Responding to reviews should be done with care, however. Here are some tips for businesses who are going to begin responding to these reviews so you can avoid embarrassment and maximize the positive effect on your brand.
- Never be defensive about negative reviews. Even if the reviewer was completely wrong and is acting like a jerk. You are going to be writing what amounts to public relations content in this reply and it needs to be your best work. Everyone has a bad day, and this may have been theirs, so it’s worth it to try to rise above the fight or flight response.
- Never write responses to negative reviews when you’re angry, tired, etc. Sleep on it. Save it in notepad on your desktop and re-read it in a few days. There’s no rush and things written in emotional moments are rarely what you want in public view.
- Remember that the response are persistent so will be read by future customers, too. Over the months and years, your place page may be reviewed hundreds or thousands of times by potential customers making buying decisions based on others’ reviews. It’s arguable that the content you put on this response is more important than most content you put on your website – and it deserves some thought.
- Thank reviewers for their “gift” of time in leaving the review. It takes time to leave comments. Doing so means they are doing you a favor and it is your chance to shine by responding with skill rather than duck and cover. Sometimes reviews are just useless rants, but most people who read them realize this and you have a chance to show your stuff in the replies. Almost ever review has something positive about it, or potential to become something positive.
- Generally, Short, Sincere and Kind is best, but don’t copy and paste. Don’t write an novel, just capture the sentiment, transfer the emotion and move on. But do NOT copy and paste the same response on several subsequent reviews (I see this often and it’s pathetic.)
- Respond In Situ – Don’t just take the issue offline. Don’t respond telling them to call you to discuss every time. Give some form of response on the web in public view, even if you end up continuing the conversation later. Taking it offline has the feeling of whispering in front of dinner guests – it’s a bit rude. However if there is an issue of privacy for the customer, or in a regulated business, that’s a different story. But I would still come back later and write a response about how the issue was handled without revealing specifics.
- Don’t get personal, even if they did. Sometimes reviewers write when they’re ticked off, and they attack specific employees of your company. Simply mark these as inappropriate and use the established editorial process to remove them. Google doesn’t want that type of review on there either.
- Set Ground Rules with Employees or Office Location Managers. I recommend that you establish a checklist/decision tree type ground rules for who and how responses are created as a part of your brand marketing guidelines. You may want to delegate review response, but not until you have a sense that your staff understand the importance of taking some time to get it right. A single non-compliant employee with access to your review responses can do incredible damage to your brand that lasts years!
- No Gifts. Don’t provide any freebies in your responses, such as gift certificates, etc. This reads like bribery. Just a public thank you is all you should do. If the reviewer asks for that specifically in their review, it’s best to just ignore it if possible. If you must respond, describe how you believe your services/products are fairly priced and move on.
- Take Ownership. You are responsible for your company, and sometimes business is just not fair. You own both the issue and the response to it. Many times reviewers just want to be listened to and will remove the review when they feel like more than a number.
- Nobody’s perfect, people know that. But most importantly, you are speaking to future customers at this moment. It’s okay to humanize the situation and admit that you just made a mistake and apologize.
- Consider Having Someone review your response. Run it by someone (neutral, preferably) before you post it. Ask them to put the reviewer’s and future customers’ shoes on and see how they feel. As mentioned above, some companies post the URL review on the company network to collaborate.
- Have some supporting content ready. People LOVE Q&A and HOW-TO responses! You should maintain a list of your Q&A and how-to posts (including videos) that address common customer complaints. These can be linked to in the reviews. Videos immediately personalize the situation (you’re looking at a human face, being helpful.) Also: Use closed captioning on your videos, always.
- There’s not always a good response. Sometimes, there is no response that will make the customer happy. That’s life. You have to make the best of it. It’s the “agree to disagree” phase of your interaction. You should still tell the customer you appreciate them and wish things had turned out differently. Remember, you’re speaking to future customers as well. If the customer begins to abuse your page, or seems “bat shit crazy” by all means you are within your rights to report them and get the review removed. There is no reason for a customer to be slanderous or abusive. But keep in mind, shutting them down in one place may cause them to light a fire elsewhere, so you need to monitor their activity! A Google alert set up on their username with your brand name in the query can’t hurt!
- Ask customers who feel the issue was resolved to go edit their review or remove it. Some people who leave happy just forget to go fix it. It’s okay to remind them, and put a note in your calendar for a month later to be sure. Then thank them in an email or a call if it suits you.
- BONUS: If the review violates the Google TOS, you can attempt to get it removed by asking Google for help. It’s unclear if Google always notifies reviewers that removal happened, but I don’t think they do. In your request for removal, always focus on how the review violates their policies. If you can connect the review to a specific policy “by name” your chances are much better.
- BONUS 2: Many awesome 3rd party review management tools have entered the market in the time since this post was first written. These tools allow you to gather up your reviews in a single dashboard to respond more quickly and consistently. Examples include Get5Stars, REviewtrackers, Grade.US, Reviewpush, and more.
Businesses with verified (MyBusiness) Google MyBusiness Pages (Google+ Local) can respond to their reviews inside that interface, and other review sites have similar features. With customers using online reviews as a part of the purchase decision, it’s more important than ever that you actively solicit reviews and manage them well.
Google’s Policy Change in April 2018 Regarding “Review Gating”
Update: Google’s policies changed in April of 2018 regarding solicitation of reviews and has prohibited the use of “review gating” systems that only accept positive reviews and take a different action for negative ones. You should avoid this at all costs now, and discontinue use of any software that does something similar. .Most commercial software has changed to comply, but we know of several in-house systems that are still doing it!
Related posts:
- Thoughts on Google Maps Q&A for Multi-Location Businesses
- When to Respond to Online Reviews (And How)
- Encouraging reviews of your business with a Rate-Us Page
- Online reviews and restaurant gratuity
- Five Steps to Successfully Navigate Negative Online Reviews
- How Not to respond to negative reviews online.
- The Complete Guide to Negative Reviews & How to Build Trust
Face Image by Gee Vaucher / Flickr used under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
This is an interesting decision by Google and one that will no doubt open up a lot of debate. The advice given here is great, and really emphasises using common sense when replying to comments.
Regarding responding to negative comments these certainly need time to respond to, so you can think about the best way to respond that doesn’t reflect badly on you or your company. Resolving the issues and then asking the reviewer to post a follow up comment regarding this will certainly be a positive way to approach these.
I’d like to see what other advice users can give regarding this and if there are additional helpful tips out there.
@stephen – I am hopeful that small business and shops realize the public perception of responses. Many people have called me over the years asking how they can respond / remove the review from “that son of a b***” who called he/she out online for providing poor service/product/etc.. Tensions were high, they wanted a fight. I hope they take a breath before posting.
Good list of “common” sense advice. “Don’t get personal even if they did” is an excellent way to defuse a negative comment while making you look professional.
If I had written this article, I’d have point 2 at number 1, and point 12 number 2! Small business owners can be a passionate bunch as Scott points out, and I’m already in “pre-cringe” mode for some of them.
Great tips here! I wonder though how many people will use this as a way to argue with the negatives online, like the previous responder said, people should think before they react, because reacting in anger can hurt your online reputation even more. Taking ownership is huge, because it may not seem so at the time, but “the customer is always right”
Yes, I have, in my social circle a few business owners that have negative reviews on Google who are surely going to lash out when given the chance. I will advise against it, but they’ll probably make a fool out of themselves. I think I’ll keep an eye out for case studies on this and post another article showing “right” and ‘wrong” ways of dealing with it. Thank you for your feedback!!!!
Not a bad idea… You are so right about the passion, but often it’s because they’ve taken something very personally that should have been kept in a business context.
These are excellent tips to share with local business owners who get a bad review. While I understand the focus on responding to bad reviews we shouldn’t lose sight of also responding to good reviews, especially for someone who contributes a thoughtful review. This shows appreciation and that as a business you value satisfied customers. These people are much more likely to recommend a local business that recognizes a thank you rather than taking it for granted.
Great point. Thanks for the input!
“It’s not personal, it’s business” – You’ve Got Mail
This is one of the times that you need to step back and not take it
personally. I’ve said things about companies that I regretted later on.
@Cliff I was thinking the whole time while reading that it’s a good idea
to thank those that left good reviews as well.
I think it is something like only 10% or less of customers tell the
company about their experience they had. So if you have one bad review,
multiply that by at least ten. If you have one good review, multiply
that by at least ten. Think about it though. I only tell a few people
when I like a company, but I tell everyone I know and their dog about
the bad experience I had with a company. I bet you can name more than
ten companies you’ve had a bad experience with, but only a few that
treated you well. We remember the bad experiences more.
I really like this part of #14, too. “You should still tell the customer
you appreciate them and wish things had turned out differently.”
If I had written this article, I’d have point 2 at number 1, and point 12 number 2! Small business owners can be a passionate bunch as Scott points out, and I’m already in “pre-cringe” mode for some of them.
Hi Scott,
I really appreciate for such a wonderful article, but I would really want you to write another article with templates in which you can share in detail all about replying to negative reviews. I am searching a lot but haven’t find any article focussing on negative response templates.
Anyways, keep up the good work!
Thanks!!! There is so much nuance and context that is part of every review situation. Incidentally, my clients ask for my help all the time on writing response reviews. It actually takes a fair amount of time to understand the scenario and the emotions involved. I have poked around in AI tools for sentiment analysis, and could imagine building a coaching app / chatbot for this!
Thanks Scott, would be looking forward to that!