Collecting online reviews is very important for your business but mere collection of reviews won’t do any major good to your business. The way you respond to the reviews influences the purchasing decisions of potential and returning customers. Responding to your customers’ reviews indicates that you are professional and value customer’s opinions. It helps in increasing your visibility and enhancing customer relationships. 

Framing an ideal response is not easy. There are different types of reviews and each requires special attention and brainstorming. Managing your reviews on Google should be the top priority because it is the leading search engine. Especially if your business is locally based then you must optimize and manage your Google reviews. 

In this article, we’ll explore why are online reviews important for your brand, ways of responding to different types of reviews, and how to identity 

Why are online reviews important for your brand?

Online reviews help in boosting your business in various ways. It plays an important role in shaping the reputation of your brand and influencing the purchase decisions of potential customers. With the sudden influx of social media, search engines, review platforms, customers have access to all types of information related to your business. This influences their purchase decisions as they don’t want to waste their money and time. In such a scenario, reviews build trust and credibility in users and ensure a quality standard for them. According to a study, a single negative review has the potential of deterring 22% of your potential customers at the same time, 72% of customers stated that a positive review makes them trust the brand more easily. Let us learn more about the importance of online reviews for your brand 

• Attract potential customers: Customers trust online reviews like personal recommendations. According to a study, 88% of customers stated that they trust a review as much as they trust personal recommendations. Also according to Brightlocal customers read at least ten reviews to trust a brand. 57% of customers stated that they will consider a brand only if it is 4 rated or above. For these reasons, it is important to respond to a review professionally and gently so that you can attract more customers. 
• Enhance local SEO: According to Moz, reviews are the second most important factor for enhancing your search engine rank. For this very reason review management plays an important role in enhancing seo. Let us understand with the help of an example. Let’s assume you want to go to a nice local Chinese restaurant. You make a Google search for it. Initially, Google would recommend restaurant A to you because it was close to your present location. Now if restaurant B has more positive reviews and ratings, then Google would recommend restaurant B even if you have to walk a few miles more. Reviews enhance your local online visibility and enhance local SEO. 
• Build trust: More positive reviews and reviews in general, help in building trust and increase the confidence of your customers. 
• Increase conversions: Reviews influence the purchasing decisions of your customers. The way you respond to a review reflects your values and professionalism. It influences potential customers to make a purchase. 
• Enhance visibility: Reviews on platforms such as Google Reviews and Yelp help in enhancing your visibility, especially the local search visibility. 
• Improve reputation: A high quantity of reviews highlights that customers like to interact with your brand. Also responding to the reviews indicates that you value your customer’s opinions and care about them. It also eliminates negative reviews and helps in building a good reputation for your business. 
• Provide useful insights and information: 
• SEO: High quantity and quality of reviews can enhance SEO and online visibility. 
• Influence purchasing decisions: Customers value reviews and before making a purchase they read at least 10 reviews. Reviews help in influencing the purchasing decisions of customers. 
• Increase engagement: Responding to reviews helps in building strong customer relationships. It establishes trust and loyalty. It also increases your engagement rate. 
• Competitive advantage: The brand that has more reviews, especially the positive reviews has a competitive advantage over the competitors. 
• Enhance customer satisfaction: Review helps in understanding the customer’s concerns, pain points, and expectations. It allows you to respond to those queries and perform better than their expectations. 
• Boost revenue: More positive reviews build a strong brand identity and drive more revenue. 
• Helps in identifying strengths and weaknesses: Reviews provide you with information about your brand and its products and services. It highlights the strengths of your brand and product and the areas of improvement. You have the opportunity to enhance your product and services based on these recommendations. 

How to respond to different types of online reviews

Let us learn some of the ways to respond to different types of reviews 

Responding to positive reviews

Many companies forget or don’t respond to positive reviews elaborately. Many reviewers simply respond to them by saying Thank You. Responding to a positive review is important for building customer loyalty and trust. Responding to a positive review with more elaboration would encourage the reviewer to come back because they feel delighted and special. Here are some of how you can respond to positive reviews 

• Personalization: Start your response with a perfect start. Don’t hesitate and just say thank you. Instead clearly appreciate the customer who has taken time out of their busy schedule to leave a review for you. Make them feel special and valued. Try to personalize the message by adding their name and other relevant information. 
• Greet: Greet the customer nicely and invite them to visit again. Don’t just provide basic information or thank you. Greet them properly and then begin with your information. 
• Follow-up: Send a follow-up email to them. You can offer some incentives to them such as discounts, freebies access to exclusive content, etc. 
• Respond quickly: Don’t be late by 24 hours. Always reply within the first 20-30 minutes. Late responses show your casual and unappreciated approach towards the customer. 
• Adapt to every review: Each review is different from another. Adapt your tone to every review based on the language used by the customer. A casual or humorous review can receive a humorous response. Similarly, if a customer uses a formal tone, you must reply in a formal tone. 
• Short response: Make sure your response is short, simple, and crisp. Don’t add irrelevant details or information. 

Responding to negative reviews

No business or company exists where there are no negative reviews. Each business and brand faces a similar issue of negative reviews. Responding to negative reviews is very important because it helps in building your brand’s reputation and customer relationships. You can simply respond to them by providing basic information or turn them into positive comments or reviews. Here are some of the tips that you can use while responding to negative reviews. 

• Take criticism positively: The golden rule that you should follow while responding to negative reviews is to be polite. Never respond to negative reviews with negativity. It will cause irreversible damage to the brand’s reputation. Also, your responses are public and everyone can read them so be careful while responding to such reviews. Even if the situation is frustrating and upsetting, remain calm and composed. Behave professionally and provide solutions to them. It shows to your customers that you are open to different opinions and criticism. 
• Respond on time: Never be late in responding to negative comments. These comments mostly exist due to inconvenience caused, poor experience, or poor quality of products and services. Make sure you respond on time so that by providing relevant information on time you can turn the negative review into a positive. According to a study, 53% of customers expect businesses to respond to a negative review within a week. 
• Greet: In some cases, the customer may have used a rude tone but you must remain calm and patient. Start your message with a greeting and thank them for reaching out to you. Ensure them that their problem or issue will be resolved. 
• Admit mistakes: Don’t try to unnecessarily justify your mistakes. Admit your mistakes and apologize to the customer. Make sure you provide some incentives to them such as a new product, free trial, coupon code, etc. Ensure them that you won’t repeat your mistakes and invite them to visit you again. 
• Provide solution: Provide solutions and relevant information to the customer so that their issue is resolved. There are various ways of providing information such as calling, emailing, and responding to reviews. In case you resolve the issue on call, request the user to delete their comment. 
• Don’t take offense: Don’t be offensive in your tone. Be polite and humble. Maintain professionalism and try to calm the customer down. Carefully listen to them and provide solutions. 
• Provide communication channels: Provide multiple ways to communicate such as calls, email, etc to the customer. In case the customer has a technical issue or needs special attention you can offer them a phone call. So that your issues are resolved on top priority. You have a more in-depth conversation with the customer on a phone call. It also hides the public display of conflict and allows you to understand their problems more personally so that you can provide in-depth information to them. 
• Ask for a second chance: Always ask for a second chance from the customer. Try using incentives and guarantee them that you will provide a smooth experience next time. 

Responding to fake reviews 

Whenever you feel that a review is fake, the first thing you should do is to ensure that it is a fake review by observing these elements. Once you are assured that the review is fake make sure you report it and remove it from the platforms. However many of the review platforms don’t delete the review until and unless you the reviewer break the rules of the platforms or is spam. So in such a scenario, you can respond to fake reviews in the following manner

• Don’t be rude: Even if you assume the review to be fake, be gentle and calm. There are chances that other people might not consider it fake and judge you on your response. So try to remain calm and innovative while responding to the comment. 
• Ensure it’s fake: If you feel the review is fake then collect some evidence for your argument. Include that evidence in your response because it is easy to argue with facts and logic. 
• Highlight the causal or irrelevant information given in the fake review: Highlight such elements so that your other customers understand the irrelevance of the comment and ignore it. 

Things to avoid in your response

Here are some of the things that you should avoid in your response

• Writing an extremely long response
• Don’t be defensive in tone 
• Don’t provide too much information or excuses for the mistake
• Don’t provide irrelevant information 
• Don’t be authoritative or stubborn in your response. Don’t try to prove a point 
• Don’t indulge or start a fight 
• Don’t encourage your customers to counter-responses, especially in an attacking manner 
• Don’t be too vague as if you don’t care about them or their reviews 
• Never respond late, always respond on time 

Responding to the reviews sets a tone for your reviews and brand identity. For example, when you respond to a negative review it highlights the professional attitude of your company. Reviews are very important for your business because they increase conversion rate and engagement rates. It builds brand identity and customer loyalty. It enhances your SEO and local search visibility and much more. Responding to these reviews is equally important so that your customers keep getting back to you. Also, it minimizes the negative reviews. Managing reviews and online mentions is complicated. Lumia 360 has Review Management Software that manages and monitors your online mentions and reviews in one platform. It also generates special reports for you and enhances your search engine ranking. To know more about our software email us at info@lumia360.com or call us at 514-668-5599. You can also visit our website for more information. 

Read Also: The Power Of Storytelling in Web Design

Read Also: Psychology of Slogans and Tagline

• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube
• X
• Pinterest