If you use Google My Business or any other platform for your business, you should be responding to every review.
One of the first things I create for my client (if they need one) is a Google My Business (GMB) listing. This is the long rectangular section that shows up on the right hand side when you look up a business. It shows some photos, hours of operation, phone number and most importantly, reviews from people who have visited or used their services.
It’s very important that businesses either claim their listing (sometimes it gets created on its own or a previous owner created it and may not have passed it along). First, it allows you complete control over what is displayed there and it’s also a free marketing tool (by the way, it’s free to create, too). We all know that reviews can make or break a business and people do look for these. One of the easiest places to find it is on their Google My Business listing.
How Not to Respond to a Review
I was looking for something the other week and came across this (which is what prompted me to write this article). Here’s how NOT to respond to a review:
Wow. Now would you want to go visit this place after reading that!? There are also some businesses who write the exact same response to every bad review, which I also don’t recommend doing. They’re usually along the lines of, “Thank you for your review, we’re sorry that we didn’t meet your expectations. We’ll strive to do better next time.” Over and over and over again. Fail.
How to Handle Good and Bad Reviews
While it can be upsetting to a business owner to receive a bad review, the best thing to do is own up to it and respond accordingly. Do it without blaming the reviewer (even if you think they’re wrong). This way, people reading through these can see that: 1) you take your business seriously and 2) that you care about the review and use it to address whatever the issue was.
In the review above, I noticed that almost everyone said their stuff was overpriced. That’s an issue with the business itself which goes beyond reviews so it’s hard to address that. It should be an indication to the owner that if you’re getting a similar complaint, maybe you should change your ways. It doesn’t mean you should respond the way they did, telling the person to not come back! Wow.
Also, don’t make excuses. Nobody cares about your excuse as to why the store was dirty or why your stuff is overpriced. For example, don’t say, “Our cleaning crew is responsible for making sure the store is clean, so it’s their fault.” Regarding their price structure, don’t say, “We can’t afford to make our things less expensive or we’d go out of business.”
So this is a tough one to respond accordingly to. To me, this is a problem on multiple levels with the cleanliness and the prices. The business could simply do a deep clean of the store which goes a long way with peoples’ perception of the space. They could also have sales on certain items during the week or start a reward program. Or simply adjust their pricing to be more in line with what people expect.
Tips on Responding to Bad Reviews
But on to responding to bad reviews. Here are some tips:
- Respond to every single review you get on any platform (good or bad). Make sure you have access to these platforms as well. Make sure you get updates when you receive reviews (i.e., the email address is current).
- Thank the reviewer for taking time to leave their comment (as much as that may hurt).
- Apologize for their bad experience.
- Address each thing they talk about without putting blame on them and acknowledge your understanding of it.
- Say how you plan on making sure it doesn’t happen in the future (and actually DO something about it).
- Defend yourself only if their assessment is incorrect but do it tactfully. Maybe you overheard the entire incident and the person has added in things or embellished on their experience.
- Make it right with the customer if needed. I’ve seen some businesses offer them something when they come back in. You’d need to have a system for them to prove it was really them.
- If this has something to do with an employee, talk to them about it and show them the review. Your employees are a direct reflection on your business and they need to be responsible for maintaining your image. This may be part of your training protocol that’s been overlooked.
- If you are getting the same complaint over and over, it’s a sign that something is wrong with the way you are running the business, so take it to heart. Reviews are there to help you. Constructive criticism may be a hard pill to swallow, but it will present gaps in your business you may have overlooked.
People will read these reviews online as well as your response to them. I have way more respect for owners who take the time to respond to all reviews in a professional manner than I do for the one above. I had originally bookmarked that business to go visit and after I read those reviews, I removed it, vowing never to step foot in there. Oh, it wasn’t the only response like that either! This owner was an angry person and it showed.
Fake Reviews
Another issue regards either fake reviews or outright lies. You do have the option of flagging a review for Google to look at if you believe it wasn’t for your business or if it appears to be fake. It’s not uncommon for a competitor to slam you in a review or a disgruntled employee to say nasty things about you. If you have a similar name to another business, they may have been confused and left it for the wrong one.
You have a chance to state your case with Google. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Be as descriptive as you can when describing why you believe this review was not warranted. If you have any proof, I believe you can include that as well in the form of a screenshot or photo. You only get one chance.
Being Professional About a Bad Review
While it may pain you to read a bad review about your business, don’t react right away because you may say something you regret. Step back for a day (but not too long – aim to respond within 2 days) and craft your response accordingly. They say the customer is always right, but everyone knows that’s not really true. Regarding the fake or slanderous review mentioned above, you should still respond to those even if you think they weren’t real while Google decides your case (which could take a while).
For example, if someone just leaves a 1 star review with no comment (not unusual), respond to that. You could say something like, “We thank you for your review, but without any comment on why you chose one star, it doesn’t help us understand your problem or improve in the future. We encourage you to reach out to us directly or expand on why you left us a one star review.” I think this is a pretty good case for having it removed, as well.
If someone leaves a low star review and says, “The store was nice but the person who assisted me was rude and argued with me over a return I was trying to make.” You could respond with: “We thank you for taking the time to review your experience at our store and apologize for the service you were given. Please reach out to us directly so we can address the employee who serviced you. Our goal is to make returns easy and hassle free and we’d like to know where this went wrong.”
Your Reputation Matters
You didn’t start a business so that it would fail. There are so many aspects of running a business that it’s almost impossible to get it all right. Reviews are there to show you what you did right and what you could improve upon. It’s never fun getting a bad review. It almost seems people are more apt to leave a bad one than a good one because it made them emotional and they want to blame you for that. A typical first reaction by the owner is to defend yourself and put the blame on the reviewer (like the person in the first example above did).
Try not to let it get to you. Have other members of your team read it as well. Maybe together you can come up with a professional response and gain insight as to why the review was left. It seems most of the time it’s employees that get blamed, so make it a part of your onboard training. Maybe you show actual examples of real reviews and how it affects not only you, the owner, but the employees themselves.
Maybe you should have a procedure that any time an employee has a difficult time with a customer that a manager is called in to help deal with it. Or the employee reports it to a manager or owner after it happens so you can hear their story. At any rate, I’ll emphasize that it’s extremely important to your reputation and image to a potential customer that you respond to each and every review.
If you need help creating or claiming a Google My Business profile, reach out to us. We have years of experience creating and maintaining them!
