YES! You must respond to every review — especially the bad ones!

If you don’t respond to reviews, the impression is that you don’t care about your customers. You need to take the opportunity to turn their experience – and maybe even the review around. Think about how you would have handled this complaint in person. More and more potential customers are reading these reviews before they visit your location.

*Reflect, write and review only when you can think clearly

Write in the offensive instead of the defensive. Even if you lose the reviewer, you want to be able to save or gain new customers with a sincere, compassionate response.

*Be truthful, take accountability and always end on a positive note

Mention all the good things about your business that were in the review. If the service wasn’t great take ownership of it, admit your mistake, apologize and tell them you are taking action to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Always thank them even if it’s just for taking the time to leave the review.

*Short and sincere response

Rambling responses aren’t effective, can sound defensive and can reflect poorly on your business. Short, bullet proof sentences will have the largest impact on readers.

*Call to Action

Ask the reviewer if you can discuss their concerns further either by email or phone so you have the opportunity to resolve. Make sure they understand that you don’t want this bad experience repeated. Ask them to return and give your business another chance to provide a better customer experience… Maybe even offer an incentive to return ie: discount, gift card.

Customer experience is everything in any business and you want to make sure everyone who reads the review knows how much you value every experience.

If you are seeing more negative than positive reviews maybe it’s time to hire The Hart Experience to give you a Fresh Perspective on your customer experiences. We provide mystery shops / assessments and customer service training for all businesses.

Contact Debbie Hart: Debbie@thehartexperience.com 602.717.3271 www.thehartexperience.com