How to Respond to Online Reviews

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. Think about that and you will do things differently"

-Warren Buffett

by Nathan Gawlik
Nathan Gawlik's experience includes being a General Manager of a Hampton Inn and other front line roles such as a Banquet Captain, Front Desk Agent, Housekeeper, Catering Event Manager, and Director of Sales.

How to Respond to Online Reviews

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. Think about that and you will do things differently"

-Warren Buffett.

By Nathan Gawlik

In the world of online review sites, reputation management is extremely important. Anything posted online can live there forever and often influences buyer behavior greatly.

Consider Your Audience

When responding to a review online, consider your audience. You aren't writing to the person that wrote the review; oftentimes they won't bother to come back and read your response. You are writing to the online audience. Put your best foot forward. The people searching review sites are trying to get a feel for your customer service.

They just want to ensure that you are a suitable host. As is the case with all advice, it only works if you apply it. I would recommend writing out and deciding on your own reputation strategy, with just a few bullet points. This way your message remains uniform but also helps you in a pinch when you don't know how to respond.

Some brands use catchy acronyms to help with this like FACT, ILEAD, & HEART. These are general guidelines that can be applied to review response or service recovery situations.

Friendly
Authentic
Caring
Thoughtful

Identify
Listen
Empathize
Apologize
Deliver

Hear
Empathize
Apologize
Respond
Thank

guidelines for service recovery situations

Strategize

Here are some tried and true suggestions you can add to your strategy.

1. Place reviews and critiques on your website: properties that decide not to feature their star ratings or reviews run the risk of losing business to other properties that do. Buyer confidence can be the difference in getting a sale or not. It works for a ton of retailers on Amazon, I'm sure it can work for you.

2. Champion terrible reviews: I always visualize negative feedback as customer coaching. They are yelling at you because they want you to be better. Consider it a challenge - not only to take their constructive criticism and make real change if it is due but also to kill them with kindness during your reply. Plus, don't think it's all over; 96% of customers who post a negative review will continue to purchase from that business if it resolves their complaint.

3. Keep a copy of your responses: If you write out and categorize your most common responses, then you will have to do less writing for similar circumstances. I had a generic response to just about any situation. This really saved time and energy on getting the responses out quickly. I've included my example below.

4. Promote your property: TripAdvisor offers cards you can purchase to help promote your property, though you can make your own. Handing something to guests as they depart reminds them later to leave their feedback and gives them your preferred method to do so. Likewise, verbally suggest leaving a review as guests depart and ask that they promote items that don't get a lot of mentions. This will give readers a fuller picture of your property. If you're really proud of your eggs benedict, for example, be sure to bring that up with guests and if you get a positive in-person response, suggest that they promote it online. There is nothing wrong with asking for feedback. TripAdvisor and Google Reviews are the most common.

5. Proofread: I can't stress the importance of reputation management enough. There is no telling just how many people may come across your review in their buying decision. Sloppy, overly aggressive, misleading or grammatically incorrect information likely won't lead to a new customer.

6. Include Your Contact Information: This serves two functions. First, it gives the reviewer a way to move the conversation off the public forum and privately vent their frustrations or concerns. Secondly, it gives other readers a way to reach you and potentially book directly with you. I've provided an example below.

Lastly, customers are going to leave reviews regardless of whether or not you respond to them. Responding helps build relationships with customers, contributes to a stronger reputation, and helps out with your Search Engine Optimization - especially when you mention your business name. I strongly suggest that you respond to all reviews - not just the bad ones. Businesses with a higher online rating can demand higher prices.

Check out this video here for supplemental information.

Review Response Example Template

Dear X, [use their name or "Valued Guest"]

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience on [insert review site] & [provide personalized statement if you have one to let them know you're listening]. We love to hear how we're doing and more importantly how we can be better. Our goal is perfection and comments like yours help us achieve that. We noticed that some of our scores were not as high as they could be. If there is anything I can do to rectify this on your previous stay or on any upcoming stay please email or call me directly.

[insert context referring directly to any comments they have made. Personalize the message]

Thanks again for writing your review and we hope to see you again soon. Please feel free to ask for me during your next stay with us. I would love to greet you in person and ensure your stay is nothing short of exceptional.

Sincerely,
[contact information]

Tough Ones
So what about those really bad reviews, the tough ones that can be emotionally charged? Perhaps someone was hurt during their stay or someone is defaming you personally online.

Well there is hope. Oftentimes, you can reach out to the site administrator and ask that the review be taken down. Typically, you will need to explain that it isn't relevant or honest or that it is outright slanderous. Don't respond to these reviews and add fuel to the fire if you can avoid it.

If, however, the review can't be taken down, it should be dealt with cautiously. Avoid polarizing language that can invoke the fight or flight response. Don't speak in absolutes, but do try to move the conversation offline. Validate the feedback and appeal to the person on a human level. If you can take the moral high road, it will help your image.

Realize that they aren't attacking you personally but that they are mad at the situation and likely wrote their review when they were highly emotional. Offer to resolve their problem and meet them where they are. Don't provide too many details in the public forum of the type of compensation you will be offering. Doing so can open the floodgates for people trying to take advantage of you. If they can't be won over, understand that you can't be all things to all people.

Below is an exchange between a guest that stayed in a vacation rental, about $400 a night, and my former General Manager over email.

In this case, the guest was so upset that they took it to the local visitors association, immediately ratcheting up the intensity and sincere need for a poignant response.

I wanted to let you know what happened at [omitted property name]. Dave and I have traveled all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, and numerous places on other continents. I have been doing this since the age of about 13 and Dave for almost that long. Our experience at [omitted property name] was the worst we have had.

When we arrived, we called about the patio screen door not closing. We were told that someone would come shortly to fix this. It never happened. A cat who apparently lived in our chalet came inside as we were going in and out – the cat stayed on the patio permanently, so we could never open that door.

The confirmed, in writing, reservation was ADA accommodation fragrance free for breathing issues which were health risks for two of us. The chalet was fragranced. I finally found the source and called the front desk. I could remove the fragrance emitter, but could not air out the building. Nothing was done. I also found that all bedding, throws, pillow covers etc other than the sheets had been laundered in a very, very highly fragranced laundry soap. Nothing was done.

We had a very serious medical problem at 2:00 AM – possibly caused by [omitted property name]. I called the 24 hour emergency number for [omitted property name]. No one answered the phone. I called 911. Response time was 30 minutes. The ambulance and paramedics could not find the chalet. I repeatedly called the [omitted property name] emergency number. No response.

The house numbers were awkwardly placed and outside the range of exterior lighting. After repeated 911 calls with the dispatcher trying to find us, the paramedics finally found us by a car license plate. A reachable [omitted property name] person could have directed the paramedics to our chalet. By this time, we were dealing with unknown and potentially life threatening injuries, shock and severe pain – none of us has any knowledge of emergency medical care. There were significant injuries.

Unfortunately, and of great concern to all of us, there was no hospital bed available in the nearby town. We were told by the ER doctor to transport back to home at once. The ONLY [omitted property name] response before we all left was to send a retired deputy sheriff, part time resort employee, to take an "incident report" from us. We were all almost sleepless – I was dealing with my respiratory issues - still up at 2:00 AM trying to decide how much I could overdose on medications – focused on the injured person, operating on adrenalin. The deputy sheriff was polite and focused on name, address, birthdate, what caused the problem.

The only response other than this was a standard e-mail from [omitted property name] today asking us to tell them about how much we had enjoyed our stay. No concern was ever expressed about anything other than that no one answered the 24 hour [omitted property name] emergency number.

As a much lesser issue, we found issues with the front desk employees. The person who "handled" checking out was surly because there had been serious problems.

To say that I am shocked and disgusted and unable to comprehend this behavior is a really big understatement.

I would appreciate you contacting the senior management at the property to answer three questions:

Why did [omitted property name] lie to us about the ADA accommodation?

Why was [omitted property name] entirely unresponsive to concerns?

Why was an nonfunctional emergency number listed? Why was there no concern whatsoever for a serious medical problem?

We are all obviously upset about this on so many levels. As I said, this was one of our worst experiences. We all love the area and really wanted to find a place to stay on a regular basis. [omitted property name] certainly changed our perception of the entire region.

Thank you for trying.

Cindy

The General Managers Response:

Dear Ms. Raymond,

I regret that you had a number of unfortunate experiences during your recent visit to [omitted property name] and most specifically the accident involving Ms. Holland. My understanding is that our staff has been in contact with her and has demonstrated a high level of concern for her well being and is prepared to continue to follow up with her in regards to her condition. Guest accidents are very concerning to us and I will be reaching out to her as well. I apologize that you were unable to reach a staff member on duty at the time of the incident and the ambulance had difficulty in locating the rental unit. I can assure you that this is highly unusual as the property handles medical emergencies on an ongoing basis. I will be sure to address this with our team and communicate these concerns with local emergency personnel.

In regards to your need for "fragrant free" accommodations. I apologize that we were unable to provide a unit that met your strict requirements for no standard cleaning chemical odors. Clearly we should have better understood your needs and asked questions to ensure we could meet your expectations. Had we done so we would have communicated how we clean the units, how the linen is laundered and the type of detergents we supply in the units. Our lack of communication resulted in your discomfort and for that I apologize.

My understanding is that at the time of your departure you did not ask to speak to a manager but abruptly departed. We would have liked to have had the opportunity to apologize to you at that time. However, based upon your uncomfortable experience we waived the room and tax charge of $437.66 in an effort to demonstrate our sincere concern for your less than satisfactory experience.

Ms. Raymond, we sincerely regret and apologize for the inconvenience you experienced while a guest at [omitted property name]. We believe we are capable of performing better and are sorry that this was not demonstrated on your most recent visit. I hope you will reconsider returning to [omitted property name] and hope that if you do that you reach out to me personally so that I can help to create a better experience.

Sincerely,

[name]
General Manager

Summary

Competition for customers has never been more fierce. Guests have any number of places they could choose to stay but they selected your property and left a review about their experience - reward them with your attention or your customers will most certainly be up for grabs.

1. Have a Plan: Consider your marketing strategy. It would be pretty uncharacteristic for a biker bar to respond to a review with the template I've provided above. It's not part of their marketing plan. Properties with higher reviews demand greater rates. Responding to those reviews shows that you are attentive and put the customer first.

2. Know your audience. Your audience is your next customer that could read your response. In most cases, the individual you are responding to doesn't come back to continue the dialog or even read your response.

3. Don't get too specific in a public forum. Try to move the conversation offline by providing your email address or phone number. This not only helps this particular guest but also helps future customers book direct.

Resources

Review Response: What NOT To Do