5 Tips for Dealing With Your Google Business Reviews

“Come try the worst breakfast one guy on Yelp ever had!” 

Embracing feedback is key to entrepreneurial success. While that doesn’t necessarily mean snatching up the worst review you can find and using it in your marketing, it does mean listening to, learning from, and responding to positive and negative reviews.

Research suggests that word of mouth marketing can be even more effective than other advertising. Simply put, people talk. Other people listen.

The conversation is happening. Because it is increasingly happening online, its effects are amplified. To benefit from that conversation, your business needs to join it.

Google Business Reviews provide one online platform for consumers’ conversations. Inserting yourself skillfully in those conversations requires, well, skill. 

Read on to learn five steps for skillfully managing Google Business reviews.

What Is Google My Business?

Google My Business is an online platform that lets you create your business profile. It can include your contact information, location, directions via Google Maps, and website. Plus, it allows consumers to explore photos, posts, and, yes, reviews. 

Why Should You Respond to Google Business Reviews?

Like research on word of mouth marketing, research on reviews is clear: Businesses must engage with consumer reviews.

The Harvard Business Review found that businesses that responded to reviews received 12% more future reviews than businesses that didn’t. Even better, businesses that engaged with reviews — positive and negative — received more positive reviews.

Responding to Google Business reviews offers many benefits:

• You show that you care and listen
• When you make a mistake, you can learn from it
• By learning from your mistakes and successes, you’ll strengthen your business, improve customers’ experiences, and enjoy more positive feedback 
• You may discourage trivial negative reviews (if customers know that you’ll respond, they may be less inclined to complain over a minor issue)

Handling Google Business Reviews is so important that many businesses use review management services. These services help you increase the number of reviews, monitor them, and use them for marketing and ongoing improvement.

How Do You Craft An Effective Response?

Writing responses to Google Business Reviews requires time and skill. It also requires attention to several considerations.

1. Take Your Time and Extend the Conversation

Reading reviews evokes various emotions. When reading negative Google Business reviews, these emotions can be negative and strong. And they can tempt you to say things in the short term that you’ll regret in the long term. 

So take your time. Take the reviews to your team. Before you engage with consumers, let their reviews start an internal conversation. 

Ask yourselves questions: What can you learn? What can you do — differently and better — next time?

Finally, be objective. Remember, you started this internal conversation to learn something. Doing so requires you to consider the review from various perspectives. Be fair to all sides — the consumer, your employees, and yourself.

2. Consider Tone

As you craft your response, consider the tone. How will your response sound to this consumer and others?

Your Tone Reflects Your Business’s Personality

Taking your time and responding only after discussing the issue internally addresses one aspect of tone: You’re less likely to sound angry or defensive when you’ve given yourself time.

Also related to tone, though, is your business’s “personality” and your clients’ expectations. If your business is more serious, your clients will expect a more formal tone. If your company is in the business of “fun” or your business’s “personality” is more creative, your conversations can be more informal.

Whether formal or informal, your tone should be respectful, and your response should always consider how the tone will sound to the consumer.

A Respectful Tone Is Honest and Empathetic

Respect requires honesty and empathy, and honesty and empathy garner respect. If a review identifies a mistake and internal discussions bear the complaint out, own it. Acknowledge the mistake and apologize.

Customers don’t expect perfection. They expect honesty. They expect understanding and a willingness to learn and improve. An honest and empathetic response gives them what they expect and deserve.

Pro tip: Once you’ve finished writing your response, take another step to demonstrate empathy — sign your name. Customers want to feel like someone heard them, and they like that “someone” to be a real person.

3. Give Action Steps

Your customers also expect and deserve for you to make things right when you’ve done wrong. Right or wrong, reviews are opportunities for you and the customer to move forward.

If you’ve made a mistake and can compensate the consumer, offer to replace the faulty product or provide a credit. 

If the consumer needs more information or expert guidance, reach out with those resources. Direct them to your website or another credible, noncompeting source. Put them in touch with an expert — again, in-house or with a credible noncompetitor. 

If the consumer benefitted from your product or service, point them to related products or services. Identify ways your relationship can continue. 

Most importantly, if action steps require action on your part, follow through. Nothing diminishes consumer confidence like empty promises.

4. Ask Questions

Perhaps a respectful, honest, and forward-looking response requires more information from the client. 

If you have questions — if the review is vague, don’t ignore it. Engage. Ask questions. Then craft a response.

5. Be Professional

In all your responses, your goal is to create a professional image. Writing that includes spelling and grammar mistakes will shake consumers’ confidence in your company.

So don’t rush your response and do proofread before hitting “send.”

Writing strong responses does take time. If you find that responding to reviews requires more time than you can devote, consider delegating to an employee or even hiring for a new position. 

Businesses are increasingly utilizing the skills of social media managers to engage with consumers across platforms. These experts can devote the time and have the skill to craft responses that are professional and consistent in tone. They can also help you create an overall consumer engagement strategy that maximizes the customer’s experience.

The Conversation Isn’t Over: Request An Update 

If you’ve addressed a negative Google Business review, you’re satisfied, and the customer seems satisfied, request one more action step. Ask the customer to update the review. 

Even if your response addressed the complaint, the original review remains, and you can’t guarantee that customers will read beyond it.

Requesting an update protects your online reputation.

Embrace the Good, the Bad, the Ugly — Effectively

Maybe you’re not inclined to embrace negative feedback quite as directly as the diner that markets itself as the “worst breakfast…ever,” and that’s okay. 

However, an effective marketing strategy does embrace positive and negative feedback. It’s not always easy, but it is necessary and, with this guide, possible.

Continuous improvement is your ultimate goal. Google Business reviews, industry best practices, and the Entrepreneur Resources blog and podcast are a few tools to help you achieve it. Explore the support available online or contract Entrepreneur Resources for more information.