  1. Go to the Reviews section of your Yelp business account.
  2. Choose the review you want to respond to and click “Send direct message”.
  3. Enter your message and click “Send”.

Yelp also gives you the option to send a quick “Thank you” direct message to your customers. To do this, simply hit the “Thank” button underneath the review.