How to Respond to Positive Reviews Online

We know - getting reviews from customers is incredibly essential for any type of business in the industry.

But, even though customers take the time to write nice, positive feedback, most owners just consider not responding at all.

Chances are - you're one of them.

So, that's why we will teach you how to respond to positive reviews on your website correctly in this particular article.

Not only will this attract new buyers, but it will also significantly boost your overall retention rates.

Let's not waste time - every second is valuable!

Why Should you Respond to Positive Reviews?

1. Improves your Local SEO

Google ranks websites based on several things, including the number of visits, content dwells, and relevancy.

These might all be pretty familiar to you.

However, did you know that customer reviews are also crucial for local ranking?

In fact, recent research has confirmed that responding to reviews can surprisingly improve your local SEO.

So, in a real-life scenario, if someone searches for a restaurant closest to them, Google would recommend the company with the most reviews and responses first.

2. Helps Create A Customer Loyalty Base

Remember - if your customer wrote positive feedback, he already likes what you offer.

Engaging with them (responding to their review) can strengthen the relationship and encourage them to share their reviews online.

For instance, some customers might have a big following around their social media accounts.

Not only will this improve your brand reach, but it will also help you create a solid loyalty base.

3. Increases Customer Retention

Believe it or not, people just enjoy being appreciated. Responding to a positive review is the perfect way to increase customer retention.

4. Get More Sales

More review responses show potential consumers that you care about your fellow shoppers, and this will encourage them to make the purchase decision much faster.

How to Respond to Positive Reviews?

Now, since you know responding to positive reviews is quite essential to your business, let’s check out how you can properly do this:

React Quickly

First things first, try to set aside at least a couple of minutes each day to read and manage all the new reviews.

By responding to your customers within 24 hours, you show how appreciative you are and how much this means to you - it's a simple action that can bring remarkable success to your store.

Otherwise, by waiting too long, your customers might forget about you and your brand. So, they will proceed with their lives and consider interacting with another company.

Just imagine this:

Your friend has a new hairstyle, so you immediately send him a message describing how much you love the new appearance.

But, even after sharing all those nice words, he doesn’t say anything.

Finally, after a whole week, he decided to reply and say thanks for the nice words.

How would you feel?

Add Personalization

Personalization is definitely one of the most crucial parts of leaving a response. Don't just copy and paste a sample text to every review.

You want to make your customers feel appreciated and show that you’re actually reading their feedback.

Users can easily spot this and assume you're not putting in any effort whatsoever, and that's why they won't get that sense of appreciation.

Worst case, they might even step back from their relationship with your brand.

So, you're losing your customers here instead of gaining all of the mentioned benefits.

Here are a few simple tips you can follow to make all of your review responses unique:

1. Mention the customer's name in your response
2. Respond to specific parts of the review
3. Try to reply in the same language the review was written in

Examples of a response to a positive review:

"Hey, Marine, we're happy to hear you enjoyed your custom laptop bag."

“Good Morning, Lucas! The new Christmas t-shirt looks absolutely fantastic on you.”

Express Appreciation

The customer took the time to write lovely, detailed feedback.

So, after adding personalization to your response, it's time to express appreciation for all the kind words.

You want to tell them how much their feedback means for your business.

Sometimes, all it takes is just saying four words - "Thank you so much."

However, there might be some scenarios where you need to be a bit more diligent and come up with something like the following:

“I appreciate you taking the time to submit a review for our brand today."

Or...

“Thank you so so much for sharing your amazing experience with us! We’re so happy to hear that."

Don't Stuff your Response with Keywords

As mentioned above, responding to positive reviews can improve your local rankings.

So, what most of the users do is try to add as many keywords as possible.

But this is a huge no-no!

Not only will this make the whole response seem natural, but it will also have a negative impact on your SEO.

Here's a BAD example of a response to a positive review:

“I’m glad you liked Burger King. We actually strive to be the best restaurant in Waterloo. Next time try tasting our ice cream at Burger King, Waterloo.”

Reward Your Customers

Another thing that you should remember to do when responding to positive reviews is to always reward your customers with small rewards.

This could be a small discount or a tag of their social media account on your brand’s page. Doing this can also improve your average review response rate.

Here's an example:

"We emailed you a special discount code for 20% off on your next purchase."

Encourage Them to Share The Review

This is the perfect moment to maximize your social proof and build a name for your brand.

Since your customer is satisfied with the order, he will be more likely to share the overall experience on other platforms.

You should try to make it as natural as possible; you want to avoid causing any negative impact on the customer.

Here's an interesting example that you can take inspiration from:

"Would you like to spread the nice words about our company with some of your friends or family members? This would help other users find the most suitable home cleaning service for their requirements and price range.”

Compose a Friendly Sign-Off

Writing a nice, friendly sign-off is one of the best things you can do to end your review response.

Let's take a quick look at a few different sign-off variations that you can implement:

• “Enjoy your day, Jacob!”
• “We look forward to your next visit!”
• “Have an awesome day, Mat!”

Keep It Short

Most importantly - try to keep your text as short as possible. Nobody enjoys reading lengthy responses.

If you're talking way too much, the words might automatically lose value in the eyes of the customer.

Just be sure to reply with what you think is appropriate and suitable for that moment.

Share the Positive Reviews

Your customers have done their part and shared your reviews online.

So, you should too.

You can take a screenshot of the entire review and the response and share it on your social media network.

This will create further engagement, and potential customers will be more inclined to try out your services or products.

Examples of Positive Review Responses

Let’s see some real-world examples of positive review responses - shall we?

As you can see, the business owner did a great job at keeping the response short and sweet.

He showed gratitude and also mentioned their name at the start of the sentence.

Plus, he’s managed to reply within 24 hours - which is a big plus in customers' eyes.

Next, we have an example from a restaurant.

The business owners have responded to specific parts of the review and suggested other flavors as well.

He had great language throughout the review and a friendly sign-off at the end.

In this scenario, the owner has perfectly opened the review response with a quick “Thank you.”

After that, he cited the company's name and expressed his eagerness to work with the client.

What If You Can’t Reply to All The Customer Reviews?

Even though you might want to respond to all of your positive reviews, sometimes that's not always possible.

Sure, if you're just starting out, you will probably have fewer customers, and you can easily find balance.

However, if you're a brand with hundreds of orders regularly, then responding to each review can seem like an impossible mission, especially since you have a ton of other paperwork that you need to do.

So, the best way to solve this is to train your employees (preferably in customer support).

And let them do the whole job for you!

Is There an App to Make Things Easier?

Fera is certainly the best product review app for Shopify and the best product reviews app for Wix available.

It will align all your reviews so that you can easily scroll through and respond to each one individually.

The reviews can be sorted based on source, rating, date, and customer name.

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On top of that, Fera also comes with various features, such as automatic review requests, AI review moderation, beautiful widgets, full content control, multi-tier sync, and language customization.

You can download Fera right now!

Conclusion

Positive reviews can greatly impact your business success, so don't just leave them out in the cold.

All of the techniques, leveraging reviews are proven to work and have a high success rate.

If you're interested in reading about eCommerce, you should honestly take the time to view a few of our other articles like adding product reviews to Wix or how to respond to negative reviews online.