How to Respond to an Online Review

For any company, a brands image is one of the most important assets utilized. It is the outward face of your company, where existing and prospective customers alike make snap decisions based on your company’s customer relation presence. Consumer reviews in particular can make or break a business, and how you respond to them is key to your firm’s success.

Step 1: Identify Consumer Review Portals

To respond to your customers reviews and inquiries, you should first identify the review channels – what social media platforms are your consumers utilizing for reviews? Do you have a review portal on your website or an email inbox where consumers can contact you directly?

Step 2: Create Templates

Create templates for all outward facing communication with consumers, for both negative and positive interactions. These templates should be well suited to the portal you have identified whether it is through public social media postings or through private communication on your site. How your employees respond to consumers will affect how your brand is perceived. And remember, be consistent! Whether you are responding to customer reviews or replying to consumer emails, your content needs to maintain a consistent voice, tone and style.

Positive Review Response:

Be sure to thank the customer for their feedback, an indicate how their opinions will be helpful to future customers. Get specific with your appreciation based on their review content. Invite them to explore new products/services you offer or request that they share your business with their inner circle. Here is an example:

“Hello [NAME], We are happy to hear you had a positive experience with [EMPLOYEE] at our [LOCATION] branch! We value your input and would love to know more details about your positive experience with us. Our business relies on our customer referrals!”

Negative Review Response:

What is most important to this customer is that they felt heard and that corrective action will be taken. Respond to the consumer with empathy and thank them for their feedback. Keep the response professional, but brief and invite the consumer to take the conversation elsewhere, such as through direct messages or email to resolve their issue. Here is an example:

“Hello [NAME], We’re so sorry that your experience did not match your expectations! Your business is very important to us. Please help us to improve by providing more information on your experience. We can be reached directly at [phone/email] to discuss this matter further.”

Step 3: Make the Review Work for You

Using the steps above, your firm can minimize damage from negative consumer reviews and can even leverage reviews to attract new customers! Be sure to repost positive reviews on your company website as customer testimonials and use negative reviews to identify employee training opportunities as well as other ways to improve your brand.