As a small business owner, responding to online reviews can be overwhelming. You have to keep up with reviews all over the web take time to craft thoughtful and sincere reviews that reflect well on your business.
Every customer is different, and every situation is different. Your approach to responding to a 5-Star review is much different from responding to a 2-Star review.
While it may feel cumbersome, responding to reviews is essential. 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as they would trust a personal recommendation. 72% of consumers indicate they use Google Reviews to find local businesses. Lastly, 94% of consumers have avoided a local company because of a bad review.
What is your first line of defense for your online reputation? It’s what happens in your store, of course. Quality customer service and a focus on excellent customer experiences come first. But even the very best businesses receive negative reviews. Sometimes those reviews are even quite unfair!
But, as a small business owner, that is out of our control. Focusing on what we can control is most important. What you can control is your last line of defense for your online reputation. Your last line of defense is your response to a negative review, and it is much more impactful than you may realize.
Then there’s responding to positive reviews. Why respond to positive reviews? Because 70% of people say a response from the owner makes them more likely to trust the business. It demonstrates the extra effort and appreciation you have for your customers. And as a bonus, it may help with your visibility in Google too!
To take the guesswork out of responses, New Media Retailer provides two great solutions.
Monthly Report of Reviews – Delivered to Your Inbox
First, our Google Business Profile Management service sends you a monthly report of your reviews. You no longer have to comb through the web to find where customers have left reviews. The best part? Our tool allows you to respond to Facebook and Google reviews directly through the platform. No more logging in and out of different accounts.
List of Suggested Responses
Second, here is a list of suggested responses that will remove your guesswork and help you create the best online reputation possible. Please copy and paste the answers below based on which response works best for each scenario. Use these responses as often as possible!
Online Review Response Templates
5-Star Reviews
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave us a 5-star rating – it’s much appreciated!
Thanks for the 5-star review [Customer Name]!
Thank you so much for this 5-star review. We really appreciate you being a customer at our store and helping to share the word about us!
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave an excellent rating. We really appreciate your business. Please let us know anything further we can do for you in the future.
We really appreciate you taking the time to share your rating with us. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us. We hope to see you again soon.”
Hello! We’re so grateful that you took the time to share your feedback with us. It’s our pleasure to serve customers like you. Have a wonderful day!
Hi there, t’s great to hear that you had such a positive experience shopping at our store. Our team will be happy to hear that their hard work has paid off! If there’s anything we can do to serve you further, let us know.
Hello – I’m so happy to hear that our team provided you with excellent service. I’ll make sure that they receive your feedback. I’m sure it will make their day! Thanks for sharing with us.
Hi, your comments have been shared with our entire team at our store. When we hear from happy customers like you, we spread the feedback around! Hope to have the opportunity to serve you again soon. Thanks so much for choosing our store and for taking the time to leave a positive review.
4-Star Reviews
Thank you for your review. We will share this with the store team to let them know how we are doing.
We are grateful that you took the time out to leave us a review. Your feedback helps us to improve service for everyone.
We really appreciate you taking the time to share your rating with us. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Thank you so much for this review. We really appreciate you being a customer. We’re here for you anytime.
Thank you for taking the time to review your trip to our store. I’m so glad to hear that your experience was a positive one. If there are any specific areas where we can improve upon during your next visit, please do let us know as feedback is always welcome.
Thank you [Customer Name] for your review, we’re so glad to hear that you enjoyed your visit to our store and found our staff helpful.
We are happy to hear you had a positive experience at our store! We value your input and encourage you to let us know more details about your experience with us the next time you stop by.
Thank you so much for your positive rating for your recent visit to our store.
Thanks so much for giving us your take on how we are doing. We’re glad that customers like you are having a great experience and care enough to take the time to let us know how we are doing.
On behalf us all of us, I would like to thank you for sharing your review about our store! We are welcome your feedback and are always striving to improve our customer experiences.
3-Star Reviews
Dear [CUSTOMER NAME], thanks for your review. We would love to hear more about your experience, so that we can use your valuable feedback to deliver an even better experience next time. Please reach out to us with any further comments or suggestions you wish to share. Again, thank you for taking the time to review our business!
Dear [CUSTOMER NAME], thanks for taking the time to leave us a review. Sorry, we did not fully meet your expectations, but we’d like the opportunity to improve your experience. Give us a call and ask for management so we can understand how we could improve your experience for next time!
Dear [CUSTOMER NAME], thanks for leaving us a review. Your satisfaction is important to us and we look forward to getting this resolved for you quickly! Please give us a call at your earliest convenience to discuss more how we can improve your experience.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share your opinions, they mean so much to us. We are so happy to hear that you [insert positive]. However, we are sorry to learn about [insert negative], as this is not our usual service. To fix this, it would be great if you could drop us an email or call us. Thank you again for your feedback, and we look forward to seeing you again.
Dear [Name], Thank you so much for your review. Every customer’s opinion matters to us as we are continually striving to improve our service. We would be even more grateful if you could contact us to let us know what we could do to make your experience better. Have a great day!
Poor Reviews: 2-Star & 1-Star Responses
We’re so very sorry you feel your recent experience with us was anything less than ideal, but do seriously appreciate your feedback. I assure you this is not the level of service we strive to provide here at our store and will take considerable measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We would love to speak to you directly and see if we can provide you a 5-star level of service from now forward. Please contact us directly and ask for our [INSERT – Owner, GM, Store Manager].
Hello [CUSTOMER NAME], thank you for your review. I’m sorry to hear you had a frustrating experience, but I really appreciate you bringing this issue to our attention.
Hi [CUSTOMER NAME], thank you for bringing this to our attention. We’re sorry you had a bad experience. We’ll strive to do better.
Thank you for letting us know about this, [CUSTOMER NAME]. Your feedback helps us do better. We are looking into this issue and hope to resolve it promptly and accurately.
Hi [CUSTOMER NAME], we set a high standard for ourselves, and we’re so sorry to hear this was not met in your interaction with our business.
Hi [CUSTOMER NAME], we apologize that our service did not satisfy your expectations. Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback.
I’m so sorry. We’re normally known for our exceptional products and customer service, and we regret that we missed the mark on this occasion. Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback about your experience.
We always aim to deliver a great experience, and we are sorry when expectations aren’t met. Thanks for taking the time to bring this to our attention. We will use the feedback to make us better and to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Thank you for posting a review and we’re sorry to hear that your experience was not up to standards. We would like the opportunity to talk and investigate your feedback further. Please give us a call at your earliest convenience.
We are sorry that your experience at our store didn’t quite match your expectations. We would love to better understand why, so that we can deliver a better experience next time. You may reach us anytime at [Email Address] or [Phone Number]. Again, thank you for your feedback!