Reviews are a part of doing business, providing an excellent opportunity for businesses to connect with their customers and build loyalty.
Your customers can leave reviews in various places around the web, including your Google Business profile.
In this article, you will learn best practices for responding to reviews customers leave online for your business whether it’s positive or negative feedback.
Where To Find Your Google Reviews
- Go to business.google.com and sign up for Google My Business.
- Click Reviews in the left sidebar.
- A list of recent ratings is displayed. Find the review you want to reply to.
- Click “Reply”.
- Then, a message field opens where you can write your answer.
- Click Post Reply.
Once created, any Google user can leave a review, add a photo, and interact with your business profile.
If you have a Google My Business account, you can only control the content that appears on your business profile.
Read More: Schedule Google My Business Posts: Events and Offers with Publer
Why Bother Responding To Google Reviews
Now that you understand why reviews are essential, let’s discuss why responses are just as important.
Responding to reviews is for managing your organization’s public content. The internet can sometimes feel like a one-way street, but replying to reviews gives your business a voice.
Answers to reviews, have a big impact on SEO. These are the factors that affect SEO are:
Volume: More reviews help customers better understand the experience they can expect in your store. According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, a company that replies regularly gets 12% more reviews.
People look for consistent negative or positive trends rather than individual circumstances. A way to get more reviews is to proactively ask your customers for reviews via social media platforms, emails, and newsletters.
Also, invite your customers for review via text message, email, or sync with your POS system to contact them automatically.
Rating: Businesses that respond to reviews not only get more reviews, they get better reviews as well. About 33% of the companies participating in the survey improved their rounded ratings by 0.5 stars or more within six months of their initial controlled response.
Potential reviewers could take more consideration in sharing negative feedback if they found that the company was responsive to all feedback, encouraging the company to step in and try to fix the problem.
The reputation of your online business can be the first quality indicator your prospective customers see. Your goal should be at least a 4.0+ rating. Generally, 4.0-4.5 is good, and 4.5-5.0 is best.
Keyword: This is where Google’s review management really shines. Yes, your reviews may contain keywords, but responding to them helps Google understand exactly what your business is about. Related keywords to consider in review replies: Business Name, Location Products, Services.
Unique and up to date content: For Google, regular new content is a strong indicator of a healthy and active business. Replying to reviews effectively doubles your content activity.
By actively participating in your review interviews, you are more likely to reduce short negative reviews. Customers are less likely to leave trivial negative reviews if they know managers are more likely to read and respond to reviews. The rest of the negative ratings give the team feedback or an opportunity to fix a bad situation.
How To Reply To A Google Review – Positive Reviews
Here are some examples to get you started on how to reply to a Google review (positive.)
- “Thank you! See you soon.”
- “Thank you for sharing your experience.”
- “I am happy to hear that you enjoyed your experience.”
How To Reply To A Google Review – Negative Reviews
Negative reviews hurt. No one wants negative reviews, but most businesses will get one eventually. Here are some tips how to reply to a google review (negative.)
Investigate The Complaint Internally
It’s better to assess the situation than react immediately to bad reviews. Your customers have a lot of influence online. Addressing negative reviews without thinking can fuel dissatisfied customers.
Negative reactions to negative reviews cost customers money. With 73% of consumers only reading reviews from the past month, it’s important to give positive feedback.
Don’t get emotional when it’s your turn to reply to a bad review. Have a logical process before replying. Use the rest of the time to think about the answer, but don’t spend much time on it. A study from BrightLocal shows that 20% of those who leave negative reviews expect a response within 24 hours.
Work With Templates
It’s easy to react to negative reviews with frustration and self-defense. This solution can easily backfire, frustrate your customers, and damage your online reputation.
It’s easy to react to negative reviews with frustration and self-defense. This solution can easily backfire, frustrating your customers and damaging your online reputation.
Respond Using Google Reviews
In other words, do not contact or communicate with customers privately. Instead, reply on the platform on which the customer posted the review.
By publicly replying to bad reviews, you show your customers and potential customers that you care.
Offer To Speak To Them
The first reply to negative reviews must always be on Google. However, Google Reviews may not be the best place to have a customer service conversation.
Neither a real-time communication channel nor 1:1 Interacting with Customers. Others can appreciate their comments and write additional reviews that support or add to the initial customer experience.
If you know negative ratings will take longer, you should work towards a 1:1 Conversations with customers. This does not mean covering up problems or trying to save face online, but rather prioritizing meeting customer needs and communicating with them through the best available channels.
Google Reviews has done its job by highlighting bad experiences with your business. Now is the time to take advantage of reliable customer support channels like phone, live chat, and email to resolve issues.
Be Transparent
No business is perfect. As your customer base grows, your team will inevitably make mistakes. After all, how you respond to these errors will determine how your customers perceive your brand.
The best way to respond to negative reviews is to be transparent. In fact, more than 90% of Americans say brand transparency is a key factor in their purchasing decisions, according to a survey.
Your customers know your team isn’t perfect, but they expect you to take responsibility when there are mistakes. This builds long term and loyal customer relationships.
Key Takeaways
In conclusion, replying to Google reviews is essential to managing your online reputation and engaging with your customers.
- Address the reviewer by name and thank them for writing a review.
- Stay professional and avoid getting defensive, even if the review is negative.
- Use positive language and show appreciation for both positive and negative reviews.
What do you think about today’s article? You already know we would love to know your opinion.
Denisa Lamaj
