A good or bad reputation can mean the difference between a business prospering and expanding, or shutting their doors for good. In the digital age, a company's reputation is controlled by customers using online review platforms like Yelp, Google and Facebook to announce the quality of their business publicly. The good news is that this lets companies easily monitor and manage their online reputation, a power they can put to good use by responding in a timely fashion to the reviews they get.

While negative reviews often get this most attention, positive reviews are as or more important! It's important to respond to favorable reviews to thank customers for taking the time to review your business and to encourage others to do the same.

With 92% of consumers reading reviews online, businesses can't afford to remain on the sidelines. An effective response will help ensure that a satisfied first time customer turns into a regular, and 70% of complaining customers will return if you resolve the complaint in their favor. The first step is interacting with them.

How to reply to positive reviews

It's easy. Thank the customer, name drop, promote and tell the customer what to do!‍

1. Say thank you and be specific

Nobody would let a compliment pass them by in reality. Use that same principle to a review reply! And be sure to restate your customer's compliment. This let's the customer know that a real person took time out of their day to acknowledge them, and that feels great.

2. Mention the business name and keywords

Don't miss out on the chance to drive your business up in search results-- positive reviews work wonders in search. Mentioning your business name, location and category (restaurant, coffee shop, hotel, etc) helps index that review online.

3. Market, market, market

Is your company famous for a certain secret sauce? Are you offering a promotion next month? A review response is a good place to put the good word out.

4. Give your customer a task

Not as scary as it seems. Invite them to try something different the next time they visit, or bring a friend!

As you can see, there's a lot of opportunity hidden in a good review response. As opposed to one advertisement to rule them all, each review is a chance to sell your business!

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