Positive Online Review Responses: Best Practices and Examples

Last updated: 10/12/19

Having a presence on the major review sites gives your clients or customers the ability to write reviews for your business, but more importantly, it gives you the opportunity to respond.

Why you should respond to your positive reviews

While most people know how crucial it is to respond to negative reviews, it’s just as essential to respond to your positive reviews. When written effectively, your responses act as a great, free marketing tool.

Why?

• It shows you are responsive and a good communicator.
• It gives people a glimpse into what it’s like to work and communicate with you. Are you friendly?
• It’s an opportunity to have a one-on-one touchpoint with your customer.
• It shows you care individually about each person and that you are listening to them.
• It shows that you appreciate your customers/clients and that you care that they are satisfied.

Now that you know how important responding to positive reviews is, we’ve compiled some best practices for how exactly to respond.

The goal is to keep happy clients coming back, and show prospective clients or customers that you are someone they want to do business with.

Be prompt, appreciative, unique, and personal

Promptness in your response is indicative of your business’ level of care. When you respond to reviews promptly, it shows that you are likely to respond to emails and phone calls quickly as well. You come across as someone who is easy to work with. Ideally, you’ll want to respond within 24 hours.

Letting a review sit around for long periods of time tells your reviewer (and others who come across the review) that you or your company may not truly appreciate your clients.

Don’t forget to say thank you in whatever words you can: appreciate, gracious, thanks, you’re the best, etc.

For example, a customer leaves a review that says:

We were very impressed by the level of professionalism that Jones Bookkeeping Services provided for our company. Highly recommend!

– Jennifer B.

Your response might say:

“Thank you, Jennifer, for your kind words! It makes us happy to know that providing our clients with the best bookkeeping services we can offer is paying off. If we can make your life easier, then we have truly done our job. If there is any other way we can help you, don’t hesitate to reach out.”

Include keywords in your review responses

When clients are vague in their review, it’s important to respond with the specifics. People do read reviews, and the more they know about what services you provide, the better. This practice can also help to boost your presence because keyword embedding is useful for SEO purposes.

For example, let’s say a recent customer left a review for a small downtown boutique.

The review was excellent but vague:

“We loved the level of customer service we experienced at Downtown Boutique. Next time we are in town, we will come by for another visit!”

– Kate W.

Your response should include some specifics that explain what type of service you provided the customer:

“We appreciate your kind review, Kate! We are very pleased that we were able to help you find the right decorative items to help compliment your home. The next time you are in town, come see what new items we have – we would love to see you!”

Leave out personal, identifying information

While the type of service your business provided should be apparent, it is essential to leave out information that could be detrimental or too personal to your client.

For example:

“The Law Offices at Jones and Jones exceeded our expectations. Everyone we worked with was kind, caring, and sympathetic of our unique situation.”

– Jan Williams

A response could be:

“We are so very appreciative of your thoughtful review, Jan. It is always in our best interest to make sure we perform all consultations in an appropriate, efficient, and productive manner. If you should ever find that you are in need of our services in the future, please don’t hesitate to reach out.”

As you can see, in this last example, the response is personal to the person who left the review, it contains the services provided without giving any personal information away (consultation), and it is unique and appreciative.

Personal responses to positive reviews are gold for your business

Crafting a new, personal review for each and every client takes time, but it’s time well spent. Not only does it help turn your customers into repeat clients, but it also shows potential buyers that you care and that you are human. People want to work with real people, not anonymous business entities. Your review response indicates that your business really does care. 

We can help

Consistently getting reviews can be a challenge for small businesses, with many reporting that they’ve asked their customers or clients for reviews, but never received them.

Or, they haven’t asked for reviews, but the negative reviews are piling up even though a majority of customers report being happy.

Start getting reviews that reflect customers’ true experience with your business now with our Online Review Management service.