Building a loyal customer base means that you have to engage with your customers online. You have to respond to their online reviews , both good and bad ones. Doing so will show them that your company is serious, responsible, and caring.
If you are responsible for your company’s presence online, you have to be able to respond properly to both negative and positive reviews. To learn how to do that, follow the following rules.
1. Keep Your Responses Authentic
Do not use generic responses, ever.
Sounding like a chatbot or thoughtless office drone will make your customers feel like you don’t care about them, or their business.
Engage with the things the reviewer wrote and give them thoughtful, personalized responses. You do not have to write a lengthy response every time, but you should always address something the customer said specifically. Also, try not to sound like a sales person.
A customer review is not the place to make sales, and trying to makes you sound thoughtless and shallow.
2. Respond to Positive Online Reviews as Well as Negative Ones
You obviously need to respond to negative reviews, to control the damage they can do. It can be tempting, because of this, to ignore the positive ones, bu this would be a mistake.
For one thing, responding to customers who say nice things encourages other people to leave positive reviews.
For another, you can put your company’s name and address in the responses, as well as keywords related to the subject of the review.
This will make search engines place positive reviews more high up than the negative ones, making them more visible to prospective customers.
3. Be Polite and Sympathetic
Your responses should always be polite, no matter how rude the reviewer is. This shows readers that your company is reasonable and mature.
Your responses to negative reviews should also demonstrate sympathy, which will help the reviewer feel like they are valued and that their concerns were taken seriously.
4. Respond to Online Reviews Quickly
When it comes to negative reviews, you must make a response within twenty-four hours.
You have a little more leeway with positive reviews, but even with those, you should try not to wait more than forty-eight hours before responding.
Taking too long to respond tells people that your company does not care about its customers.
5. Offer to Make Things Right
Offer to make everything right for the customer leaving a bad review, even if he or she is a little unreasonable.
If they claim to have received a defective product, send them a replacement.
If they complain about your company’s customer service, offer them a discount on a future purchase.
If you go the extra mile for your customers, you gain a lot more in good reputation than you lose in money and time.
6. Deal with False Online Bad Reviews
Dishonest customers will sometimes give your company false bad reviews to extort free gifts.
If you know for a fact that a bad review is false, then it is appropriate to say so. Stay polite when you do.
Being polite and factual will show potential customers who is acting more reasonably.
The Takeaway
Most people rely on online reviews when making purchases. Your responses, to positive and negative reviews alike, will be the first experience many people will have with your company. Make sure it is a good one.
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