Review Management 101 – Part 5: Respond to all Reviews
Review Management: The Art of Increasing and Maximizing Your Positive Online Reviews
Responding to Reviews isn’t Recommended, it’s a Requirement. While it might be daunting, responding to Positive AND Negative reviews is a MUST. We’ve asked for the review, now we must respond.
A bad online business review can be tough to handle. These type of critical reactions may seem like personal attacks on not only your business, but also on your character. Whenever you provide a customer with a good or service, you are opening yourself up to feedback and you should see every review as a chance to learn and get better. If you’re a new business owner or simply would like to increase the amount of reviews you’re getting, you should start with two foundational reviewing strategies. These include having oversight on every negative review AND responding to every review, negative or positive.
How to respond to reviews: what should you say?
Responding to every customer review may sound daunting at first. But responding to a review is a simple and effective way to boost your online reputation and strengthen your marketing efforts with little effort. A 2018 Harvard Business Review article found that replying to every review generally resulted in better ratings for businesses. This strategy is extremely underutilized but can make all the difference, especially when you’re just starting to build a customer base. Responding to reviews should be a requirement for every business, but don’t see it as just another thing to check off your list. Use it as an opportunity to truly connect with your customers and show them you care, or even incentivize future purchases.
Responding to negative views is also crucial. This can help solidify your online reputation and boost your overall engagement. If a bad review goes ignored, your customers may read it and assume it’s true. They may also think you don’t care that a customer had a bad experience, which reflects poorly on your character and your businesses’ values. You may also miss out on a chance to correct the bad experience, which could have resulted in the customer taking the review down.
Responding to positive reviews
Respond to positive reviews as soon as possible – If you write a response sooner rather than later, your reply will seem more genuine and attentive. Your customers will get the impression you truly care about feedback and want to visit again. Start by thanking the customer for their kind words and taking the time to review your business. Use their name directly and be concise.
Responding to negative reviews
Like positive reviews, responding to negative reviews as soon as possible is crucial. You may be upset or believe that the customer is in the wrong, but it’s important not to lose your cool. Be prepared to write a short, non-confrontational reply. Here’s a couple of steps you can take:
- Reassure them that their feedback, however harsh, is valued.
- Remind the customer that you thoroughly understand their issue by using specific key words from their review.
- Leave them with your best contact details and a call to action that indicates you’d like to help resolve their issue and discuss things further.
- Avoid signing off with your business name, as this is more likely to show up in search engine results
How to respond to reviews on Google, Facebook & TrustPilot
Google is the world’s most popular search engine and with millions of people checking and reviewing listings each day, your Google My Business rating is critical. In addition, positive reviews can greatly improve your Google SEO ranking, or how you map in search. Here’s how to respond to reviews using Google:
- Sign in to your Google My Business by going to business.google.com.
- Click the three horizontal bars in the top left-hand corner to find your business listing.
- Click “Manage Reviews.” Scroll to find the review you’d like to reply with and click “view and reply.” You can then type out a response.
The customer may reply back to your review, so be prepared for a follow-up. If you’d like to receive a notification any time a new review is posted through Google My Business, you can set this up through the platform.
Facebook has transformed from a social networking site into a full-fledged marketing and advertising tool for businesses. Facebook Business Suite now offers a whole host of business manager tools that can take your customer engagement to the next level. If you receive a negative comment, luckily you can hide or delete it. But, you can’t remove negative reviews completely. You can manage your businesses’ Facebook page on Facebook Business Manager.
- Make sure your Facebook Business Page is set up and that the review feature is toggled to “on.”
- Once reviews start coming in, you’ll be able to reply to them by clicking “reviews” on the left-hand side of your timeline.
- Below a review, hit reply and type out a response. Be aware that depending on the reviewers privacy settings, you may not actually be able to directly reply to them.
TrustPilot
While Facebook and Google are two of the most popular review sites, TrustPilot is also a sight you should monitor reviews on.
- First navigate to the TrustPilot Business feature and go to the reviews tab on the left-hand side. You can either reply to a service review or product review.
- You’ll find all your customer reviews under “Inbox.” Navigate to the review you’d like to respond to and hit “Reply.”
- Type your reply in the drop down box. Be kind, concise and direct, thanking positive reviewers for their time and ensuring negative reviewers you are taking their concerns seriously.
Are you doing all you can to engage your customers and encouraging them to leave behind positive reviews? Are you replying to negative reviews and asking for more feedback? Review Monkey can help streamline the Review Management process, showing customers you care with a simple, automated “How did we do” text or email.
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Tags: Online Reviews, responding to reviews, Review Management,
