When it comes to any online review for your business, positive customer reviews already work for you in pulling in new potential customers- and while you may that’s enough, responding to positive reviews can be just as important. Knowing how to respond to happy customers is just as valuable a skill as responding to fake reviews, but it’s not necessarily something everyone knows how to do.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Personal but short responses that include a call to action are key to engaging with positive reviews.
- Responding as quickly as possible to a bad review or a good review helps ensure continued customer engagement.
- It takes at least 12 positive reviews to make up for the damage one negative review has on business
A positive online review can do even more for you if you learn some basics about engaging with them, and there are a handful of simple guidelines you can follow to leverage the most out of them.
Responding to Positive Reviews
One of the challenges of being an online vendor or having a business with a social media presence is dealing with customer feedback. Negative reviews and knowing how to deal with those is a topic all its own. But positive feedback deserves some attention when it comes to engagement as well.
Insider Tip
It’s been established in multiple studies that it costs at least seven times the money to obtain new customers as it does to keep current ones by repeat business.
Why Responding to Reviews and Positive Feedback Matters
It’s been established in multiple studies that it costs at least seven times the money to obtain new customers as it does to keep current ones by repeat business. Engaging with customers who leave good reviews or any review/feedback encourages a continuing relationship with them and can lead to them spreading the word about their good experiences to potential customers. And that is why email marketing is not a favor from them to you, but just the opposite.
Studies also show that it takes at least a dozen positive reviews to make up for one negative review- meaning having more of them matters even more than a lot of business owners may assume.
Responding and Engaging to a Review
There are a few key things to do when responding to a review, positive feedback, or a positive experience that will help foster continued relationships with happy customers and keep them coming back, and they’re all fairly simple.
Respond to a Review as Quickly as Possible
More often than not, a review or feedback is left directly after purchase or specific interaction or experience with a business- engaging with review days or weeks after a customer experience means you may miss out on having any back-and-forth or active engagement- you can’t count on customers to check up on a review long after the fact to see if a business has responded to them. Responding to a 5-star review as quickly as possible shows that you care about having a continued relationship and providing an optimal customer experience and excellent service even after a purchase.
Insider Tip
More often than not, a review or feedback is left directly after purchase or specific interaction or experience with a business.
Make Responses Short, but not too Short
A long-winded response to positive feedback or comments may be a good idea for a niche business, but in general, a short response to a review is best in order to encourage a conversation- and that your customer actually reads your response. At the same time, one or two-word responses to a review like “Thanks!” will come off as terse or indifferent, so do put a bit of effort into it to make it less business-like.
Be Human and Authentic
Responding to positive feedback or positive comments with a boilerplate or pre-fab response, or just an impersonal, all-business-sounding one, can do more damage than not responding at all. Tailor your responses to the customer’s feedback- it’s the start of a conversation, hopefully. You don’t have to “lay it on thick”, but don’t come off like a robot. Amazing reviews require amazing responses.
Calls to Action
Responding in a friendly, natural, personal way is important, but if you want to encourage even better relationships with your customers, try to add a small call to action in your response to a review. This can be as simple as encouraging them to share their experience with their friends, directing them to your social media presence, or checking out a new product or service you’re offering. Keep it short and low-key, but try to encourage further engagement actively.
F.A.Q.S
Why should you respond to positive reviews?
Studies have shown that responding to positive feedback can help keep customers coming back and sharing their experiences with friends for potential future customers, as well as encouraging a good rating after subsequent purchases and increasing your search ranking.
Can you respond to a Google review?
Yes, business owners are able to fully respond to and engage with their customers through a Google My Business account.
Are positive reviews more impactful than bad reviews or negative feedback?
Unfortunately no, studies show that it takes at least 12 positive reviews to make up for the damage to a business than one bad review, a low star rating, or negative feedback does. Customers are also more like to leave feedback about a negative experience. A 5-Star review has a lot less power than a 1-star review.
STAT: Many surveys show that more than 9 out of 10 consumers will avoid a business because of a negative review, far more than because of a positive review. (source)
STAT: 45% of consumers report that a business that responds to negative reviews, a bad experience, or an unhappy customer is more likely to attract their interest and make them a future customer. (source)
STAT: 76% of customer reviews are found on either Google or Facebook. (source)
