In this article8 sections · 3 min
1. Arguing point by point
It is tempting to correct every detail. In public, a long rebuttal reads as defensive, and readers tend to side with the calmer party. Instead: correct one factual error if it matters, briefly, and move the conversation offline.
2. Revealing the customer’s details
Mentioning what the customer bought, when, their full name or anything about their health or finances can breach privacy rules in many trades, and it alarms every other customer reading. Instead: refer only to what the reviewer already wrote.
3. Replying while angry
The first reply drafted in the moment is rarely the one to post. Instead: write it, wait a few hours, and read it as a stranger would. If it would make you hesitate to call this business, rewrite it.
4. Pasting the same reply on every review
“We’re sorry to hear about your experience, please contact us” repeated twenty times tells readers nobody read the reviews. Instead: name the specific issue in each reply, even in one sentence.
5. Offering something to change the review
Offering a refund, discount or gift in exchange for deleting or improving a review breaks platform rules, and some regulators treat it as manipulating reviews. Our post on incentives for reviews covers where the lines are. Instead: put things right because it is right, and leave the review to the customer.
6. Calling the review fake without evidence
If you are wrong, you have called a real customer a liar in public. Instead: check your records, report the review if it breaks the rules, and reply neutrally that you have no record of the visit and would like to hear more. The signs a review breaks the rules help you decide.
7. Not replying at all
Silence leaves the reviewer’s account as the only one. Instead: reply to every negative review, briefly, within a day or two where you can. Our plain answer to whether you should reply to every review goes into the details.
What does a good reply look like?
An example, invented for illustration: “Thank you for telling us, and I am sorry the delivery was late. We have changed how we confirm times so it does not happen again. If you would like to talk it through, please call me on the number on our profile.” Thanks, acknowledgement, what changed, an offline route. Four sentences is usually enough.
Sources
- Prohibited and restricted content (Maps user-generated content policy)Google
- Fake reviews guidance (CMA208)UK Competition and Markets Authority
The policies and laws above are the platforms’ and regulators’ own pages. This article explains them in plain words; it is not legal advice.
About this guide
Written by the Erase Trax review team: specialists in review policy, working with businesses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. Each guide is written against the platforms’ own published policies. Last reviewed .
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