Understanding
how to respond to online reviews is essential for businesses across all
industries. Indeed, 89% of consumers read business responses to online reviews.
How should manager responses differ for positive and negative reviews? How does
manager response time impact online reputation? Should manager response times
differ for positive and negative reviews? While some online platforms, like
TripAdvisor, Yelp, and Google, offer managers general guidance on how to
respond to online reviews, answering these questions has — until now — been far
from easy.
To
help managers responsible for responding to customer reviews, we examined more
than 20 million online reviews across four different platforms: TripAdvisor,
Expedia, Hotels.com, and Orbitz. Based on the analyses of the length and the
content of manager responses for each online review, we offer five principles
that can enhance online reputation regardless of platform.
Principle
1. Address a positive online review by providing a generic, short response.
Surprisingly,
we found that managers need to be careful even when responding to positive
reviews. While a simple “thank you” had little impact, more customized
responses — perceived as promotional and thus viewed as disingenuous —
negatively affected future reviews.
Principle
2. Delay responses for positive reviews.
Furthermore,
managers can mitigate the negative effect of response time by delaying
responses to positive reviews until after the review reaches the second page of
reviews (for example, TripAdvisor shows 10 reviews per page). The delayed
response allows the positive review to be buried behind newer reviews (all
platforms in our sample automatically sort reviews from newest review to oldest
review and are not bumped up after a manager response). By doing so, managers
obtain any direct, positive effects from thanking a reviewer without negatively
influencing future reviewers.
Principle
3. Respond to all negative online reviews.
Negative
online reviews impact buying decisions and potentially lead to some consumers
avoiding some businesses entirely. To reduce the damaging effects of negative
online reviews and the potential loss of a significant share of customers, we
find that managers should engage in responding to an online review primarily as
a complaint management strategy. A manager’s response to a negative online
review potentially prevents a subsequent negative review, because a future
reviewer can observe prior complaint management interactions for a complaint
similar to their own.
Principle
4. Address a negative online review by providing a tailored solution to the
specific complaint.
Additionally,
managers should customize their response to each negative review to increase
the quality of their complaint management. Specifically, managers should
communicate actions they have taken to rectify the problem(s) expressed in each
negative review. By addressing the reviewer’s issue, the manager can
potentially appease an unsatisfied customer and show subsequent reviewers that
the firm cares about customer complaints and issues. Thus, an organization can
proactively manage service recovery efforts.
Principle
5. Respond quickly to all negative reviews.
Finally,
manager responses to negative reviews should be timely, so that a manager’s
response is visible to future reviewers. The faster the manager responds to a negative
online review, the faster the reviewer is appeased and prospective reviewers
can see that the manager and the firm are dedicated to solving customer
complaints in a timely fashion.
Mitigate
the bad, maximize the good.
While
in our analyses, both independent and chain businesses benefited from the
strategies outlined above, chain businesses saw the most lift from using it.
Why? Customers expect independent businesses to interact more with them and
they are not surprised when they receive a response to their comment. Indeed,
our analyses shows that responding to reviews in the manner we suggest doesn’t
improve an independent company’s reputation, while it does for chain
businesses. Still, following these steps are important for both independent and
chain businesses because responding to reviews is not just about improving
reputation, but limiting potential damage.
In
an age where customer word of mouth can quickly go viral, these five principles
provide a proactive approach to service recovery efforts by placing more
emphasis on manager responses to negative reviews, which helps mitigate
potential future negative reviews and maximize the benefits of positive
reviews.
Source:
HBR 14 May, 2020
