How to Respond to Reviews (Especially the Negative Ones)

Getting a new review is usually exciting. Afterall, who doesn’t want to hear how great a product or service is? Yet, that great feeling can come crashing down to the ground when you realize the review isn’t a good one. How should business owners respond to their reviews? Especially the bad reviews?

You could ignore the review, but 49% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family. So, you’re better off to respond and be part of the conversation rather than ignoring what people say to you online. 

Here’s how you can respond to positive or negative reviews so you support your customers, protect your brand, and make your business more resilient. 

Why should I respond to my reviews?

There are lots of reasons why you should respond to your reviews. The biggest one is that it gives you an opportunity to connect with your customers. This shows them that you care about them and their experience. Whether the review is good or bad, you have the opportunity to see your products and services through your customer’s eyes. 

People also often have great ideas and opportunities that they share in their reviews. 

When reviews are bad, responding can help with damage mitigation, collecting evidence about unfortunate situations, and can provide feedback on how you or your team could improve. 

How can negative reviews impact my business?

Negative reviews can impact your brand in many ways, and none of them help you stay in business. And it goes beyond just losing customers. 

Loss of customers: Upset customers likely won’t come back if you never respond to their review.

Loss of potential customers: Individuals reading reviews online may decide to take their business elsewhere if your products or services don’t have a good rating.

Damages your brand reputation: Not only will ignoring bad reviews impact your customers, but it could also make other businesses hesitant to partner or work with you. 

Hurt your search ranking: Businesses with bad reviews on platforms like Google might rank lower in search results. Conversely, responding to reviews can actually improve your SEO.

How to Respond to Positive Reviews 

If you’re responding to a positive review, keep your response short and courteous. While adding in some personality and flair is fine, you don’t want to be too personal. This is also not a time to offer incentives or advertise your products or services. 

Someone went out of their way to share their great experience with you. Start off by thanking them. Time is a precious resource, and someone giving you extra time is a gift. 

Keep your brand voice in mind. If it’s fun and playful, the more fun and playful you can be with your responses. At the end of the review, do include your name or initials. Knowing that a person is responding to their reviews can build trust. 

While responding you can also take note of what people say they love about your product and use it in your marketing. Don’t use their reviews directly without permission. But if everyone raves that your cotton kid’s toy is ‘totally indestructible’ then you can use ‘totally indestructible’ in your marketing.

Consider carving out time once a week to sit down and go through your positive reviews and respond.

Examples for Responding to Positive Reviews

“Thank you so much for sharing your experience with [PRODUCT]. We’re so glad you loved [SOMETHING THEY MENTIONED IN THE REVIEW]. We know this review is going to help others find [PRODUCT], and we hope it makes their lives better, too. Thanks again! [NAME]”

“Hi [NAME], Wow, thank you so much for an amazing review. We’re so glad that you tried out [PRODUCT] and that it was everything you were looking for. Reviews like yours make all our hard work worthwhile! Best, [NAME]”

“Hey there [NAME], Well if this isn’t the sweetest review we’ve ever received! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience with us, and with the rest of the internet. We are so grateful for the opportunity to make [PRODUCT] for you. You’re the best! [NAME]”

How to Respond to Negative Reviews 

Negative reviews aren’t always easy to respond to. If you just got a bad review that feels like a gut punch, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Sometimes we have a bad day and make a mistake. That doesn’t mean we can’t fix it.
2. Sometimes other people have other things going on in their lives and take it out on us. We always have an opportunity to show extra empathy and kindness.
3. Sometimes our harshest critics become our biggest fans or inspire our greatest innovations. Negative reviews can propel our business forward when we’re open to what they say. 
4. Sometimes people just suck and aren’t worth arguing with on the internet. 

Negative reviews are a right of passage for all business owners. How you handle those reviews is one way your brand can stand out from others in your industry. 

Tips for Responding to Negative Reviews

Don’t feed the trolls: This is slang that suggest you shouldn’t respond to crazy people who are looking for someone to harass. If someone leaves you a bad review and clearly has never purchased from you, report it to get the review taken down. 

Investigate first: Before you respond, talk to your staff or try to recreate the complaint with a product so you can fully understand what happened. 

Respond in a timely manner: 53% of people expect businesses to respond to negative reviews within the first week. Aiming for 24 to 48 hours after a bad review is left is a good goal. 

Keep it short: There are very few situations where a long response is a good idea. 

Keep it professional: You’ll never regret a professional response. You may regret taking a review personally. 

Do not retaliate: If you can’t respond without being kind, it may be best to not respond. If you get upset it will look unprofessional. And, there’s a difference between standing up for yourself, your team, and your product vs. arguing with people online. 

Address the reviewer: Use the person’s name rather than a templated ‘guest’ or ‘customer’ if possible. This helps show the reviewer you’ve taken the time to read their review. 

Thank them for the review: Someone cared about your business enough to go out of their way to tell you about their experience. A lot of unhappy customers never give a business a second chance. Thanking people for leaving bad reviews can help you win someone over. 

Go Above and Beyond with Your Responses

Apologize for things that were your fault: Compassion and empathy go a long way. You don’t have to apologize for things that aren’t your fault. But if there is an opportunity to take ownership, people will be grateful you took their frustrations seriously. 

Reference things that they said: Using their exact verbiage lets them know you read their review. 

Share your standards and values: People have bad days. If you dropped the ball, let them know their experience is not the norm. 

Offer to have a conversation offline: Encourage them to send you an email or give you a call if you need more information, or want to apologize further. You don’t want to write long apologies online, especially if other people can comment on it. 

Don’t give public refunds: It’s smart to offer discounts, promotions, or refunds offline unless the mistake is very clear and egregious on your organization’s part. You don’t want people leaving you bad reviews to try and get free things. So encourage folks you’d like to refund or discount to reach out to you offline before offering a refund. 

Prove you’re a person: Sign off with your name or a signature to let people know you’re a real person, taking their complaints seriously. 

Thank them if they change their review: Many bad reviews are people looking for a better experience. Once you show them a great experience they may change their review. Even just responding to a bad review can encourage someone to give you an extra star. Don’t be over the top with your response, but do thank them for the second chance. 

Improve from the feedback: if a customer shares a genuine concern that could make your product or services better, make the changes and let them know when responding. People are usually glad to hear their experience won’t happen again or to someone else. 

Examples for Responding to Negative Reviews

“Hi [NAME], Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We’re really sorry we dropped the ball on your [PRODUCT/SERVICE]. We have much higher standards than this and we want to make this right. Would you mind emailing us at [EMAIL] so we can discuss further? Hope to hear from you. [NAME]”

“Hi [NAME], Thanks for the review. We’re sorry to hear you didn’t love [SPECIFIC THING] about [PRODUCT/SERVICE]. Feedback like yours helps us make our [PRODUCT/SERVICES] better, and we’re grateful you shared your experience. [NAME]”

“Hi [NAME], It sounds like we really missed the mark here. Thanks for telling us about it in a review. Would you be open to discussing your experience further? Email us at [EMAIL] or give us a call at [PHONE NUMBER] and ask for [NAME]. We hope to hear from you. [NAME]”

You’re Ready to Respond To Any Review

It’s never a great idea to ignore your reviews. 99.9% of customers read reviews when they shop online… and 96% of those people will only look at the negative reviews. Now, you have the tools you need to respond to any review, good or bad. 

Looking for more great tips, like these? Join our email list, where we help business owners do things like find the best tools for customer service, space optimization strategies for warehouses, and how to increase local SEO.

FAQs

Where can people leave reviews? 

People can leave reviews on multiple platforms like:

• Business Profile on Google
• Yelp 
• Facebook 
• Amazon 
• Your own website
• Other third party sites

How do I respond to a Google review?

To respond to a Google review, you’ll first need to claim your Business Profile. Once you’ve gone through the steps to claim your business:

• Login to the Business Profile page
• Click the ‘Reviews’ tab
• Reply to reviews

Keep in mind these reviews are public. While you can edit your response, try to keep this to a minimum as reviewers do get a notification when you respond. Make sure you’re posting the review you plan to leave up. 

How do I respond to a Yelp review?

To respond to a Yelp review you’ll first have to claim your Yelp page. Once you’ve gone through the steps to claim your business:

• Login to the Yelp for Business Owners page
• Click on the ‘Reviews’ tab
• Find the review you want to respond to
• Respond

On Yelp, you can respond with a public comment or a direct message. You can also give positive reviews (usually 4 stars or higher) a ‘Thank Reviewer’ rather than responding. 

How do I respond to a Facebook review?

To begin receiving Facebook reviews, you’ll need to first set up a Facebook Business Page. Reviews will be added as part of your page by Facebook when the page is created. 

Reviews will show up either in your posts or under the reviews tab. 

Facebook doesn’t use the same star system as other platforms. The reviews will note that the reviewer either “recommends” or “does not recommend” your business.

You can respond the same way you respond to comments on your page, or in your Facebook Business Manager account.

Should I also respond to positive reviews?

Yes, you should respond to positive reviews. These reviews are from people who love your business. Be sure to thank them for their support and for sharing their experience. 

Do I have to respond to every review?

You don’t have to respond to every review you get. Instead, consider the following.

Which review sites matter most to your business? If you have a physical location, then you may want people to leave you Google reviews to help with local SEO. Or, if you know word of mouth is important in your industry, you may want to respond to all your Facebook reviews. 

But if a platform isn’t one where you know there will be a lot of traffic, you don’t have to respond to all the reviews there. 

Take the volume into account. There are only so many hours in a day. If you’re lucky enough to get lots of reviews each day, it may not be in your best interest to respond to all of them. Pick a couple of good reviews to respond to here and there and address the bad ones. This lets people know you’re paying attention to your reviews.