Not responding to your online reviews & engagements? You need to read this
One of the divisions at Rallio is called Rallio Local, wherein our customers entrust our team with managing their Facebook ad campaigns, as well as responding to their social media engagements and any online reviews that appear on Google and Facebook. I happen to be the person in charge of the “inbox/review monitoring” portion of things, so my team and I see all of the social comments and reviews that get dumped into each client’s “inbox” on our platform.
We always let our clients know when there’s a review in need of their attention so they can address it personally. Whether it’s a positive or negative review, it’s important that a customer feels heard. An owner’s response to a review has the ability to generate trust in a brand. So, let’s say Sally leaves a glowing review but no one ever says “thank you” to her for taking the time to leave feedback. Or maybe Sally leaves a negative review and no one ever takes the time to acknowledge and resolve the complaint. Either way, it reflects poorly on the business.
It’s About Reputation
Both of the above scenarios contribute to a brand’s reputation either positively or negatively. Here’s an example of a review response for one of our Rallio clients, Pet Supplies Plus. As you can see, the review was positive, but we still recommend posting a reply to say “thanks” for the review.
On the other hand, it’s not uncommon for a customer to write something negative (or even outlandish) about a location that leaves the owner feeling baffled about what may or may not have happened to cause this customer to leave such a review. In the below review (names withheld for privacy), my team reached out to the owner to ask how he’d like to respond.
Oftentimes, the owners ask us how we recommend they respond to these types of reviews. I always recommend that owners stay professional, courteous and matter-of-fact when responding to negative reviews. Sometimes we’ll write the response for them or help them polish up their response prior to posting.
In this case, the owner took some time to talk with his technician and then got back to me, and we worked together to craft the response you see above. It’s fact-based and respectful, and it offers to resolve the issue in a way that goes above and beyond expectations. Although I do not know the outcome of this issue at this time, it shows good business practices for this customer as well as anyone who happens to come across this review.
What About Former Employees?
In other cases, an oddity will pop up where a disgruntled former employee decides to unleash their venom via an online review. This is a trickier situation because each platform handles these situations differently.
On Facebook, anyone can report a review, but that doesn’t mean Facebook will take it down. On Google and Yelp, there are more checks and balances that give owners some recourse to try and have the review removed. For example, Google‘s policies disallow the posting of content about a current or former employment experience. You are able to flag the review by following the steps outlined here.
Take It Case By Case
