Starting a business means putting yourself out there. Whether you’re sharing a product or service — to run a business is to share a passion or speciality with the world. With that comes exposure to feedback, both good and bad.
In today's digital age, online reviews have become a vital component of small business growth and reputation. Positive reviews can be a powerful marketing tool, while negative reviews can damage your brand and deter potential customers. As a small business owner, it's essential to understand how to handle both positive and negative customer reviews to build a strong online presence and attract more customers.
In this guide, we’ll run you through a few tips for managing customer feedback to help support and enhance your customers’ experience, as well as exceed client expectations.
Why are customer reviews important?
Before delving into how to manage customer reviews, it's crucial to understand why they're so important. According to a survey conducted by BrightLocal, 75% of consumers 'always' or 'regularly' read online reviews, and 88% of consumers are likely to use a business if they can see the business owner responds to all reviews, whether positive or negative. Positive reviews can significantly impact a business's reputation, increase its visibility, and ultimately drive more sales.
How to respond to negative reviews, however, is another story. Negative feedback can hurt your business's reputation and deter potential customers. On the flip side, it can also present an opportunity for your business and team to learn from mistakes and improve products or services.
How to respond to positive reviews
When you receive a positive review, it's essential to show your appreciation to the customer. Since negative emotions and memories are typically processed more thoroughly than positive ones, it's important to acknowledge that for a customer to have gone out of their way to share their experience with others enough to want to recommend your product or services, is high praise indeed.
Responding to positive reviews shows that you value your customers and their experience, and are committed to providing excellent customer service. Here are some tips on how to handle positive reviews:
☑️ Respond promptly: Respond to positive reviews as quickly as possible to show your appreciation.
☑️ Show your gratitude: Thank the customer for taking the time to leave a review and for choosing your business.
☑️ Personalise your response: Customise your response to the customer's review. Mention specific details to show that you've read and appreciate their feedback.
☑️ Use the review for marketing: Use the positive review as a marketing tool by sharing it on social media, paid ads, or on your website as a testimonial
Generally speaking, you don't need to provide an in-depth response to every positive review, but even simple 'Thank you's are often appreciated. See above an example from CREOATE's Trustpilot for a simple demonstration of how to personalise your responses to positive reviews.
How to respond to negative reviews
Negative reviews can be super frustrating and disheartening for small business owners, particularly since it's easy to feel stretched across multiple areas with not enough resources while you grow. However, learning how to respond to negative reviews is also an opportunity to improve. Here are some tips on how to handle negative feedback:
☑️ Respond promptly: Respond to negative reviews promptly and professionally. Acknowledge the customer's concerns and apologise for any issues they may have experienced.
☑️ Take the conversation offline: If possible, take the conversation offline or out of the public space to resolve the issue privately. Provide the customer with a phone number or email address to contact you directly.
☑️ Address the issue: Address the specific issue mentioned in the review and get to the heart of the problem. Explain how you're going to resolve it and do so to the best of your ability.
☑️ Use the review for improvement: Use negative reviews as an opportunity to learn and improve your products or services. How can you avoid this happening again? What processes or features need reviewing or changing, and where could you better be investing your time?
☑️ Follow up: Follow up with the customer after the issue has been resolved to ensure their satisfaction.
Most importantly, when it comes to figuring out how to respond to negative reviews, put yourself in the customer's shoes. What would you appreciate and like to hear in this situation, and what can reasonably be done to solve or at least improve the situation that would leave said customer with a better impression of your company? Above we have included an example of an excellent customer service response from independent baby brand Snüz that hits all the beats.
✅ Thanks the customer for their time/review
✅ Expresses apology
✅ Offers to continue the conversation in private to resolve the issue
In the end, even with the best will and planning in the world, issues are bound to arise. However, when as a business owner you begin to see regular complaints and patterns in your customer feedback, it's important to audit and regularly assess your couriers, product quality, or other areas that keep coming up in complaints.
Asking for reviews
Where possible, we often recommend brands reach out and actively encourage customers to leave reviews. There are lots of ways and places you can do this:
☑️ In the post-purchase landing page
☑️ In order confirmation emails
☑️ Following the resolution of a customer service query or issue
☑️ In a separate post-purchase email after product delivery has been confirmed
☑️ Mentioned in any newsletters or marketing comms
☑️ Remind your followers on social media if/when you share testimonials and reviews
☑️ In product packaging
☑️ On business cards or flyers
Encouraging customers to leave reviews for your products and services doesn't have to be daunting. But, if you're not such a wordsmith, feel free to use and tweak our review invitation template below:
"Your feedback means the world to us! Just seeing it keeps us pumped, and gives our team the motivation we need to make our product and services even better. Feel free to leave us a review on Trustpilot / fill out our customer feedback form here / use the QR code below to let us know how we're doing!"
FAQ
Should you respond to old negative reviews?
Based on BrightLocal's 2022 data, just 7% of survey respondents said that how long ago a review was posted didn’t matter to them. Depending on your situation, this could be good or bad news. For example, if your business received a lot of negative reviews a year or two ago, but you've since resolved the issues in question to boost your overall rating, there will still be customers who consider those older negative reviews before forming their opinions and purchasing with your brand. With this in mind, we would recommend responding to old negative reviews to make it known to new potential customers that your team is thorough, and cares about the brand's image and customer experience enough to follow-up.
How to respond to negative reviews that aren't true?
Firstly, we would suggest apologising that the customer's experience of your product or services did not live up to their expectations. Let them know that you value their time and feedback all the same. True or false, that they believe their experience was negative is what matters here. More often than not, most customers leaving negative reviews just want to feel heard and understood. Without sounding defensive or negating their feelings or experience, offer an explanation or context for them to consider. Reiterate that in spite of this, their experience does not align with your standards, and offer to discuss via email how you might be able to resolve their issue or improve their experiences.
How many 5 star reviews do I need to negate a 1 star review?
Counteracting the effects of negative reviews on your overall brand rating isn't an exact science, and we completely understand how disheartening it can be to have one negative review seemingly undo all the hard work you've put in to build up your score. With this being said, you'll generally need a fairly substantial number of positive reviews to totally offset the impact. Quantity is key to bringing your rating back to where it was before, assuming you previously had an overall positive brand rating. This is again why we suggest encouraging customers to leave reviews after resolving queries or issues, and making feedback follow-up a standard across your business to ensure a steady influx of fresh (and hopefully positive!) new reviews.
Can you get 1 star Google reviews removed?
According to Google, you can request to remove or delete inappropriate reviews from your Business Profile. Google can remove reviews that violate their policies, but bear in mind that requests can take a few days to go through their system. Google also does not allow businesses to simply remove reviews they disagree with or don't like, and does not get involved in disputes about the truth behind what a customer is saying in their review. Learn more about their policies and process here.
Make the right impression
Online reviews are an essential component of small business growth and reputation. Positive reviews can attract new customers and increase sales, while negative reviews can damage your brand. As a small business owner, it's crucial to deal with both promptly and professionally.
Remember, with the right approach, customer reviews can be a valuable asset to help grow your business, and succeed in today's competitive digital marketplace.
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