In this day in age, people are heavily influenced by reviews of companies, products or services. Around 90% of consumers are affected by online reviews.
The interesting thing with Google, is that reviews will also have a direct impact as to how the company or brand is ranked online. This means its essential that you try to get reviews online, but also that you respond to them whether they are positive or negative.
If you haven’t already familiarised yourself with Google reviews, if you search for your business – you will see how you compare with your competitors. If you do find that you have reviews, even if they are older – you need to make sure they are responded to.
In order to do this, you will need to create a Google My Business page and verify your account. Once this is done, you can then check reviews, respond to them – as well as see what your Google rating is.
How to Respond to Reviews
Whether the review is positive or negative, you should always make sure that you respond. They should be professional, even if the review that has been left is less than polite. The reason for this is if someone searches your business – this is one of the first things that they will see. Make sure you carefully craft your respond.
When you are Responding to the reviews – think about the following:
- Try to get back to the review as quickly as possible. It shows that you are listening, and that you care about the customer
- Try to start your response with thanking them for leaving the review
- Personalise your responses – so they acknowledge specific areas of their reviews
- Ask if there is anything else you can do or help them with
- Make sure that you read your response over carefully before submitting it
- If you add in relevant keywords to your response, you can also market different elements of your company
What you should do if the feedback is negative
Unfortunately, sometimes negative feedback does happen. Even if you don’t agree with the feedback, you should make sure you get back to the review as quickly as possible and make sure that you are polite and professional.
Always say sorry, even if you do feel that the review is unjustified, the last thing you want to come across is angry or aggressive. If you think that the review that has been left is inappropriate – make sure you check with Google’s guidelines – as you could be able to report it.
Make sure you take the time to review your response before posting – you don’t want to create a knee-jerk answer due to emotion. After all of this is done, you can then think about whether or not there are any improvements that could be made within your business.
Hopefully, you will now know how to respond to Google reviews in the best way possible.