Congratulations on receiving a 5-star rating or review of your business. Thats a great indicator youre providing a quality product or service but now the question is, what should you do next? Is it really necessary to reply, or is that just a waste of your time? And if responding truly is so important, how can you make sure that yours include [and omit] the right sort of wording?
These are essential questions for any business owner or manager to be asking themselves. This article will provide clear and detailed answers, explaining three strategies for responding to 5-star reviews with easy-to-follow example templates included. If your business needs help replying to 5-star ratings on Yelp, Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, or any other review platform, try following the strategies suggested in this guide, or simply allow our review response service to take care of the work for you!
Lets start by taking a closer look at the benefits of replying to reviews even in situations where your customers are already satisfied.
Is it Necessary to Respond to a 5-Star Review of My Business?
It may seem as though responding to 5-star ratings or reviews is an inefficient use of your teams finite resources. After all, you might ask, why should I spend valuable time focusing on customers who are already loyal to my brand? From a marketing or financial perspective, what does my business have to gain by interacting with reviewers who are currently satisfied with my product or service?
Put simply, what are the benefits of responding to 5-star ratings?
Were glad you asked. We covered this topic in depth in a previous article, which you can check out here; but if youre crunched for time and prefer a quick overview, here are the key points you need to know about responding to positive reviews:
- It boosts customer retention, which costs less than customer acquisition. Just because a customer was satisfied with their last visit or purchase, doesnt guarantee therell be a next one. Even if youre a well-established brand, you cant afford to take customer loyalty for granted especially not if youre in a saturated, struggling, or hypercompetitive industry. Acknowledging their feedback is one of the simplest and easiest ways to ensure that your satisfied customers stay that way.
- It positively influences undecided consumers, who are more likely to choose businesses that respond to reviews. Recently collected statistics show that most consumers who read reviews also read owner responses at least, on the relatively rare occasions when they receive them. Unfortunately, only about 35% of consumers report receiving responses to each review, while an additional 18% say they dont receive any responses. This represents an enormous missed opportunity, since statistics also show that a full 69% to 70% of consumers are more likely to use a business that replies to its reviewers. If you arent responding to positive ratings, such as 5-star reviews on Yelp or Facebook, youre missing out on business, plain and simple.
- Its an emerging trend in consumer expectations and your business needs to keep up. In 2020, one in five consumers surveyed said that they wanted businesses to respond to their reviews within 24 hours. Another 26% said they wanted an owner response within 48 hours, while another 15% expected one within 72 hours. By delaying your responses or worse, not responding at all youre falling out of step with consumer expectations, giving your competitors more room to get the edge.
Emily Homrok is a freelance copywriter with more than five years of writing experience. She joined the Shout About Us team as a content strategist in 2020.