Chapter 5
How to respond to negative reviews
You can’t dictate what people write about you online, but you should be aware of what they do. You should also be responding to reviews individually — especially if they’re downright scathing.
Without paying close attention to TripAdvisor reviews, you might also be passing up an opportunity to catch potential problems before they start to significantly impact your business.
If two or three people mention in their reviews that a particular table in your cafe or restaurant is draughty, for example, or several people who stayed in a certain room in your guest house noted that traffic noise kept them awake at night, then you have an opportunity to remedy the situation.
Failing to keep tabs on your business’ TripAdvisor listing means missing out on all of this valuable feedback.
Read, respond, and react to what your customers are saying about you online. If you don’t, not only are you allowing others to dictate the tone of the conversation, but you’re missing out on opportunities to improve.
Why a response is always preferable to no response
Sometimes a company’s response to a negative review can do more harm than good. There’s always a chance that things could escalate, and social media and even the press could pick up on your virtual argument — so that you’re left wishing you’d never responded at all.
But in almost every instance, a review response is preferable to no response.
If you don’t respond to a negative review, your customers will likely surmise that one of the following three things is true:
- The negative review is completely accurate and they should avoid your business at all costs.
- The negative review is false (or at least greatly exaggerated), but you don’t care enough about your business’ reputation, so ignored it.
- You’re either too lazy to respond or have no idea what TripAdvisor even is.
And there’s plenty to gain from responding, too.
- The chance to clear up any misunderstandings, so that anyone who sees the review is accurately informed.
- The opportunity to potentially win back their custom by offering them an apology and an incentive to return (where appropriate).
- A chance to impress potential customers with a professional and thorough response to a poor review.
Of course, the success of your response will depend on many factors — not all of them within your control — but the wording of your response is down to you.
Dos and don'ts
We can’t craft your response to a poor review for you, but there are some general rules that it’s a good idea to follow.
- Do: Get the full story. Speak to your staff and find out exactly what happened during the guest’s visit. Find out if there were any circumstances (staffing issues, supplier problems) that led to the issues described in the review. By taking this approach, you’ll better understand what went wrong and if and how your establishment was to blame
- Don’t: Give excuses. Reviewers don’t want to hear excuses for their poor experience. By all means explain why problems occurred, but follow this up with an explanation of what you’ll do to avoid the same situation in the future — and stay true to your word.
- Do: Accept responsibility for what went wrong. Don’t try to blame other parties for the problems guests experienced. From their point of view, they’re not interested in what wrong behind the scenes — they’re only concerned with the end result — the service you provide.
- Don’t: Shut the door to further communication. TripAdvisor allows only one response to a review, so it’s important to open up another avenue of communication at the end of your response, where appropriate. Leave an email address or a phone number — just make sure you choose one that you don’t mind the public seeing.
- Do: Respond when you’re calm, not angry. As much as you dislike seeing your business torn apart in a public space, responding to reviews when you’re upset isn’t a smart idea. Wait until you’ve calmed down and gathered all the facts before formulating a response to a negative review. Once you’ve written it, take a quick break and re-read it before clicking that button.
Examples of review responses
Here are a few management responses on TripAdvisor we’ve seen. First, over the page, a highly professional response from a high-end restaurant in RotaCloud's home city of York. This response was to a three-star review.
We've edited these review responses slightly for clarity.
Many thanks for your review, we appreciate all feedback given to us and appreciate you taking the time to give us your thoughts. As I am sure you will appreciate, the empty seats in the restaurant when you dined are not something we choose to have. We would very much love the restaurant to be full every night, however the popularity of the night is a little out of our control I am afraid.
We will admit that it is easier for our kitchen when tables are a little closer together, hence our inviting you to arrive earlier only if you wished to, although that was never meant to imply you could not have kept your reservation and dined with us at the orginal time. The 'other couple' on the evening were slower eaters than yourselves, and thus came in line with the same stage in the tasting menu as yourselves after some time.
I am very sorry you felt rushed through, I can assure you that we did not want to rush you and do not get out significantly earlier on quiet nights due to the length of our tasting menu. Our kitchen team only start cooking the next dish when the previous has been cleared and we are very compliant in giving diners an extra break between their courses whenever they should ask for it.
We are still very curious to hear your review of the food so welcome your feedback if you could take the time to email us.
We do very much hope that this will not put you off joining us again at another date, we are fully booked every Friday and Saturday night with a fantastic atmopshere.
In particular, this response shows a good balance between explaining the reasons for the reviewer’s poor experience and also taking responsibility for what went wrong. The language is clear and professional, and ends on a positive note.
Room for improvement
Next up is a response to a two-star review for a popular independent restaurant in York. This response ticks some boxes, but falls short in other ways.
Apologies for the late reply to your review.
Sorry to hear that your experience wasn't up to your expectations. Very happy you enjoyed the nachos, they are a favourite.
On the night you were in, as was explained to you, our ordering system decided to sporadically send some orders but not others to the kitchen, meaning that the staff didn't realise until some time had passed. This resulted in late orders of other guests as well as yourself which in turn created a rush and backlog for the kitchen. We apologise again for that as we did on the night by deducting drinks from the bill without prompt.
Regarding dish assembly, yes, dishes are assembled as in any restaurant, as you ordered the 48hr brisket it would have been a rather longer wait if it was cooked 'fresh' for your order and would've required a sleeping bag! And in respect of the chips, the reason they are pale is because they are hand cut each day then fried in clean oil — this is actually how fresh chips should look!
The cornbread at the time you were in was still being developed as it is cooked in house daily, so if it was not to your liking, we apologise. The meat being tasteless is a matter of taste, we take you at your word and everybody has different tastes.
We would love you to come back and try us again sometime and would be sure that the negative aspects of your experience would not be repeated.
While the restaurant provided explanations for what went wrong, the language used feels quite defensive in places, perhaps even a bit patronising. Even if the customer should’ve realised that the 48-hour brisket wasn’t cooked to order, the responder could have used a more conciliatory tone when explaining why their food was ‘assembled’ instead of cooked fresh.
Copy-paste
Chain restaurants sometimes assign employees from head office to respond to reviews and complaints, instead of managers of each particular branch. This approach usually results in dangerously impersonal responses as seen in this example at the York station branch of the West Cornwall Pasty Company. The original one-star review called the establishment a 'health hazard' and 'disgusting'.
Good afternoon, we are very sorry that you did not enjoy your visit to our York store and appreciate your valued feedback. Please contact us via info@westcornwallpasty.co.uk if you would like to provide further information. We'd love to hear from you and have the opportunity to make it up to you.
Sure, the response is professional and the company provides a route for the reviewer to communicate further with them, but it’s clearly a template that hasn’t been customised based on the reviewer’s complaint. To anyone else reading the review and response, they’ll assume the company didn’t take any steps to resolve the reviewer’s problem — instead trying to buy them off with a freebie or discount.
What not to do
Finally, there’s this one-star review response from a chippy in Northumberland, which specialises in rather interesting TripAdvisor review responses. The original review was less-than complimentary about the food!
If none of your chips were edible and you were down at the harbour, then you were literally one minute's walk from the restaurant. Any normal person would have come back into the shop to complain, but you didn't do that. Instead we are supposed to believe that you meekly went home and wrote about it on TripAdvisor. We would never serve food items that were poor quality and when something doesn't sound right it's usually because it's not true. We think you are a fake and a liar.
Don't do this.
How do I respond to negative reviews that clearly haven't been written by customers?
You’ve probably read reviews that don’t seem legitimate. Maybe they slated a dish that hasn’t been on your menu for years, or described a member of staff that doesn’t match any of your current or recent employees.
You can report these reviews to TripAdvisor by clicking the flag icon in the lower-right corner of each review, but there’s no guarantee that TripAdvisor will remove them. If the review isn’t removed, you may wish to respond, writing that some of their facts don’t add up. Stay polite, and explain clearly why you think they aren’t a legitimate customer. Other users browsing your negative reviews will form their own opinion based on the review and its response.
What about responding to positive or neutral reviews?
By all means respond to positive reviews if you have the time to do so — but remember that there’s much less to gain by responding to positive reviews than negative reviews.
Acknowledging praise can quickly become a little awkward, repetitive, and robotic, so do your best to personalise your messages, or switch out who responds to reviews.
Wrap-up
Not many restaurateurs and hoteliers enjoy dealing with TripAdvisor and its effects. Many would rather it didn’t exist at all! But the reality is that TripAdvisor does exist, and your business is on it.
If you can identify whether it’s the quality, quantity, or recency of reviews that’s holding you back, you can start working towards a solution.
The odds can be against you as a small business, but by tweaking your TripAdvisor strategy and focusing on providing an exceptional service to customers, you can soon start to climb the ranks — and perhaps even win an award from TripAdvisor themselves.
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