Review marketing is a powerful tool to show local consumers that your business is the right choice for their needs, but your work isn't done once you get a new review.
Responding to reviews is an opportunity for your business to show that it genuinely cares about its customers’ experience and to demonstrate how it handles unsatisfactory situations.
Responding to reviews is an art form and strategy all its own, and addressing fake reviews is part of it! Read on to learn how to reply to positive, neutral, negative and fake reviews.
Replying to reviews is vital to your business's review marketing strategy. Responding to positive reviews shows the customer that you care about their experiences with your business and that you appreciate them. Replying to neutral reviews is a great idea because it could be what the customer needs to give your business a second chance.
Most businesses know that replying to negative reviews is crucial to mend your relationship with the customer and show anyone who reads the review that you care about making things right for unhappy customers.
Typically, customers expect a reply to their review. Rarely is a customer leaving a review for others, they are often leaving a review to further connect with the business: to thank them, share a grievance or offer a tip.
When the business replies–no matter the nature of the review–the relationship with the customer is strengthened, and the chance for repeat business increases.
How to Respond to Positive Reviews
Ideally, most of your business’s reviews are positive and glowing! In this situation, responding to every single review can become burdensome. However, you should try to reply to most of your positive reviews.
Here’s how:
How to Respond to Neutral Review
Neutral reviews are typically three-star reviews and sometimes don’t offer much information about the customer's experience or what they initially expected from the business. Responding to neutral reviews can spark a valuable conversation and connection with the customer.
While negative reviews can be hard to read, they are sometimes the most valuable kind of review for your business. Replying to and taking action on a negative review can help safeguard your business from repeating the same incident in the future!
Here are a couple more reasons why you should respond to negative reviews:
It’s estimated that 15-30 percent of all online reviews are fake. Fake reviews are a little tricky, but here's what you can do about them:
Every review website or platform will have its own set of rules for replying to reviews. Read those rules before responding.
For instance, Google has a set of Terms and Policies.
And Yelp is very particular about how businesses should conduct themselves on the review platform. Here’s Yelp’s set of rules for replying to positive and negative reviews.
Don’t forget to reply to your reviews on social media too. Customers can review your business on social media, so you should respond to those reviews in the same manner.
Final Thoughts
Review marketing isn’t a one-way street, and, as a business owner, you should strive to prioritize responding to as many reviews as possible! You know your business and customers best, so you can confidently respond professionally and in a way that builds relationships.
We understand things get busy, and responding to reviews can fall to the wayside. RevLocal offers review marketing services that collect new reviews and manage your current reviews! To learn more about this service, check out our review marketing service! RevLocal also offers other digital marketing services like paid advertising, website services, social media, data analytics and more. Contact us today to see how we can help your small business or multi-location brand.
Subscribe to our email list to get the latest digital marketing content delivered to your inbox each week!