What’s your review response process like… are you all over it or is it pretty ad-hoc? Today’s activity gives you an opportunity to get back on track with your review responses.
Why bother responding to reviews?
Having unique and thoughtful responses to all of your online reviews demonstrates to both past and future customers that you care about your customers’ experience and that you value their feedback. Even negative reviews, although painful and frustrating, present you with an opportunity to demonstrate your excellent customer service through a well crafted reply.
The most important thing to remember about online review responses is that your words are not only addressing the reviewer but ALSO any potential customers who are researching your business. The potential future customers who are doing their research on your business will look to your reviews for social proof. If you do not monitor and respond to online reviews you risk ruining your first chance at a good impression.
No copy and paste responses
Today, go through every review your business has received on Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor and wherever else you appear and write a response to each and every one. It’s important to note that we’re not talking about a quick “Thank you” message. A copy-and-paste response does nothing to show off your unique business personality. Write a 2-3 sentence response that acknowledges something that the reviewer has said in their testimonial and expands on it where possible. For extra guidance, take a look at our coach Claire’s step by step method for responding to reviews.
Review response example
Reviews are a great way to share extra information about your business and services. So if your customer says “We loved seeing a bouquet of flowers in the dining room upon arrival” you can say, “We’re so glad you enjoyed the flowers! We strive to buy from local suppliers whenever we can and I will pass on your kind words to our florist David. If you’re ever back in the area we recommend dropping in to his stall at the farmers market on Saturday mornings.”.
You can’t control what your past customers say about you online. But every review provides you with an opportunity to demonstrate the gracious and helpful character of your business.
Why personalised replies matter even more now
There’s a newer reason to make every reply specific, and it’s about how travellers find you. When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews to recommend a place to stay or a tour to book, those tools read your reviews and the responses you’ve written to them. They are looking for real detail they can pull out and repeat back to the person asking.
A copy-and-paste “thanks for your review” gives them nothing to work with. It reads the same for every business, so it tells the AI nothing about yours. A reply that mentions the local florist, the sunrise tour your guest joined or the room they stayed in becomes genuine content about your business, the kind an AI assistant can quote when it decides who to put forward.
So that 2-3 sentence, personalised reply is now doing double duty. It shows future customers you care, and it gives the AI tools the specific, quotable detail they draw on when recommending a business to a traveller.
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