Welcome to another episode of WebPunch’s Online Reputation Management School. I’m Matt Jones, your teacher, and today we’re going to be discussing how to respond to positive reviews. A lot of people ask us, “Well, I understand why I need to address negative reviews but why should I respond to positive reviews?” We’re going to give you some good reasons. We’ve got those covered up with our paper because we know a lot of you rascals like to sneak ahead.
The first reason that you should respond is that these people are your promoters. WebPunch uses a system called the Net Promoter Score (NPS) system which is a way for evaluating customer feedback. In a net promoter score nomenclature, promoters are people who’ve rated your business a 9 or 10 out of a possible 10. These are people who love you and they’ve taken the time to go out and tell the world.
Let’s recognize them. These people are important because they’re more likely to be repeat customers.
Another reason why they’re so important is they’re more likely to refer their friends and family to your business.
These people are less likely to tie up your customer service channels and resources. They’re not going to be calling asking for refunds. They’re not going to be calling with complaints. They’ve already got smiles on their faces and they aren’t going to take your time and money trying to resolve those issues.
When you respond in the positive and negative reviews, Google recognizes that you’re taking the time to connect with that client. They want that personal interaction that companies can have with customers. Having positive responses and negative responses to these reviews is going to help your SEO. It’s going to help that search engine optimization. It’s going to help you get in front of potential customers who are looking for businesses like yourself.
What should you say when you’re responding to these positive reviews? First, we want to address the customer by their name. Let’s keep it as personal as possible.
Second, we want to show gratitude for that customer. Again, they took time out of their busy day. Everyone’s busy in this world. They took time to write and express their gratitude and tell everyone how happy they were with your company. Make sure that those customers feel that they are the bread and butter of your company, that you love them, that you’re grateful for them, and just really make them understand that you couldn’t survive without customers like themselves.
Listen. It’s important that you include details in their review in your response. Make sure that it doesn’t seem canned. Make sure it doesn’t seem automatic. We want them to know that you’re listening to what they’re saying and that you really appreciate them. Again, make sure that they feel that gratitude for their patronage.
Be authentic. Every year my insurance agent, Paulie H., wherever you are out there remember to maybe change this up a little bit, that guy sends me a card that is automated. It doesn’t have any personal details. It doesn’t show that he’s listened to any conversations we’ve had in the past. It’s really impersonal. When you’re not authentic, it really shows. Again, it’s almost worth not doing if you’re not authentic, so make sure that you include details and that you’re being real with that customer.
Recognize. When you have someone who’s been recognized and there’s a team member who’s been mentioned in that review, take the time to tell that reviewer that you’re going to tell your team member what a great job they did. It’s a great way to show the world that you’re grateful for your team and that when they do good work that you respond and show that gratitude to the world.
When you’re finished doing your response, invite them to come back. There might be a promotion that you have coming up or something that might be changing with your business that is applicable to that client. Invite them to come back and do business with you in the future.
These are the whys and the hows on how to respond to positive reviews. I’m Matt Jones with WebPunch. We’ll help you knock out your competition one review at a time.
