How To Respond To Reviews Online
Chances are someone has looked at your business’s online reviews before deciding to buy from you. As a matter of fact, 97 percent of consumers read online reviews (Businesswire) and 85 percent of those same consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member. That is quite a majority!
Online reviews are important. For as much as people rely on reviews for social proof that your business provides a quality product or service, they also pay close attention to how you respond to all reviews of your business, whether positive or negative. What you have to say matters to their perception of you and your business.
On most online review sites, like Google, Yelp, or Facebook, consumers see an aggregate review score of 1 to 5 stars followed by itemized reviews and testimonials from each customer. Since consumers now read an average of seven reviews (up from six in 2016), it is safe to assume that they spend an extra moment examining how you respond to reviews to get a better sense of the way you behave as a business owner. If you are positive and professional they will think the same of your business and if you are bitter and petty and lash out at the reviews that will also show as a reflection of your business.
The way you respond to reviews helps them determine if you’re someone who will fix a problem right away or point them to paragraph 11, clause 3 of your terms of service in an effort to prevent a return. Basically, they decide if they like you (and subsequently want to buy from you) based on how you respond to reviews.
The Three P’s of Responding To Reviews
When we work with our small business clients to grow online reviews, we provide them with templates for responding to both negative and positive reviews. Along with these templates, we also teach them the three P’s of responding to reviews:
Be prompt
Respond within 1-2 business days (or less)
Be professional
Use proper spelling and grammar with a professional tone
Be positive
Stay upbeat in your response, no matter how nasty the review
Prompt
Responding promptly demonstrates that you are on top of your business and are available for your customers. You should shoot for a response within 1-2 business days of the review being posted. The sooner you can respond the better for the customer and others reading your reviews trying to get a feel for your business.
Promptness doesn’t just apply to those who leave negative feedback. Responding promptly to praise is also important because it shows those customers who had a great experience with your business that you value them and are ready and willing to hear their feedback. Showing you are responsive and available makes people feel like you care more about your customers.
Professional
Remaining professional enhances the perception of quality for prospective customers. Staying professional, even if faced with expletive-filled, hyperbolic nonsense, shows consumers that you care about the satisfaction of your customers and will work with them to make things right.
Professionalism means no back and forth arguments in the comments of a review. Once you respond to something negative, aim to take that conversation off of the review page and into email or a phone call. You don’t want to give an angry customer even more fuel to vent in such a public forum.
Professionalism also means crafting a response that shows you are open to criticism or praise but all about business. If your feelings are hurt this is not the place to show it!
Positive
Of course, staying positive and calm when someone takes a jab at your business is tough, and you may have a tendency to take feedback personally, which is natural. After all, you built this business from the ground up, and when someone writes a negative review it’s as if they insulted your firstborn. The key is to remember that every action you take goes on public record for everyone to see, so step back, take a breath and think about how you want to be perceived by the public before your fingers flitter in a fit of fury over the keyboard. We’ve all seen those business owners who lash out on review pages and whether they are in the right or not it is never a good look.
Once you subscribe to the three P’s of responding to reviews, you are ready to use the following templates. These templates were built as a guide and do not need to be copied word for word. In fact, you should add your own “flavor” and tone to the templates, so it sounds like the response is coming from you.
Template to respond to positive reviews
Look at your response to a positive review as another marketing opportunity. Not only do you look good to the consumer, but you can also upsell based on their comments.
Let’s say you receive the following review:
“I just want to thank Jake for helping me launch the website of my dreams. I’m now proud to give out my business card because I know I look good online.”
Part 1: Thank the customer
Hi FirstName, thanks so much for taking the time to write a review about your account manager, Jake – we think he’s pretty amazing, too.
Be sure to refer to something or someone they mentioned so the response seems personal and not a copy/paste job.
Add an aside or a remark that is playful but still professional to show you are not a robot!
Part 2: Add your company name and focal keywords
The Bryan Caplan Marketing team is happy to hear that you enjoyed building your new WordPress website with us.
Avoid “stuffing” too many keywords, no one needs to read through a word salad
Even if you are only one-person, use the word “team” or “family”
Part 3: Highlight a service and include a call to action
When you’re ready to showcase your online reviews on your website, call us, and we’ll get you set up in a jiffy.
Include a direct call-to-action like calling or emailing (instead of “go to this website” or “fill out this form”) to show you are ready to hop on a call and get started
Show others reading the review how easy it is to work with your team and get started
Putting it all together:
Hi FirstName, thanks so much for taking the time to write a review about your account manager, Jake – we think he’s pretty amazing, too. The CompanyName team is happy to hear that you enjoyed building your new WordPress website with us. When you’re ready to (try a new product OR add something to your existing product OR check out our latest service), call us, and we can get you going.
*Expert Tip: Be sure to include your business name and focal keywords since positive reviews are indexed in search engine results. This gives your positive reviews a better chance of showing up when people search for your business or product/service names.
Template to respond to negative reviews
Look at your response to a negative review as a public relations mechanism. Not only do you acknowledge and respond, you provide a way to resolve the issue.
Let’s say you receive the following review:
“This restaurant is horrible. The hostess was so rude, the server was more rude, and the food was just plain offensive. I’ll tell everyone I know to avoid this place like the plague.”
Part 1: Apologize and thank the customer
Hi FirstName, we are sorry to hear about your experience, and we really appreciate you sharing your feedback with us.
Make them feel as if their feedback is valued no matter how negative their review
Always be positive
Part 2: Highlight one of your strengths and add an additional apology
We consider our customers as part of the family, and we are sorry that we missed the mark when you last joined us.
Whether it’s customer service or quality of service/product, always highlight a positive attribute
Apologize again to show that you are taking the high road
Part 3: Introduce yourself and provide them with a direct line of communication
My name is FirstName, and I am the YourPosition. I’d be happy to speak to you personally to try and make things right. Please contact me at (phone number or email address.)
Establish yourself as a leader at the business by stating your title, this makes them and other readers of the review feel like the criticism is being heard
Include a direct line of communication like phone number of email
Putting it all together:
Hi FirstName, we are sorry to hear about your experience, and we really appreciate you sharing your feedback with us. We consider our customers as part of the family, and we are sorry that we missed the mark when you last joined us. My name is FirstName, and I am the YourPosition. I’d be happy to speak to you personally to try and make things right. Please contact me at (phone number or email address.)
*Expert Tip: Be sure to not include your business name or focal keywords since negative reviews are also indexed in search engine results. Even if you respond perfectly you still want these reviews to fade away into the distance and not pop up when someone types in your business name and “reviews” into Google.
Keeping Track Of Reviews
Now that you have the templates and the know-how to respond to all of the reviews your business gets you need to find an easier way to keep track of all of your reviews across the myriad of online platforms. If you like checking every single review aggregator everyday then more power to you but there are easier ways!
Consider investing in a tool like My Review Dashboard. My Review Dashboard is a service that watches every page your business has a presence on and lets you know if there are any new reviews. Just login to your business dashboard and you can see every review you get from every website in one easy place. From there you can click one link and leave your reply before moving on to the next.
Tools like My Review Dashboard streamline the process so that you can spend less time monitoring reviews while also making sure you are responding and cultivating reviews for your business. As any small business owner knows, time is money.
My Review Dashboard can also gather reviews for you as well, sending out automated emails to customers who have had a recent interaction with your business. You can set up a review triage as well so you can identify dissatisfied customers before they take to Google or Yelp and help resolve their issue before the rest of the world hears about it.
Finishing Up
With templates and tools like those shown above, you should be able to respond to reviews promptly, professionally, and positively. No more excuses for not responding to every review your business gets in a timely manner! Each response takes no more than a couple of minutes to craft.
Save all of the templates in a text editor on your phone or computer and copy and paste when the need arises (just always be sure to customize them).
Do you have loads of reviews right now that you have never responded to? Don’t worry, you can still respond to them. Even though it’s probably been far longer than 1-2 business days, go back and respond to all of your reviews today so that those 97 percent of consumers can see what a good, upstanding business owner you truly are. Even with weeks, months or even years between the review and the response it will still show that you are responsive and care about what the customers have to say about your business.