Replying to Customer Reviews on GMB

[rickvidallon]

I have +50 great reviews which are a mix or current and past reviews. Back when I started doing this Google did not encourage that businesses reply to great reviews; but only to negative ones. In any case I thought it best not to reply to all my positive reviews to prevent long scrolling. (make sense eh?) Or maybe I should; but seems to me to be a little self-serving. Feedback would be appreciated. (Excuse the slow scroll on the video; but I figure I would keep this on hand in case those knuckle-heads at Google lost my reviews. LOL

 

[Ampere]

I never replied to my reviews either. I am going to start doing it, but I wonder if I should go back and reply to the older reviews.

 

[rickvidallon]

I'm still on the fence. Think I would rather have a short scroll since adding replies will make for a much longer scroll for potential customers to see more of my reviews.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Keep in mind that as of last year Google started sending notifications to the reviewer when you reply as the business owner. To me this is an invaluable customer service and retention tool and for that reason we recommend responding to all reviews.

 

[Rich Owings]

What Colan said ^^^

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yep, I also agree with what Colan said

 

[rickvidallon]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It is greatly appreciated.

 

[Ampere]

Keep in mind that as of last year Google started sending notifications to the reviewer when you reply as the business owner. To me this is an invaluable customer service and retention tool and for that reason we recommend responding to all reviews.

Do you mean that we should go back and respond to reviews that are many years old, in order to alert the old customer of our presence and remind them to use our service again?

That's my main question, whether it would be good to reply to the reviews or if it would look petty to do it now.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

It depends. I've seen responding to old reviews work well and have also see them cause more harm than good.

I wouldn't respond to anything that's more than a year old.

 

[Ampere]

It depends. I've seen responding to old reviews work well and have also see them cause more harm than good.

I wouldn't respond to anything that's more than a year old.

Perfect, 1 year it is.

Can I ask what negative things you saw happen? Just curious.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

The worst scenario I saw was when a business responded to a less than favorable review well over a year later and the person who left the review was reminded of the awful service. The response itself wasn't great so it compounded the issue in the reviewers mind.

 

[Brian.Hastie]

To those who send business responses: Do you reply to all reviews, or only those with content in them?

 

[leilamartin]

We respond to the reviews as soon as possible. My feeling is that if they can go to the "effort and take the time " of writing a review, we can respond in turn and make it a genuine response. I know some from years ago we did not respond but we've changed that and make sure we reply

 

[JoyHawkins]

To those who send business responses: Do you reply to all reviews, or only those with content in them?

I only reply to ones with content.

 

[Adam Bament]

With my medical practice, I reply to all reviews ASAP - usually within 24 hours.

Whenever practical, I also personally phone patients who have left a negative review (once I have the back story from staff/doctors). This almost always results in the patient changing their 1 or 2-star review to a 5-star review. It also helps us keep a patient that would have otherwise gone somewhere else, all while dissing us in the process.

I've found that many people, especially Gen Y and younger, view online reviews as live documents to be updated as they feel is necessary.

 

[Ryanl]

I’ve always responded to reviews. I’ve even had customers say they loved that about us. We’re responsive. I think it shows a level of responsibility. I had a bad review that I responded really well to. Had a lady once tell me she called us because of the way I handled that review. She bought!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Whenever practical, I also personally phone patients who have left a negative review (once I have the back story from staff/doctors). This almost always results in the patient changing their 1 or 2-star review to a 5-star review. It also helps us keep a patient that would have otherwise gone somewhere else, all while dissing us in the process.

Lots of our clients do this as well and I definitely think it's something every business owner should do.

 

[BipperMedia]

We respond to all of our reviews as soon as we see them, and I believe this shows great customer service, interaction, and engagement -- not only to the customer who left the review but also to future customers.

We get asked by businesses (especially lawyers) all the time "how should I reply to negative reviews?" and here's our general feedback.

First (as I stated already) I believe every review should be responded to... I believe this helps to build your brand.

Second, when replying to negative reviews, it's important to remember that future customers are also reading - and being influenced by - what you write in response to a negative review. So you have to reply, and when you do, make sure you do it tactfully knowing that future customers will be influenced by your response.

Finally, with replying to negative reviews, we always recommend replying only once -- the initial response -- and then not responding anymore after that. In a lot of cases, your response to a negative review may cause the reviewer to come right back at you... I typically recommend to leave it be after you respond the first time.

I hope that added some value...

 

[Ampere]

Does anyone have a link to a service company that responds to reviews in the right way? The way you recommend? The reason I ask is because I am not very creative and my replies would all look essentially the same, or I would try to "spin" them so they weren't the same, but then that would look weird. There are only so many times you can say "It was a pleasure working for you, anything else that you need let me know" differently lol. So I am just wondering what the best way to do it is.

 

[BipperMedia]

Does anyone have a link to a service company that responds to reviews in the right way? The way you recommend? The reason I ask is because I am not very creative and my replies would all look essentially the same, or I would try to "spin" them so they weren't the same, but then that would look weird. There are only so many times you can say "It was a pleasure working for you, anything else that you need let me know" differently lol. So I am just wondering what the best way to do it is.

I do not want to drop promotional links on this forum... But I do have recommendations for you:

Please email me at: bobby@bippermedia.com

I will refer you to review reply services

Thanks again