Replying to Google reviews, including the bad one

Getting found 5 min read

How to answer a Google review, including the one-star one, in a way the next person reading your listing will find reasonable.

There is a one-star review on your listing and you have read it eleven times. Nobody can honestly tell you it does not matter. The reply underneath it is the part you control, and it will still be sitting there long after the sting has gone.

Answer the ordinary good ones too, and keep them short

Two lines. Their name, the thing you did, thanks. "Thanks Dave, glad the gate is closing properly again."

The reason to bother is that a listing where every review has a short, human answer reads differently from one where only the complaints got a response. Do not paste the same sentence twenty times either. Somebody scrolling can spot a stock reply from a long way off, and it undoes the point of replying at all.

The four-star ones are worth a moment longer. Four stars usually means one specific thing was slightly off, and an answer that names that thing reads far better than a thank you that ignores it.

Wait a day before you answer the bad one

Write the reply you want to write. Do not post it. That draft is doing something useful in your head, and it must never leave the house.

Come back the next morning and write the one that goes on the listing. Nothing about a bad review gets worse in twenty-four hours. A great deal gets worse in twenty-four minutes.

The reply is not for the reviewer

The person who wrote the review has already made up their mind about you. The audience is the next stranger, six weeks from now, reading three of your reviews while holding a phone in one hand.

That reader is asking one question: if this went wrong for me, what sort of person would I be dealing with. Write to them and the sentences get easier.

What a workable reply contains

Four things, in about four sentences.

Name the specific thing they raised, so it is obvious you read it. Say plainly what happened, or what you have changed since, without building a case. Apologize for the part you are genuinely sorry about, which is usually the experience even where the facts are disputed. Then give a name and a number and ask them to call you.

What to leave out: "we take all feedback very seriously", "we are sorry you feel that way", and any sentence you would not say standing in front of them.

Do not argue the facts in public, even when you are right

Sometimes you will be right. The price was agreed, the appointment was missed, the dog was not shut in the yard when you arrived.

Winning that in public still loses, because the reader cannot verify either of you and will remember the tone rather than the detail. If a factual error has to be corrected, one neutral clause is the whole allowance, and then the offer to talk. Never say what they paid, never call anybody a liar, and never reply a second time.

Never put anything private in a reply

This is the trap that catches clinics, dentists, salons and gyms hardest. Do not confirm that the person was a patient or a client. Do not mention their treatment, their condition, their membership, what they were charged, or whether they paid it.

Confidentiality does not lapse because somebody posted about themselves in public. The safe shape is to acknowledge the concern in general terms, say you would like to look into it properly, and move every specific into a private conversation with a number attached.

When a review is fake, or is not about you

You can report a review that breaks the policy. Somebody who was never a customer, a review about a different business, a personal attack, spam, or something left by a competitor. Reporting costs nothing, it takes time, and it often does not go your way.

What you cannot do is have an honest bad review taken down for being unfair. Report the ones that qualify, then write the reply anyway, because the reply is what is visible while you wait.

After the reply, do the unglamorous half

If the complaint was fair, call them. Fix the thing. Then, once it is actually fixed, you are allowed to say the door is open if they would like to update what they wrote. Ask once, offer nothing in exchange, and accept a no without a second message.

The quieter half is the three-star review. It usually contains the real defect in the business, described politely by somebody with no reason to lie about it. Those are worth more than the five-star ones and almost nobody acts on them.

Write down what each complaint was, somewhere you will look again. Three of the same complaint in a year points to one step in how you work that keeps failing, and no reply on a listing fixes that.

A short checklist

• Every review gets a reply, the good ones in two lines
• One night between reading the bad one and answering it
• Write for the next reader, not for the reviewer
• Name the specific thing, say what changed, give a number
• No treatments, no conditions, no amounts, no names of other customers
• No arguing, no second reply, no sarcasm
• Report only what actually breaks the policy
• Call the fair complaints and fix what they found

Questions people ask

Should I reply to every Google review

Yes, and the good ones can be two lines. A listing where only the complaints have replies tells a reader something you did not mean to say.

How quickly should I reply to a bad review

Within a few days, and not within the first hour. There is no advantage in speed here and there is a real risk in temper.

Can I get a bad review removed

Only if it breaks Google's policy, and unfair or inaccurate do not qualify on their own. Report the ones that do and reply to all of them either way.

What if the reviewer was never a customer

Report it as off-topic or fake, and reply in one neutral line saying you have no record of the work and would like to look into it, with a number. Do not accuse anybody in public.

Can I ask somebody to change their review

You may ask once, after you have fixed the problem, and you may not offer anything for it. Offering something turns it into an incentivized review.

Does replying to reviews improve my ranking

Nobody outside Google can tell you that honestly. Reply because the next person reading the listing sees it, which is reason enough on its own.