The 6 Customer Review Response Templates You Need for Reputation Management
Customers regularly seek out reviews and use them when deciding whether or not to visit a business. If you want to present the trust signals customers crave, your business needs to focus on both gathering and responding to customer reviews.
Responding to reviews is how you show customers you are listening, address concerns customers might have, and thank loyal customers for sharing their thoughts.
If you don’t have a process for responding to customer reviews, here are a few steps to take and templates to use to start building a reputation management strategy for your business.
How to Create a Process For Responding to Customer Reviews
Follow these steps to create a process for responding to public reviews about your business.
#1) Assign an owner. The worst thing you can do with reviews is let them go unnoticed. To prevent the issue of overlooking responding to comments, assign an owner to the task. Provide clear directions on how to respond and how often to check in on comments and provide responses.
Related: How to Get Customer Reviews and Why Every Business Must Have Them
#2) Create response templates. To make it easier to respond to comments in a timely fashion, be prepared. Create a variety of response templates that you can pull from. Create buckets of responses based on the different types of reviews you might receive (for example, create responses for a 5-star glowing review, a middle-of-the-road 3-star review, and a 1-star unhappy customer review, etc.).
#3) Customize each response. While templates are helpful for speeding up your process for responding to reviews, you shouldn’t simply copy and paste your responses. Instead, take a few minutes to tweak each response so it doesn’t seem as though bots are responding. Mention details from the review in your response to show that a real person on your team is listening to the feedback.
Related: Google Reviews Not Showing Up? 6 Reasons & How to Fix It
#4) Promote your reviews. Reviews don’t only need to live on the platform where they were posted. Pull great reviews and use the quotes or screenshots to post on your website or social media. Take lines from reviews to use as testimonials and pull quotes for case studies.
#5) Use reviews for internal feedback. Reviews are great for building trust between customers and your business. They are also useful for improving your business. Use reviews as a way to identify places where you may need to improve your operations, products, or services to better please customers. Create a process for reading reviews to identify trends and areas where your business could improve.
Related: Effectively Using Google Business Profiles for Multi-Location Brands
6 Customer Review Response Templates
To help you put a process in place for responding to reviews, use these templates to start building a library of responses. Start with these responses and continue to build out other responses for a variety of uses.
And remember -- don’t copy and paste the exact copy. Always add an element of personalization to each response.
For the 5-Star Review
The review was great, but the customer didn’t leave a note. Don't ignore it. Write a quick thank you to show your appreciation.
Hi [Customer Name],
We’re glad to hear you had a 5-star experience! Thanks for sharing your feedback and letting others know you had an excellent visit.
We look forward to serving you again!
For the 5-Star Review with a Comment
The review was great, and the customer let you know what they loved about their experience. Thank them and specifically comment on what they enjoyed about their visit.
Hi [Customer Name],
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. We’re happy to hear you had a 5-star experience and that you loved [insert detail].
We look forward to serving you again.
The “Great But” Review
The review was positive. The guest had an overall good experience, but they included details about part of the visit that didn’t meet their expectations or standards. Thank them for the review, and let them know you’re listening.
Hi [Customer Name],
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. We value your input and love to hear from our customers. We’re happy you had an overall positive experience, but are sorry about [Issue].
Your feedback is helping our team improve so thanks again for letting us know about your experience.
We look forward to serving you again.
For the Detailed, Balanced Review
Most reviews are extremely positive or extremely negative. But occasionally a review will come in from an influencer or professional reviewer who will leave a detailed account of their visit with a list of both pros and cons. Because this reviewer put time into their comment, also put time into your response.
Hi [Customer Name],
Thanks for visiting [Business Name] and sharing your experience. We loved to read your detailed review about the pros and cons of your visit.
We’re glad you liked [Insert Details].
Thanks for highlighting things we could do better. Your thoughts about [Insert Details] help our team improve, so thanks again for letting us know about your experience.
We look forward to serving you again.
For the 1-Star Review
The review doesn’t include any information. It simply gives your business a one-star rating with no explanation. Address the comment by seeking out more information. You can’t resolve the issue if you don’t know what the issue is.
Hi [Customer Name],
Thanks for sharing your feedback. We want all of our customers to have a great experience, so we are sorry if we didn’t meet your expectations.
We’d love to know more about your experience to find out how we could improve to do better. If you are willing to share more details about your experience, please contact our management team at [Email Address or Link to Contact Form].
We look forward to learning more and working to make things right.
For the 1-Star Review with a Comment
The review was bad, and it included specific details about the experience. In this case, you can see the issue that led to the negative review and offer an option to create a possible resolution.
Hi [Customer Name],
Thanks for sharing your feedback. We want all of our customers to have a great experience, so we are sorry we didn’t meet your expectations.
We would like to assist you in making things right.
Please contact our management team at [Email Address or Link to Contact Form]. We’d like to talk to you about what occurred and how we could offer a resolution that would meet your expectations.
We look forward to talking and working to make things right.
Get More Help With Reputation Management
Reviews are good for business.
Even if reviews have a mix of good and bad comments, they signal to customers that you have an authentic, trustworthy business. To make your reviews even more engaging, create a response process that shows customers you are listening to their feedback and interested in their experience.
Use these tips and templates to create a review response process that helps build your reputation and show customers that you care.
If you need help building a process for review responses and other reputation management, MyArea Network is here to help. Contact us to talk about our reputation management tools that can help you quickly respond to all mentions of your brand online.
