Responding to Google reviews is vital for your business's success in local search results. By responding to both negative and positive feedback, you show customers that y'all're committed to listening to their concerns and exceeding their expectations.

One in five customers expect to hear back from yous when they go out a review. You don't desire customers who get out a positive review to feel unappreciated, and customers who leave a negative review feel unheard.

In this post, observe the importance of responding to Google reviews, and learn how to respond to the ones you receive from customers.

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Responding to Google reviews is incredibly important, given that Google is the world's about popular search engine.

When your potential customers apply this huge source of information to showtime researching products and services, business listings appear — forth with recent client reviews with starred ratings and comments.

According to BrightLocal, 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. The reviews on your Google My Business contour can accept a big touch on you finding new customers. Google itself has disclosed that responding to reviews — skillful or bad — increases your ratings.

Information technology's important to do it quickly, likewise. If you look weeks and months before responding, there'south a adept run a risk your customer will have forgotten they left that review in the first place.

Responding to reviews can be fourth dimension-consuming, difficult, and flat-out awkward, but luckily, you don't have to commencement from scratch. You tin can use the templates below to answer to Google reviews quickly and effectively.

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Response template for positive and negative Google Reviews

Before starting, it would exist wise to set up up Google My Business organisation notifications, so anytime a new customer review is posted, you receive a notification. Below we'll outline the steps to responding to Google Reviews on both mobile and desktop.

How to Respond to Google Reviews from a Desktop

  1. Sign in to Google My Business by going to business organisation.google.com.
  2. On the left sidebar, click "Reviews."
  3. A listing of your contempo reviews volition come up upward. Find the review you want to reply to.
  4. Click "Reply."
  5. A message box will open for you to write your response.
  6. Click "Postal service respond."

how to respond to google my business reviews: reply

How to Respond to Google Reviews From a Mobile Device:

  1. On your mobile device, open the Google My Business app.
  2. On the bottom navigation bar, click "Customers."
  3. A list of your contempo reviews will come up. Tap the review you lot want to reply to.
  4. A message box will open for yous to write your response.
  5. Click the "Send" icon on the upper right-hand corner.

Manage Google Reviews

Depending on your private business organization needs, the fashion you cull to manage your Google Reviews may be different. For instance, some businesses may make it a priority to respond to every single review they get, while others focus on reviews that contain specific elements, like a complaint or request.

Regardless of your strategy, consistent management of your Google Reviews looks equally follows:

  • Creating a business-specific plan for when to answer to reviews based on your private business needs.
  • Abiding monitoring of your Google My Business account.
  • Reading all reviews as they come in, both positive and negative.
  • Deleting fake reviews when you come upon them.
  • Responding to reviews when they come in.

When you lot actually begin responding, you'll likely detect that you lot receive both positive and negative reviews from customers. Each type of review requires a specific blazon of response in order to ensure client satisfaction and to prevent potential churn.

In the next sections nosotros'll discuss how you should respond to negative and positive Google Reviews, and provide examples of responses to each blazon.

Many companies and business owners fear responding to negative reviews because it is a digital confrontation. However, bad reviews should not cause feet. Instead, they should be a moment to meliorate your make and customer service. Later all, research shows that customers are 1.7x more likely to visit your business if your visitor responds to negative reviews.

So, how should y'all reply to them?

1. Assess and evaluate the feedback internally get-go.

Y'all're amend off assessing the state of affairs instead of immediately responding to a bad review. Customers have a lot of power online, and if you react to a negative review without thinking it through, you will fuel your angry customer.

A negative response to a negative review will cost y'all customers. Every bit 73% of consumers merely look at the reviews from the last month, it is vital to reply in a positive style. Practise not get emotional when it's your turn to respond to a bad review — have a logical procedure in identify before clicking "reply." Take the remainder of the day to contemplate your response, but don't take as well long. BrightLocal claims that 20% of those who go out negative reviews expect an answer inside 24 hours.

two. Work off of a review response template.

It'south easy to respond to a negative review with frustration and defensiveness. This solution can easily backfire, frustrate customers, and tarnish your reputation online. Information technology's all-time to work off of a negative review response template to aid mellow out whatever animosity you lot might be feeling and answer kindly and accordingly.

3. Publicly respond to the review.

This ways, don't hibernate and privately reach out to your customer, merely respond to them on the platform that they posted the review (privately responding alongside a public response is good as well). Whether they left you a bad review on Capterra or Google, practise not avoid digital conversation. Responding publicly to bad reviews shows your customers and potential customers that you care and are attentive.

Why should y'all care that you're attentive? Because it can lead to increased business organisation. A written report conducted by Cornell Academy revealed that responding to negative hotel reviews "appears positively related to the consumer'southward view of the hotel, as measured by increases in the TripAdvisor score."

iv. Work towards a 1:ane conversation.

Your first response to a negative review should always be made on Google. Even so, Google Reviews isn't always the best place to host a customer service conversation. Information technology's not a real-time communication channel nor is it a i:one interaction with the client. Other people can like their comments and write additional reviews supporting or calculation context to the first client's experience.

If you know a negative review is going to take some time to reconcile, then you lot should work towards a 1:1 conversation with the customer. That doesn't mean y'all're trying to hide the problem or salvage confront online, just rather, your priority is to meet customer's needs and that means communicating with them on the best channels available. Google Reviews did its job by highlighting the poor experience for your business concern. Now it'south time to rely on your trusted customer support channels like phone, live chat, and email, to solve the problem.

5. Be transparent virtually mistakes.

No business is perfect, and as your client base of operations grows, your team is bound to make mistakes. Subsequently all, customers often have conflicting needs that make information technology incommunicable to satisfy anybody. It'southward how y'all respond to these mistakes, though, that determines how customers perceive your brand.

Being transparent is the all-time course to take when responding to a negative review.In fact, research shows that over xc% of Americans say brand transparency is an important gene when making purchasing decisions.Customers know your team isn't going to be perfect, just they expect y'all to take responsibility for your mistakes when they occur. This builds customer rapport and leads to long-term, loyal advocates.

6. Ask questions when details aren't clear.

Customers don't get paid to write reviews and some will focus more on submitting a negative score then explaining their problem with your company. You might come across a vague review like this 1 where it's hard to decide the customer'due south trouble.unclear google review with little information

Image Source

With this review of a java shop, we don't know what about the experience was dissatisfying. It'south hard to tell whether it was an issue with the coffee, service, or the actual store.

If nosotros want to effectively respond to this review, nosotros need to enquire questions and go more information from the customer. This will start a healthy dialogue that will help us diagnose the client'southward roadblock. In one case we know the problem, nosotros tin can provide a solution.

seven. Understand and offering solutions.

If you just spend your time writing a fluffy response back to the customer apologizing for their experience and you've really taken the time to not be impulsive, but did non provide some sort of solution or actionable items to mitigate the issue, and then you haven't properly responded to a negative review. Brand sure to offer to make it right by providing some sort of solution.

8. Provide an incentive if necessary.

Some customers only write negative reviews to blow off steam and take no intention of returning for your response. In these cases, you tin can recapture their attention by offer incentives that reinforce the sincerity of your response.

While you don't want to do this with every bad review, you can apply customer lifetime value to determine if someone should get an incentive or not. For case, if a customer isn't spending much money with yous, and is constantly writing poor reviews, then they may non be a "good fit" for your business. If you keep offer them a discount every time they mutter, yous'll finish up losing coin on this customer when you could have been using that disbelieve to larn or retain a client with a higher lifetime value.

nine. Sign your proper name at the terminate of your response.

This is a small-scale item that goes a long manner. Signing your name after each response shows the client that you're a real person. And, customers aren't only nicer when they're working with a human agent, they're also happier considering it shows your company is invested in their review.

x. Request an update for the review.

It's important to remember that customer reviews are the first of a larger chat. The customer's perception of your make isn't stagnant and can modify equally they continue to collaborate with your company.

In one case you send your initial response, be prepared to have an in-depth conversation with the customer. Talk to them virtually their feel and endeavour to pinpoint exactly where your company savage brusque of their expectations.

If you feel similar the customer is satisfied with your team'southward response, inquire them if they'd be willing to update their review. Since yous've just changed their perspective, it'due south the perfect time to ask them to edit their original feedback. Recall, that review is yet public and future leads may not read the whole thread and see the positive issue. Updating the original review is the best way to forestall you from gaining a negative reputation online.

Whether information technology's providing your contact information and following upwardly with the customer offline, you should display empathy and effort into solving the complaint.

Examples of Negative Review Responses

Here are ideas for responding to negative reviews as a business organization owner.

ane. Business/Agency Negative Review Response Case

If your company generates revenue from recurring, subscription or contract-based relationships, it'southward imperative that you answer to negative reviews. It can aid you win dorsum unhappy customers, and it tin can prevent other potential customers from reading them online — and passing on you. If a electric current or former customer trashes you online, here'south an example of how you could reply.

Originally published Jan x, 2022 7:15:00 AM, updated January 10 2022