Client reviews

Businesses: How To Respond Effectively To Customer Reviews?

Ouch! Has anyone left a negative opinion  on your business? Or are you not sure you’re following  good  practices when responding to a customer? This article is for you!

respond negative comment

Responding to a positive opinion, easy?

Let’s start at the beginning. Responding to a positive opinion… there doesn’t seem to be anything simpler! A thank you will suffice! It will then be very interesting to publish this review on your website, your social networks, but also to have it viralized by the contributor himself.

In reality, there are still some rules and standards to follow as a professional:

  1. Be polite  and courteous, your customer will always appreciate it.
  2. Thank the author for leaving his opinion: a minority of users leave customer reviews. Yet they are undeniably useful to you! So encourage good practice sets in your customers.
  3. Sign your answer. It’s important for the client to know who he’s dealing with.
  4. Possibly offer an advantage to encourage him to come back: a discount for example.
  5. Take care of your spelling and syntax!

It is possible, with the I Feedback Now software to program responses-types. Here is an example of a response that meets the criteria set out above, which you can automate.

“Hello, we have received your opinion of …/…/2019 at 13:19 in [place] and thank you for that. This one will be analyzed by our teams. [Your company] attaches great importance to customer satisfaction. We are in the process of implementing [such improvements] on our sites. So we hope to see you again soon at [your company]! “Mr. XXX, salesman of [your company]”

Respond to a negative comment

The first thing to point out is this: you don’t want to ignore a negative review. It’s the opposite. If you’re responsive:

  1. You reduce the risk of “scandal” on social networks.
  2. You turn this negative review into a marketing asset.
  3. You identify and correct your weaknesses.

So what are the missteps  to avoid especially in your customer response?

  1. Don’t apologize: it’s still the least of it. If you don’t, the customer will blame you, or at least he won’t come back!
  2. Don’t thank the customer: whether the review is positive or negative, it is essential to thank your customer!
  3. Don’t be polite: be careful not to react hot, it can only be counterproductive! Only answer when you are calm.
  4. Don’t encourage the customer to come back: the customer may not be lost, offer him solutions and he will come back!

In general, is a simple answer enough?

It is also best to show that you have a concrete and quick solution to offer. You have to listen to your client, of course, but also react! 

I Feedback Now offers you, upon receiving a notice, to assign a task very quickly to a collaborator and then follow it and measure its execution:

  • For example, having a very disgruntled customer call back to offer improvements, or apologize directly.
  • Or, conversely, share a positive opinion within your team or on social networks!

What about standard messages?

If we’ve seen that standard messages adapt well to positive responses, it’s not wise to use them for very negative reviews. Indeed, put yourself in the shoes of an angry customer. Do you want to receive a message that seems clearly automated and doesn’t offer you a tailor-made solution? Definitely not!

So don’t hesitate to invest   time  to  safeguard  your online reputation!  Be personal and responsive.

Also keep in mind that setting up a systematic review collection tool will generate between 100 and 500 times more reviews than waiting for spontaneous publications on various sites and networks.I Feedback Now gives you all the tools to best manage your customer responses in your satisfaction surveys! Contact us  to find out more or ask for a quick demo!