Responding to every single review you receive is crucial to managing your online reputation. Positive and negative reviews are a bit easier to respond to, but what do you say to the customer who has left you a three-star review? Neutral reviews often are both a bit of compliment and complaint, and your response should fit both. One of the significant issues with neutral reviews is that the customer did not feel strongly enough one way or another and likely did not provide you with much feedback about their experience if any at all. You may be stuck trying to craft an excellent response to that three-star review; check out these helpful tips for responding to neutral reviews.
Thank Them First
As with any quality review response, the first and most important thing you should do is thank the customer for taking the time to leave you feedback. Whether the feedback is positive, negative, or neutral, it is valuable to you as a business owner. Thanking the customer is always the first thing you should do for any review response.
Reinforce Positives
If the review contains any positive sentiments, you should reinforce these in your response. You want to do everything you can to highlight the positive aspects of the customer’s experience. Even if the review contains negatives, you should begin your response by addressing the positive aspects of the customer’s experience. Readers are more likely to remember what is said at the beginning rather than later on, so beginning with the positive will reinforce your business’s positive aspects to potential customers reading your response to the review.
Address Negatives
There is a reason that the customer did not leave your business a four or five-star review. You should address the negatives in your review response after reinforcing any positives. Acknowledge any issues that the customer may have had and take ownership of any areas in which your business or employees could have improved. A short apology and explanation of what went wrong will suffice here.
Take the Conversation Offline
If you want to learn more about the customer’s experiences, offer to take the conversation offline and communicate with them via email, direct message, or phone. Taking the conversation offline will help you learn more about your customer’s experience without publicly revealing negatives.
Neutral Review Response Templates
If you are having a hard time finding a response to a neutral review, these templates may offer you a great place to start. Use these templates to help you craft an effective response to neutral reviews.
- Hi [CUSTOMER NAME], thank you for your feedback! We value what you have to say, so we are able to deliver an even better experience next time. Please reach out to us at [CONTACT INFORMATION] with any additional comments or suggestions. Thanks again!
- Dear [CUSTOMER NAME], we appreciate your feedback and would love for you to share more about your recent experience. We strive for excellence and want to know how we can be better. Please reach out to us at [CONTACT INFORMATION] with any additional comments or suggestions.
- Hey [CUSTOMER NAME], thank you for your feedback! While we are glad we could [REINFORCE POSITIVE], we strive to be the best at [COMPANY NAME] and are committed to improving our [NEGATIVE – if applicable]. Please reach out to us at [CONTACT INFORMATION] so we can learn more about your recent experience. Thank You!
- Dear [CUSTOMER NAME], thank you for your feedback. We strive to deliver the best experiences for our customers every day and want to ensure you have a 5-star experience next time you visit [BUSINESS NAME]. Please reach out to us at [CONTACT INFORMATION] with any additional comments and suggestions. Thank You!
