When it comes to receiving reviews, business owners are often scared. I mean - REALLY scared. What will I do if someone leaves us a 1-star review? How will I respond? As you may know, negative reviews often cannot be removed from social media sites and must, instead, be dealt with directly on a public forum. Yikes! (Cue the sweat glands...)
Sometimes business owners are so fearful that they don't even list their business on review sites in order to avoid negative feedback altogether! But how much POSITIVE feedback are you missing by embracing the fear of the negative instead of making a plan to respond to these comments when they happen? Reviews can be incredibly powerful for learning what your customers value about you as well as how you can improve your business. You should be listening!
Don't let the fear of reviews frighten you. I'm here to help. As a social media manager for a number of accounts, I'm used to hearing negative feedback, taking a deep breath, and responding publicly in a way that allows people to be heard while also reinforcing the policies, voice, and values of the business. After all, responding to reviews is another extension of the customer service arm of your business, and you would be remiss to allow any of your customers (whether happy or not) to walk away without being heard. You wouldn't ignore an unhappy customer if they were standing in front of you, would you? The same is true for reviews on public forums - you must respond promptly and professionally to be sure that your customer knows that their feedback is valuable to you.
3 tips for managing reviews:
1. Log into your review sites at least once every two weeks to respond to any outstanding reviews (daily or weekly is even better!) and pay close attention to your social media notifications.
2. Whenever you can, try to get the reviewer to follow up with you offline rather than addressing the specific issue publicly.
3. If you are able, use the customer's first name when you reply to their review (on Facebook, you can even tag them in the comment when you respond to their review!) This will help them see that you are paying attention, you truly care about what they have to say, and that you value them as an individual.
Here are a few ways that you can reply to your not-so-hot reviews on Google Plus, Facebook, YELP, Trip Advisor, and other review sites:
We're sorry to hear your experience with the us wasn't five-star. We hope to see you again soon so we can give it another try!
We're sorry to hear that this happened, X. (Explanation of policy). We hope you understand.
We are so sorry to hear that this happened to you, X. Please be in touch with us - (email address) - we'd like to offer you something to make this right!
Oh, we are so sorry this happened, X! We hope this NEVER happens to you again.
Thank you for your feedback, X!
Thank you for your feedback, X. We would love to know more about your experience so we can address this issue in the future. Please email (email address) so we can follow up with you personally.
Thank you for this feedback, X. Please be in touch with us - (email address) - if you'd like to tell us more.
We hope you'll come back and give us another try, X!
Oh, what a bummer. We're sorry to hear this, X. Please feel free to pop us an email (email address) to tell us more about your experience.
Hi, X. We're so sorry to hear that this happened to you. Not our best look... and we'd like to make it right. Please pop us an email - (email address) - with some additional info about your experience and we'd be happy to talk with you further.
I truly hope that these tips and the template language provided above will help you to embrace customer feedback, whether positive or negative, and allow you to grow your business with confidence and grace.
For more information about the services I offer (including one-on-one marketing coaching and virtual Social Media Guidance Sessions, please visit THIS LINK. Let’s tackle it together!
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