How to Craft the Perfect Response to Positive Online Reviews

Have you ever received a positive review from a customer but you weren't quite sure how to respond? When it comes to managing your business’s online reputation, it can be difficult to know how (or if) you should respond to customer reviews. Some businesses only respond to negative reviews, while others don't respond to reviews at all.  However, the best way to service your customers and use reviews to your advantage is by responding to every single review. 

It's important to recognize different types of reviews require different responses.  Obviously, you wouldn't respond to a negative review in the same way you'd respond to a positive one.  Check out this post if you're looking to get better at responding to negative review.  For now, let's look at how to craft the best response to positive online reviews about your business.

Regularly Check Your Reviews

In order to respond to all positive reviews in a timely manner, you need to be aware of where those reviews are coming from. Start by keeping a list of all the places your business has reviews, which could include Google, Yelp, Houzz, Facebook or any other similar sites, and regularly check for new posts. As soon as you see a new review, you should immediately post a response.

Don’t Just Respond to Negative Reviews

It’s easy to focus on negative reviews because you naturally want to defend your business from false accusations or unfair claims. Of course, responding to negative feedback is important.  But responding to positive (and neutral) reviews is equally important. This shows that you appreciate any and all feedback from your clients and that you pay attention to every customer, not just the loudest ones.

Say Thank You

 If someone is willing to take the time to post a positive review about your service, he or she clearly wants people to know about the excellent service you provided.  As the business owner, you should really appreciate this!  Responding to this kind of feedback acknowledges your customer and let's them know you really value their time and effort.

When responding to these reviews, make it personal. When it's appropriate, be sure to include specific details, like:

• The customer’s name
  
• The service you provided for the customer
  
• Mention additional services the customer might be interested in
  
• Include fun specifics, like a hobby or a pet's name (eg. "We loved remodeling your kitchen with Rocky the Bulldog's help!")
  

A generic response is better than no response, but the more details you can include, the more potential customers will see that you really get to konw about and care about your clients. You can also use this as an opportunity to mention their referral to friends or continued service in the future. Most importantly, say ‘thank you!’

Make it Public

Use Your Comment as a Free Advertisement

When you respond to a positive comment, you have the opportunity to let loyal customers know about upcoming deals and specials you may be offering. For example, a house painting company could respond to a positive review like this:

“Thanks for the positive feedback, Shannon! We’re so happy to hear you love the new color on your home’s exterior. We also wanted to let you know that we’re currently running a 15% off special for returning customers, so if you decide to paint your kitchen like you mentioned, give us a call and we can discuss your color options. Thanks again!”

Even if this particular customer doesn’t take you up on your offer, you’re still letting other visitors know about a special you are running, which could motivate them to contact you for your services.

 Display Positive Reviews on Your Website

All these positive reviews and your efforts to respond are useless if the right people can’t see them. You want potential customers to have access to these positive reviews when they are looking at your business, so what better place to display them than directly on your website?

Incorporating an application like Locallogy’s Review Builder will pull only 4- and 5-star reviews from across the web and displays them on your website’s testimonial section. Locallogy provides this service as a way for businesses to easily ask customers to leave a review, and then funnel those positive reviews onto your website.

Many of our clients have seen an improved online reputation by using the Review Builder to gather and display great reviews directly on their site. A review builder system like this allows leads to see what customers with similar needs to theirs had to say about your service, and hopefully encourage them to take action and contact you

Always Respond to Reviews

The bottom line is that no matter what kind of review your business gets, you should always take the time to publicly respond to customers. Whether you’re thanking a client for a rave review or offering to fix a problem brought up on a negative review, you’ll be amazed how far acknowledgement goes for your customers.

What to learn more about the Review Builder tool and how reviews can help attract new customers?  Give us a shout at Locallogy!