We hope you had the time to check out our recent guide covering online reputation management. This time, we’re chatting about a topic that is a bit more heartwarming: how to respond to positive reviews.

Responding to your reviews in general is a great way to show your customers you care, can mitigate difficult customer decisions, and even improve your Google ranking. With only a few moments of your time, this task is an easy way to improve customer relationships.

Let’s dive into the best way to respond to your positive reviews.

Responding to Positive Reviews

Responding to good reviews is much easier (and more pleasant!) than responding to bad ones, but it’s still important to hit all of the key points to make your response effective. Many business owners may only focus their efforts on doing damage control for bad reviews, but responding to positive reviews shows you value all of your guests and care about taking the time to view everyone’s feedback.

1. Thank the Customer by Name

First and foremost, greet the customer by using their name when possible which makes  the response seem more genuine. Include a sincere thank you that expresses gratitude that the reviewer took the time to share why they had a great experience with your business. 

2. Use Your Company Name and Keywords in Your Response

While working on your response, look for natural places to include things like your company name and perhaps some keywords you want to rank for. If you want to boost local SEO, keywords in reviews are essential for getting onto the first page of the SERP. 

And remember, just like your website, only add keywords or your business name when it makes sense to do so. For example, you might say something along the lines of The whole team at Jungle Zip Line appreciates your business and hopes to see you again soon. Check out our article on improving your website traffic with SEO for more details about keywords.

3. Add Some Marketing

There’s no harm in doing a little marketing within your response, especially since you’re reaching an engaged, happy customer — just don’t overdo it. Responses will be viewed publicly, not just by the reviewer, so add some details about an upcoming promotional event or a behind-the-scenes detail about your tours or activities. Feel free to get creative! Just keep it short and sweet.

4. Invite the Reviewer to Do Something

To help keep your business at the top of the reviewer’s mind, wrap up your response by inviting them to come back and participate in one of your other tours or activities. You can even  offer discounts to incentivise repeat bookings. Providing additional value to the response is a great way to create a fan base on third-party review sites.

Example

Good news! Your zip line business just got an awesome 5-star review from a group of friends who loved their tour. They specifically complimented how friendly and funny their guide Tom was and how beautiful the scenery was. Here’s how you could respond.

Hello, Rachel (and friends!),

Thank you so much for the wonderful review! Everybody at Jungle Zip Line was thrilled to hear you enjoyed yourself, especially Tom. We always try to make our Costa Rica zip line tours as fun as possible, and we’re so happy you had a great time. Did you know we’re opening a ropes course in addition to our eight zip lines? We would love for you to come back soon and give it a try. Plus, a ropes course ticket gets you free access to the zip lines! We hope to see you again soon.

Best wishes,

Steve Zip

Tips for Writing a Quality Response 

Keep these points in mind whether you’re responding to a positive or negative review.

• Keep it short and sweet: It may seem like there are many steps to writing a good response, but that doesn’t mean your message has to be long. On the contrary, keeping it simple is best. There’s no need to overwhelm readers with too much information. They’ll just be happy they heard from you in the first place.

• Don’t sound defensive: It’s natural to want to defend yourself and your employees against a negative review, but it’s important to watch your language so that you don’t come across as defensive. Avoid words like but or however that shift focus onto the customer. For example, saying something like I understand you did not enjoy your experience but we did everything we could makes it sound as though you’re shifting the blame to the customer, which could offend them more. Instead of using words like but, t use and. For example, I understand that you did not enjoy your experience, and we are working hard to ensure that we correct the situation.
  

  

• Respond in a timely manner: As soon as you notice a new review, it’s best to respond as soon as possible. This will show customers you are checking reviews often and the situation is important to you. Consider using a review management platform, like Podium, that aggregates reviews and alerts you when a new review goes live. Similarly, Google Alerts allows you to track online conversations by specific keywords or phrases in real-time, so you always know what people are saying, good or bad, and can respond accordingly.

Now that you have a good idea of what to include when responding to reviews, it’s time to get started on your recent reviews. Previous customers and anyone who is researching your business will be happy to read the responses — you might even gain some new customers from them! 

If you haven’t already, check out our guide covering how to respond to negative reviews.