How to respond to a bad review

But you can earn goodwill with customers and safeguard your reputation by responding to reviews, even when your business gets criticized. As a 2022 BrightLocal survey shows, 89% of consumers are either highly or fairly likely to use businesses that respond to all of their online reviews. If you’re wondering how to respond to a bad review professionally, you’ve come to the right place.

In this post, we’ll cover the following topics:

• The dos and don’ts of responding to bad reviews
• Different types of bad reviews
• How poor reviews affect your business
• Should you respond to negative reviews?
• How to respond to a bad review: 8 best practices
• 4 bad-review response templates
• How to address negative reviews on different platforms
• Frequently asked questions

There is no single right way to respond to customer reviews, but there are definitely wrong ways. You shouldn’t respond to customers in anger, attempt to remove real comments, or write a response to complaints without checking into what may have gone wrong on your end first.

Responding to bad reviews the right way requires a professional and strategic approach. Step back and take in their feedback before deciding on any action. When possible, show customers you’re listening by personalizing your response. This takes time, but it goes a much longer way than something that feels dismissive or skeptical.

Handling reviews poorly may affect your reputation. Customers have many purchasing choices at their fingertips. If they believe that you don’t care or don’t take feedback seriously when things go wrong, they may simply choose to take their business elsewhere.

Negative reviews might sting a bit as you read them and might influence how customers perceive you, but perception is not where the impact stops. Research shows that negative reviews have noticeable and lasting effects on a business’s visibility and bottom line. This is why it’s particularly important to have an effective response strategy in place. By maintaining a healthy and honest line of communication with your customers, you have the potential to prevent the following negative consequences:

Speed of response is a big factor in earning favor with customers. According to a 2022 report by ReviewTrackers, more than half of consumers (53%) want a response to a negative review within one week of posting and one-third expect a response within 3 days.

Personalization shows customers that you’re taking the time to reply to each review individually. Include their name or username at the start of your response. Taking a few extra seconds to do this can make all the difference in the way a customer interprets your reply.

Your response can be conversational, but it should still read as professional. This can be difficult if a customer’s review isn’t fair or accurate, but it is critical. Pay attention, choose your words carefully, and use proper grammar.

Don’t just acknowledge the commentary. Include details about their unique concern in your response. If applicable, explain how you’ll address the problem. People who leave reviews don’t want copied-and-pasted answers. They want to know that you’ll take action.

When a customer takes time out of their day to leave a review for your business, you need to acknowledge that. Explain that you value their commentary and willingness to share their thoughts. Showing your gratitude is always appreciated. It also shows potential customers that you take feedback seriously, even if it isn’t in the form of a 5-star review.

Saying sorry to your customers is powerful. Just like in the rest of our lives, apologizing when something goes wrong can go a long way to restoring your reputation. Don’t overlook this step when you draft your replies.

Everyone makes mistakes. Own up to your role in the situation if it happened on your end. One of the greatest steps you can take to rebuild customer trust after a bad experience is to accept the part you might have played in the problem.

Making it up to a customer for their bad experience by refunding their purchase or offering a discount on their next order might encourage them to give you another chance. Some platforms, like Uber Eats, will let you give a discount or offer through the platform. Once you share it, the platform will notify the customer by email and automatically apply the appeasement to their next order at your store. It’s important to note that platforms have rules and regulations around incentives like these. Read all the information that platforms provide about discounts, offers, and other incentives to make sure you're complying with their guidelines and any other applicable rule or regulation.

There are nuances to how you address negative reviews on certain platforms. Some allow you to dispute the review entirely or take it down. In other cases, you can only leave a response. Here’s an overview of review processes you might encounter.

Bad reviews are inevitable, but the right tools and support can turn every review into an opportunity to strengthen customer relationships. Our customer communication tools let you connect with customers quickly and directly. With tools built right into the Uber Eats Manager dashboard, you can easily automate replies for customer reviews that match specific qualities, like star rating or minimum order size.