No matter what industry you’re in, you need to know your way around online reviews. Although many business owners take them for granted, these hold great power. If you know how to craft a good response, you can turn an angry customer into a loyal one. Read the guide for responding to customer reviews throughout, and you’ll learn how to ensure your brand’s reputation stays intact and show your customers that you care about what they have to say.
Why should you care to respond to reviews?
Many business owners decide not to respond to any of their reviews. You got a review, so that’s already a win — why spoil it, right? Well, it works just the other way around. By not responding to reviews, you’re hurting your reputation and missing out on a chance to grow your business.
Of course, the matters are even worse if you’re running a service business. For example, customer reviews are very sought after in moving company advertising. They allow you to engage with your customers, and if you know what you’re doing, your business will benefit from it.
And if you don’t think that enough to make you care about it, responding to reviews will also help your rank on search engines. To recommend your business, Google wants to make sure that you’re doing all you can to satisfy your customers, and responding to reviews is a good signal that you’re doing your part. The algorithm will pick it up, and you’ll get a push on the SERPs.
Now that you know why reaching back out to your customer’s matters, we can tell you how to deal with each type of review you may encounter. We’ll start with the ones that hurt the most — negative.
Guide for responding to negative customer reviews
Even if there’s nothing wrong with your services, you will get some negative reviews. These never feel good, but you shouldn’t let them discourage you. It’s much better to take advantage of them and show off your customer service. If you resolve the issue, you’ll turn an unhappy customer around and improve your business at the same time. And here are some professional tips from Movers Development on how to accomplish exactly that:
Don’t rush and start with a ”Thank you”
When your business means a lot to you, it’s easy to take a negative review personally. And we get it. You put a lot into it, and it hurts when someone tells you that what you’re doing is bad. However, a negative review doesn’t have to harm your business, so you shouldn’t stress about it.
Instead, take a deep breath and start with a polite ”Thank you for your review”. It’ll show customers that you’re thankful for their input and time. At the end of the day, every feedback you get will help you improve your business, so you may as well thank them for it.
Get to the bottom of it
The chances are that something specific is troubling the customer who left you a negative review. So do your best to get to the core of the problem as soon as possible. If there’s an easy fix, do it right away, and the negative review is gone. However, it isn’t always that easy.
We’ve been doing digital marketing for moving companies for a long time, and we know that the issues are often more complex with service business. If that’s the case, it’s wise to move the discussion offline. No one will benefit from a lengthy review war between you and a customer, so take it out of the public view. Encourage the reviewer to call you or write you an email to discuss the issue further.
Ask them to delete the review
If you follow the guide for responding to customer reviews, you’re likely to solve your customer’s issue. And if you know that they’re now happy with your business, you can ask them politely to delete or edit their review. Make sure to note that they’ve helped you improve your customer experience, and ask them to make changes to the review only if their opinion has changed. But one thing that you shouldn’t do is take the charge and remove negative reviews on your own.
How to respond to positive reviews
Seeing a new positive review is always a nice feeling. It shows that another one of your clients is pleased with your business, and they want the internet to know. However, if you respond to positive reviews, you can turn more of your customers into advocates.
Here are a few quick tips on how to do that.
Keep it short and sweet
Once again, you want to start with a friendly ”Thank you”. The customer spent their time writing the review, and they’ll be glad to hear that you appreciate it.
Of course, there’s no need for you to respond with a novel here. Be concise and keep your comment under three sentences. Don’t be afraid to show your customers that positive feedback makes you feel good.
Encourage them to come back
Tell your customers that you’re eager to see them return to your business. Writing something in the line of ”Hope to see you soon” at the end of your response is a great way to tell them that you want to work with them more and that they’ve been good customers.
Responding to neutral reviews
While positive and negative reviews are pretty straightforward, neutral ones are rather tricky. The infamous three-star reviews have the elements of both positive and negative experiences, and you need to address them both. Here’s how.
Emphasize the positive and address the negative
Of course, you should start with the obligatory ”Thank you” as you can’t do wrong with it. Still, the first thing you want to do is notice what the customer liked in your service and reinforce those positive feelings.
Then, you can move on to the negatives. Try to understand their complaint and show them that you get it. Naturally, you’ll also want to assure them that the mistake won’t happen again.
Take it offline
Sometimes, you won’t be able to solve the problem in one response. For example, a customer might be happy with your moving services but dislike the instant moving quotes on your site. They expected a lower price, and now they blame your system for paying more.
Of course, you can’t just tell your clients that the app works correctly and that they entered data wrong. You need to make them realize that on their own. So, it’s best to leave them a phone number or an email to contact you so you can investigate the issue. Then, you can guide them through the process and turn their experience into a positive one. They’ll feel like they’ve learned something, and thanks to that, they’ll want to do more business with you.
Conclusion
We live in an age where customer word of mouth can quickly go viral. If you’re not careful, your brand reputation could shatter before you know it. Luckily, the guide for responding to customer reviews teaches you how to make sure that doesn’t happen. Do everything by the book, and your online reviews will be your most potent weapon.