How to Respond to Customer Reviews

Reviews are crucial to the success of your business as 93% of customers base their purchasing decisions on consumer reviews. If your overall review rating falls below 3.3 stars, consumers won’t engage with your business. 

Your responses to your company’s reviews play an equally important role in consumer engagement, influencing purchasing decisions. When you fail to respond, you send a message that you do not care about your customers. Businesses who encourage consumer feedback have higher rates of engagement with their customers, however asking for reviews might feel awkward or even a tad needy. The truth is that consumers are looking for social validation regarding your products or services and you need to be able to show them why you stand apart from the competition. 

Reviews are an excellent marketing strategy as they display your accountability to your customers. The way you respond to and resolve negative reviews can have a positive influence on potential new consumers. Your responses show that you are serious about remaining accountable to those who purchase from you and that you take their feedback seriously.

• Reviews (social validation) inform consumers regarding reliable, reasonable facts at a glance.

• The greater the amount of positive reviews, the greater the chance that prospective customers will be influenced to purchase from you.

• Reviews can result in high search engine ranking. For example, Google ranks business with more retweeted Twitter tweets higher than those with less.

• Reviews generally result in contact sharing which means increased traffic to your business website. 

Customers who have enjoyed a positive experience with your business will generally be eager to leave a great review. Your response to reviews plays an important role in leveraging your online reputation in order to grow your business.   

Responding to a review can feel intimidating. You want to express genuine gratitude, yet you don’t want to gush. The process is easier than you think and you don’t need to be an award-winning author in order to communicate gracious, genuine gratitude in a brief response. For example, Andy purchased a product from your new camera store, resulting in a positive review:

“I’m delighted with my new product! A wonderful clerk named James was only too happy to assist me in your store. He took the time to listen and went through a variety of options well suited to my needs. I’m really glad I listened to his expertise!  I couldn’t be happier with my new camera and I got some excellent shots of Venice!”

This review makes you proud of your business, products and your new employee of the month, James. You are ever so grateful for Andy’s purchase and his raving review of your business is priceless. You want to respond with gratitude and the temptation to drone on and on about how happy you are for this new customer is real.  Here is the rule of thumb for responding to a review: be brief.  It doesn’t mean you should come across as cold or short.  Here is what you do:

1. Use Andy’s name.

2. Be grateful and show it.

3. Respond to specific details in the review.

4. Andy gave you value with the review, respond in kind.

5. Be grateful again.

6. Say goodbye.

• Thank the customer for leaving the review.

• Acknowledge the issue and apologize sincerely.

• Empathize with the customer.

• Take the conversation offline. If you have access to the customer’s email address or phone number, continue the conversation via those methods.  Phone calls are a serious notch above emails.

• Offer a reasonable solution or remedy that is agreeable to the customer.

Here are a few tips for requesting customer reviews:

• Ask questions.

• Provide multiple options across various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, telephone prompts, your company website, surveys, etc.

• Don’t be afraid to ask customers directly to write a review.

• Make the process easy.  Eliminate unnecessary steps.  For example, consider incorporating a direct link on your website.  Don’t make the customer search for the right button on which to click.  Make it an obvious, one-step process.

• Incentivize reviewers with a gift card, contest or giveaway, but be careful not to bribe customers for positive reviews.

• Stress the importance of reviews to your employees.

• Don’t be afraid to follow up. If done considerately and thoughtfully you can increase the chance of a review without bothing your customer. 

Responding to all of your customer reviews is a strategic method of maintaining current consumers while influencing prospective customers to buy from you. Neglecting to do so can result in low consumer retention and loss of potential future profits. Make review responses a daily practice and take charge of your online reputation!