Thanking Customers Who Leave Five Stars

Replies only under the complaints

Scroll through the reviews of many small businesses and a pattern appears: forty warm reviews with no reply, then a two-star complaint with a long, careful answer from the owner.

The instinct is understandable. Praise seems to need nothing, while a complaint needs handling.

But a stranger reading the page sees a business that speaks up only when criticised. And forty people who took the trouble to say something kind heard nothing back.

Thanking them takes a few minutes a week, and it changes how the whole page reads.

Who reads a thank-you

The reviewer first. Google lets people know when a business replies to their review, so a short thank-you reaches someone who already likes you.

Then everyone after them. People choosing a business read several reviews and the replies beneath, looking for clues about who they would be dealing with.

A specific, warm reply under a good review shows there is a person at the business who reads what customers write. That is hard to show any other way.

What a reply tells the next reader

• That the listing is looked after, if recent reviews have replies too.
• Who they would deal with, from the first name at the end.
• How customers are spoken to, warmly or from a script.
• Something worth knowing, such as a care tip or when to book.
• That good work gets noticed, when a review names a member of staff.

The fourth is the one most replies leave out, though a stranger can actually use it. A care tip, or a note on booking ahead of a busy season, helps every reader who scrolls past.

One line under every review

The quickest way through a backlog is one sentence pasted under every review: thank you for your review, we appreciate your business.

Readers notice by the third. A column of identical replies tells the next reader the same as no replies at all: nobody read what customers wrote.

Openings can repeat; that is natural. The middle of each reply has to be written fresh, because someone who praised the patience with her nervous dog wants to see the dog in the answer, not thanks for your kind words.

What to leave out

Sales pitches. A thank-you that closes with this month's special turns a kind gesture into an advertisement.

Keywords. A reply such as thanks for choosing the best dog grooming in Surrey reads as written for search engines, because it was.

Private details. Do not confirm what someone bought, when they came in or what they paid, unless they said so themselves.

And gushing. A few plain words read as sincere. A paragraph of superlatives reads as relief.

Short reviews and bare ratings

Many five-star reviews are a few words long, or have no words at all. They still deserve a line.

For a bare star rating, a brief thanks is enough. For a two-word review, a sentence that adds something, such as glad the cake made the party, beats repeating their words back.

A worked example

A knife sharpening service works from a table at two farmers' markets each weekend and a drop-off counter in a kitchen shop, and sharpens for several restaurants during the week.

It had gathered dozens of five-star reviews on its Google listing, many detailed: an heirloom carving knife brought back to life, a set of Japanese knives done in a day, garden shears that cut again.

The owner had replied to exactly one review, a complaint about a lost ticket, with a long and careful answer.

Now, every Sunday evening after the markets, the owner thanks the week's reviewers in two or three sentences each, naming the knife or tool they mentioned.

Most replies add one line of care advice, such as keeping a Japanese knife on a magnetic strip rather than loose in a drawer. No two replies match, because no two reviews do.

It takes about twenty minutes a week. The older reviews were answered a few at a time over the following month.

Praise with a small catch

Some five-star reviews carry a small complaint inside the praise: great work, but the wait was long; lovely staff, shame about the parking.

Thank the person, then answer the catch in a sentence. Readers notice whether it was heard, and a plain line, such as a note that weekday mornings are quieter than Saturdays, helps the next customer too.

Passing praise on

Reviews that name a member of staff are worth more than a reply. Read them out at the start of the week, or pin them up in the back room.

In the public reply, one line saying the praise has been passed on is enough. Staff who see their name in a review and in the answer know someone noticed.

Sounding like a person

Write the way you would thank the customer at the counter: plain words, first person, a little warmth.

Phrases such as we value your feedback belong to call centres, not to a business where the owner served the customer personally.

Sign it with a first name. A reply from a person reads differently from a reply from a logo.

Every site where they review you

Google, Facebook and any directory where customers review you deserve the same treatment, at the same weekly sitting.

Check where each one sends its new-review alerts. They should reach someone who will act on them, not an address set up years ago that nobody opens.

Facebook reviews sit under the page's star rating, and replies there are as public as on Google. A business that answers on one site and ignores the other looks half attended.

The counter-case

A business with hundreds of reviews a month, such as a busy restaurant, cannot write a fresh reply to each. It should answer the detailed ones and let bare ratings stand.

And thanks never come before complaints. If a critical review is waiting, it gets a careful answer first, and the praise can wait a day.

For most small businesses, though, good reviews arrive at a pace a few minutes a week can match, and each deserves a short, specific reply.

Every week

1. Set a weekly time to read new reviews.
2. Answer any complaints first.
3. Thank each reviewer by the name they used.
4. Mention the detail they mentioned.
5. Add one useful line where it fits.
6. Leave out offers and keywords.
7. Sign with a first name.

Step four is what separates a reply from a form letter. Saying back the specific thing they praised shows the reviewer, and everyone reading after, that somebody actually read it.

Replying when a review arrives in a language you do not read is covered in reviews written in another language.

Frequently asked questions

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