Customer Reviews Boost Your Growth

Building a loyal customer base is the key to growing your business, and you can’t build one without engaging with customers and their concerns online. Respond to their reviews — both the good and the bad in a way that impresses the current and potential customers. Your responses better present your company as responsible, caring, and trustworthy. Read on to learn the rules to successful reviews.

Your responses don’t need to be long, but they better show that you engage with the reviewer thoughtfully and personally. Never use boilerplate responses. If they sound chatbot-made, you’re basically telling customers that you don’t really care. Address the main point of the review directly and never try to sidestep an issue or weasel out of giving a real, substantive answer.

Never wait over 24 hours to respond to negative reviews. Same works for 48 hours and the positive ones. Delaying responses shows reviewers and potential customers that your company doesn’t really care about them.

Even if a reviewer is unreasonable, make things right if you can. Change the product description on the website. Replace defective products or offer a refund. If the complaint concerns customer service or something else that’s intangible, offer a discount for future purchases. The reputation your company will gain offsets the money and time you spend.

62% of consumers say they won’t buy from brands that hide or don’t respond to bad online reviews. Responding is important since it’s a form of damage control. Doing so with positive reviews is essential as well. When you respond to such, you encourage other customers to leave more positive reviews — people like feeling noticed and appreciated. It is also important because if you put your company’s name and email address in response to positive reviews, search engines will rank those reviews higher, which makes them more visible.

No matter how inappropriate or disrespectful the reviewer is, your response should be sympathetic and polite. This shows the reviewer that your company values their concerns and takes their complaints seriously. It also shows everyone that your company is fair and reasonable.

Sometimes dishonest customers will post fake bad reviews, trying to get discounts or merchandise from your company. If you’re sure that a negative review is fake — say so in your response as long as you keep it polite. This will show readers what reasonable behaviour is.

Online reviews are the basis for making purchases for most people. Your responses are an important part of how people view your company.