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

One in v customers await to hear back from you when they leave a review. You don't want customers who leave a positive review to feel unappreciated, and customers who leave a negative review experience unheard.

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

Download Now: 20 Review Response Templates

Responding to Google reviews is incredibly important, given that Google is the world'due south most popular search engine.

When your potential customers use this huge source of information to start researching products and services, business organisation listings appear — along with contempo customer reviews with starred ratings and comments.

According to BrightLocal, 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much every bit personal recommendations. The reviews on your Google My Business profile can have a big impact on y'all finding new customers. Google itself has disclosed that responding to reviews — skillful or bad — increases your ratings.

It's important to do it rapidly, as well. If you wait weeks and months earlier responding, there's a practiced hazard your customer will have forgotten they left that review in the get-go place.

Responding to reviews can be time-consuming, difficult, and flat-out awkward, but luckily, you lot don't take to start from scratch. You can utilise the templates below to respond to Google reviews speedily and finer.

Featured Resource: xx Free Review Response Templates

Response template for positive and negative Google Reviews

Before starting, it would exist wise to set up Google My Concern 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.google.com.
  2. On the left sidebar, click "Reviews."
  3. A listing of your recent reviews will come up. Discover the review yous desire to reply to.
  4. Click "Respond."
  5. A bulletin box volition open for yous to write your response.
  6. Click "Mail service reply."

how to respond to google my business reviews: reply

How to Reply to Google Reviews From a Mobile Device:

  1. On your mobile device, open the Google My Business concern app.
  2. On the bottom navigation bar, click "Customers."
  3. A list of your recent reviews will come up. Tap the review y'all desire to reply to.
  4. A bulletin box will open for yous to write your response.
  5. Click the "Ship" icon on the upper right-mitt corner.

Manage Google Reviews

Depending on your individual business needs, the fashion you choose 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, consequent management of your Google Reviews looks as follows:

  • Creating a business-specific program for when to respond to reviews based on your individual business needs.
  • Constant monitoring of your Google My Business concern account.
  • Reading all reviews as they come in, both positive and negative.
  • Deleting fake reviews when y'all come upon them.
  • Responding to reviews when they come in.

When you actually begin responding, you'll probable detect that you receive both positive and negative reviews from customers. Each blazon of review requires a specific type of response in social club to ensure customer satisfaction and to forbid potential churn.

In the side by side sections we'll discuss how you should reply to negative and positive Google Reviews, and provide examples of responses to each type.

Many companies and business owners fear responding to negative reviews considering it is a digital confrontation. However, bad reviews should non crusade anxiety. Instead, they should be a moment to improve your brand and customer service. After all, research shows that customers are ane.7x more probable to visit your business concern if your company responds to negative reviews.

So, how should you reply to them?

1. Assess and evaluate the feedback internally first.

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

A negative response to a negative review will cost you customers. Equally 73% of consumers only look at the reviews from the final month, it is vital to respond in a positive style. Do not get emotional when it'south your plow to respond to a bad review — have a logical process in place before clicking "reply." Take the residuum of the day to contemplate your response, but don't accept too long. BrightLocal claims that xx% of those who get out negative reviews look an respond inside 24 hours.

2. Work off of a review response template.

Information technology'southward easy to reply to a negative review with frustration and defensiveness. This solution can easily backfire, frustrate customers, and tarnish your reputation online. It'due south best to work off of a negative review response template to assist mellow out whatsoever antagonism you might be feeling and reply kindly and accordingly.

iii. Publicly reply to the review.

This means, don't hide and privately accomplish out to your customer, merely reply to them on the platform that they posted the review (privately responding alongside a public response is skilful as well). Whether they left yous a bad review on Capterra or Google, do 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 circumspect? Considering information technology can atomic number 82 to increased business. A study conducted past Cornell University revealed that responding to negative hotel reviews "appears positively related to the consumer'south view of the hotel, as measured by increases in the TripAdvisor score."

four. Piece of work towards a one:1 conversation.

Your commencement response to a negative review should e'er be made on Google. However, Google Reviews isn't always the best place to host a customer service conversation. It's not a real-time communication channel nor is it a 1:1 interaction with the customer. Other people can like their comments and write additional reviews supporting or adding context to the starting time customer's experience.

If you know a negative review is going to take some time to reconcile, then you should work towards a 1:1 conversation with the customer. That doesn't hateful you're trying to hibernate the problem or save face online, but rather, your priority is to meet client's needs and that ways communicating with them on the best channels bachelor. Google Reviews did its job by highlighting the poor experience for your business. At present it's time to rely on your trusted customer support channels similar telephone, alive chat, and e-mail, to solve the trouble.

five. Be transparent about mistakes.

No business is perfect, and as your client base grows, your team is jump to brand mistakes. After all, customers often have alien needs that make information technology impossible to satisfy everyone. It'southward how yous respond to these mistakes, though, that determines how customers perceive your brand.

Being transparent is the best course to take when responding to a negative review.In fact, research shows that over 90% of Americans say brand transparency is an of import cistron when making purchasing decisions.Customers know your team isn't going to be perfect, but they expect you to have responsibility for your mistakes when they occur. This builds client rapport and leads to long-term, loyal advocates.

six. Ask questions when details aren't clear.

Customers don't go paid to write reviews and some volition focus more on submitting a negative score then explaining their problem with your company. You might come across a vague review similar this one where information technology's hard to determine the customer'due south problem.unclear google review with little information

Image Source

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

If we want to effectively reply to this review, nosotros need to ask questions and get more than information from the customer. This will start a healthy dialogue that volition aid us diagnose the customer'south roadblock. Once we know the problem, we can provide a solution.

vii. Empathize and offer solutions.

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

8. Provide an incentive if necessary.

Some customers just write negative reviews to blow off steam and accept no intention of returning for your response. In these cases, you can recapture their attending by offering incentives that reinforce the sincerity of your response.

While you don't want to exercise this with every bad review, you tin can use customer lifetime value to determine if someone should get an incentive or not. For instance, if a customer isn't spending much money with you, and is constantly writing poor reviews, then they may not be a "expert fit" for your business concern. If you continue offering them a discount every fourth dimension they complain, you'll finish upward losing coin on this customer when you could have been using that disbelieve to acquire or retain a customer with a college lifetime value.

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

This is a small detail that goes a long manner. Signing your proper noun after each response shows the client that yous're a real person. And, customers aren't only nicer when they're working with a human agent, they're likewise happier because it shows your visitor is invested in their review.

ten. Asking an update for the review.

Information technology's of import to remember that customer reviews are the start of a larger conversation. The client'southward perception of your brand isn't stagnant and can change as they go on to interact with your company.

Once y'all transport your initial response, be prepared to accept an in-depth conversation with the customer. Talk to them about their experience and try to pinpoint exactly where your company fell short of their expectations.

If yous feel like the client is satisfied with your squad'southward response, ask them if they'd be willing to update their review. Since you've just inverse their perspective, it'southward the perfect fourth dimension to enquire them to edit their original feedback. Remember, that review is still public and future leads may non read the whole thread and see the positive consequence. Updating the original review is the best style to forbid yous from gaining a negative reputation online.

Whether it's providing your contact information and post-obit up with the client offline, yous 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 possessor.

1. Business/Bureau Negative Review Response Example

If your company generates revenue from recurring, subscription or contract-based relationships, information technology'due south imperative that you lot respond to negative reviews. It can assistance you win back unhappy customers, and it can prevent other potential customers from reading them online — and passing on you. If a electric current or former customer trashes you online, hither's an case of how you lot could answer.

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