Review Response Length and Detail?

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

Hi,

I've always encouraged my clients to respond to reviews and have offered help at times, especially with negative reviews. However, I have some clients interested in me responding to their reviews for them to ensure a timely response to every review. So, I'm considering what would be involved in providing that service. Obviously, the quickest and easiest thing would be to simply post something generic like "Thanks!" or "Thank you for leaving a review. I'm glad you had a great experience. "Requests or negative reviews would require something more specific to the situation and probably involve the client.

However, I got to thinking about whether generic responses like these are really beneficial.

What do you all think?

1. Are generic responses worth doing from an SEO standpoint?

2. Are generic responses worth doing from a customer interaction standpoint?

3. Is it worth taking the time to customize a response either based on the customer's review or even talking with the business owner in situations where they may be personally familiar with the customer/situation?

Is there something I'm missing as I think through this?

Thanks.
Kurt

 

[keyserholiday]

1. No
2. No
3. The goal of the review responses is to show that A. the business cares and to move the conversation offline with the goal to work out the issue and fix the review.

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

1. No
2. No
3. The goal of the review responses is to show that A. the business cares and to move the conversation offline with the goal to work out the issue and fix the review.

Thanks keyserholiday. What about reviews that aren't negative and don't need to be "fixed"?

Kurt

 

[keyserholiday]

If you and I were entering a building at the same time and I opened or held the door for you, what would be the expected reaction? It would be to say thank you. That is the same sentiment to take with positive reviews. Thank them for their feedback and for being a customer.

 

[Tim Colling]

If you and I were entering a building at the same time and I opened or held the door for you, what would be the expected reaction? It would be to say thank you. That is the same sentiment to take with positive reviews. Thank them for their feedback and for being a customer.

Absolutely. And potential new customers look for that sort of courtesy, too!

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

Thanks! It sounds like you are saying that the generic "Thank you for the review." is worth doing then.

 

[keyserholiday]

No, it should be custom tailored to the context of the review. Customers will see through generic replies.

 

[Tim Colling]

No, it should be custom tailored to the context of the review. Customers will see through generic replies.

This ⬆⬆⬆⬆

 

[Teresa Gaunt]

Hi Kurt,

I totally agree with Jason and Tim! It's not meaningful to reviewers or future customers if you're responding generically just to check the box. Responding with the same generic response to positive or negative reviews is almost worst than not responding at all. There's definitely a way that you can do this for your clients, but it won't be super quick and easy.

Responding to customer reviews is what we do at The Respondery, so if you have any other questions about providing review responses for your clients, I would be happy share additional info. Feel free to message me directly.

 

[Kurt Steinbrueck]

That's where I was leaning as well. Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[Brian - TGL]

I always tell the businesses that I work with when replying to a negative review, it's never to try to "win an argument", don't try to lay out the details of what happened to justify anything.

The reply shouldn't try to deflect the negative review, take accountability that you see the review, and let them know who to reach out to and how to see if there is any way to improve the experience.