Why Reviews Matter
Reviews help build and solidify your credibility. It’s that simple. If you ignore them, you’re missing out on potential customers. Think about how you decide to visit a store, go to a restaurant, buy a product, or schedule a service. You likely head to a search engine or social media to check out the reviews. Positive reviews are always nice but negative reviews are just as important. Beyond that, the way the company responds to all of them can mean the difference between a potential customer moving forward with a purchase and moving on to the competition.
The following advice comes from my years of experience helping businesses deal with reviews that spanned from totally positive to absolutely negative, including reviews that came from folks who were never customers. Small businesses can live and die by reviews and word-of-mouth, so learning how to handle them is pretty damn important.
When to Reply to Reviews
The best time to respond to a review is almost always. Whether the review is good, bad, or neutral, it’s worth it to leave a response. It lets customers know you’re paying attention and actually care about how your business is run. Replying to reviews can also help enhance and protect your reputation while building that customer loyalty everyone wants.
When To Wait
There are some caveats to responding to reviews immediately. For instance, Etsy will lock in a review once you’ve responded. It’s a good idea to attempt to rectify the issue with your customer if you receive a negative review there before replying to see if you could get that review turned around. If it’s a false review, contact Etsy to go through the steps they have in place to get it removed. The lesson here is to know each platform’s review rules.
Appreciate Your Happy Customers
We respond to positive reviews to thank people for leaving them. These folks took time out of their day to show your business some love and that’s big! The customers writing sweet reviews or simply leaving a high star rating or recommendation are already happy, so you’ll most likely want to see them return. By putting in that extra effort, you could turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer.
Responding to Bad Reviews
A negative review isn’t the end of the world (although it can feel like a gut punch). Sometimes it’s because some people are hard or impossible to please, but sometimes it’s because you made a mistake because you’re human. The good news is, both of these can be handled in thoughtful ways that could elevate your business.
Tips on Replying to Negative Reviews
How you respond to negative reviews can mean the difference between fixing a problem and making the problem worse.
Be Honest & Reflective
First things first: did you or your team make a mistake? Take a deep breath and put yourself in the reviewer’s shoes. Can you see why they’d be upset? If the answer is yes, the next step is to find a way to rectify the mistake and admit it in the review. If appropriate, reach out to the customer privately to make things right or otherwise offer a solution.
Keep it Professional
Whether the review is valid or invalid, make sure to keep your response professional. Don’t attack and don’t get confrontational. Even if you’re totally in the right, potential customers may see that response and be turned off. This can be tough, especially if the review is less than kind, so draft your response, let it sit for a while, maybe even run it by another person, and don’t be afraid to edit before replying.
Stay on Brand
Remember your voice when responding to any review and this includes the negative ones. Don’t step outside of your branding while responding. This means if you’re an ultra-professional, buttoned-up business (let’s say, an attorney’s office), don’t forget yourself in your reply. The same goes for a fun, artistic business. You can be respectful while speaking as you would in any of your social media posts, on your website, or in a face-to-face conversation.
Be Honest
People reading your response can tell if you’re being defensive and it’s never a good look. Instead, own any mistakes you’ve made and find a way to fix them, if at all possible.
Stay Realistic
If you’re running a business that garners a lot of reviews, the likelihood of keeping a perfect review average is beyond rare. In fact, if I personally see a company with 100+ reviews on Google and they’re all 5 stars, I immediately wonder how many employees were pressured into leaving some of them (yes, some companies do this and no, do not do it) and how many were completely fake. The 3 and 4 stars are going to happen and most people looking at your reviews understand that at this point, too.
Negative Reviews Happen
You’re going to make mistakes in business because you and your team are human. You’re also going to have customers who are impossible to please and customers who think that there’s always room for improvement, so 4 stars will be the best you can get out of them. Have realistic expectations for your business and keep an open mind so you’re able to know the difference between an overly picky customer and a customer who’s rightfully annoyed. Sometimes you’ll need to make a change and rectify a problem. That’s the good news! You can (almost) always fix it if you try to be part of the solution.
Digital Marketing for Your Small Business
One of the niftiest things about having us as a digital marketing partner is getting honest and professional help with your reputation management. If you’re ready to chat about what this could look like, hit us up!