How to Respond to Yelp Reviews: COMPLETE GUIDE + Templates
Yelp Ratings
Need to know how to respond to Yelp reviews, positive or negative? Well make it as simple as possible with FREE information, templates and more.
The two most common Yelp reviews youll get are those from your biggest fans and those from your biggest critics.
As a business owner, you need to understand the value of responding to both, how to do it, and the systems you should have in place to make sure nothing is missed.
Heres everything well cover in this guide on how to respond to Yelp reviews:
Yelp Review Management
- Who should respond to Yelp reviews of small businesses or startups?
- Who should respond to Yelp reviews of medium or large companies?
- How to create a Yelp review response system
Negative Yelp Reviews
- Why you should respond to negative Yelp reviews
- How to respond to negative Yelp reviews [Template]
- How to respond to Yelp reviews without knowing the order number
- Why you should respond to fake Yelp reviews
- How to respond to a fake Yelp review [Template]
Positive Yelp Reviews
- Why you should respond to positive Yelp reviews
- How to respond to positive Yelp reviews [Template]
- How to get more positive Yelp reviews
Removing Yelp Reviews
- Can you remove a negative Yelp review?
- Can a business sue for a negative Yelp review?
Yelp Review Management
Yelp is one of the most powerful review platforms there is because its one of the most trusted. For that reason, you want to have a plan in place before the Yelp reviews start coming in. That way, youll know theyre being taken care of and how responses are being crafted to build the best impression of your brand and business.
Who should respond to Yelp reviews of small businesses or startups?
For small businesses or startups, its typically best to have the owner, founder or CEO respond to Yelp reviews. As the individual who best knows and understands the business, the owner will have the strongest handle on the brand voice and all the moving parts. Having the owner respond to Yelp reviews also shows that your small business or startup deeply cares about the customer experience.
As the business grows and the owners availability becomes more limited, itll be important for a process to be established so another individual can take over responding to Yelp reviews.
Who should respond to Yelp reviews ofmedium or large companies?
The danger larger businesses face with review responses is that everyone can think someone else is taking care of it. You want to select a team or individual to directly take care of responses so your customers are being taken care of.
If your business is larger with several departments, there are several options when selecting someone to respond to Yelp reviews:
- Direct them to your marketing team. Chances are, your marketing team is already aware of Yelp review response best practices. Simply make sure they know they are supposed to be taking care of them and have a written process in place all responders can follow.
- Direct them to your customer service team. Your customer service team has made a living out of handling happy and unhappy customers alike, and theyll be a great resource for responding to Yelp reviews.
- Have a third-party agency handle them. If your business is large enough to be receiving several hundred reviews a week, it may be in your business best interest to have an agency work on responses so your customers are responded to in a timely manner.
How to create a Yelp review response system
When you have a process in place for responding to Yelp reviews, you set yourself up for success. It helps your team members know what to say when faced with difficult feedback and ensures your customers are heard.
Heres how you can create an effective Yelp review response system for your business, small or large:
Create a style guide.
Once youve determined who is going to respond to Yelp reviews, create a style guide, or use the one you have to lay the foundation for your Yelp review response voice.
Make an FAQ or Fact Sheet.
Establish an initial list of FAQs or a fact sheet about your products that the responder can use to aid in crafting responses. When the Yelp responder encounters other frequent information he or she needs, that can be added to the FAQ or fact sheet over time.
Avoid copy-and-paste templated responses.
No, we didnt make a mistake. Templated responses are great as examples, but your Yelpers will notice if the same response is pasted to every single review. That makes your business seem robotic and inauthentic.
Instead of copy-and-paste templates, give your responders direction by developing response guidelines like these, which are geared toward negative reviews:
- Thank the customer for their honest feedback, stating you appreciate the opportunity to improve.
- Apologize to the customer for the inconvenience this caused them.
- Let them know how youre going to make it right [pass the feedback along to the production team, offer them something for their trouble, etc.]
- Take the conversation offline by including an email address and phone number they can contact with any further concerns.
Determine when its appropriate to use the Direct Message feature.
Yelp has two review response methods: Public Comment and Direct Message. It is always a good idea to respond with a Public Comment, which anyone on Yelp can see, but there also may be instances when its valuable to directly respond to a customer in a way that works more like communicating over email.
This could be the case when there is negative feedback related specifically to product quality, or when you want to offer a customer something like a refund, discount or free item in an effort to win back trust. You can either have the determined responder reach out to the dissatisfied customer through a Direct Message, or have the responder notify the owner in more difficult situations.
We should note that Yelp discourages the use of the Direct Message to convince an unhappy customer to take down his or her review.
Have the responder pass the feedback on.
Did Darla in customer service get a positive shout-out? Did Thomas recommend a product improvement? If the review mentions something specific, that should get to its appropriate individual or department.
Negative Yelp Reviews
Most business owners are concerned about negative Yelp reviews, with good reason. You can turn a negative Yelp review into an opportunity with a good response to it. In fact, 89 percent of consumers look at review responses from businesses when making decisions about where to go.
Why you should respond to negative Yelp reviews
Even though it might hurt to hear, this dissatisfied customer just handed you an opportunity for growth on a silver platter. Potential customers read reviews and they pay attention to how businesses respond. You have a chance to show off those brand values, establish how much you care, and what youre going to do to make it better.
Furthermore, Yelp encourages businesses to respond. Theyve done research to show how businesses have grown significantly just by crafting responses to negative [and positive] Yelp reviews.
How to respond to negative Yelp reviews [Template]
There are two different ways you can respond to a customers negative Yelp review: by Public Comment and through a Direct Message. Before you can, there are a few things your business Yelp profile needs:
- An approved profile photo. This photo must be of a person we recommend a photo of the owner and it must be a clear image. Avoid a group or stock photo, which will be rejected by Yelp. Here are detailed instructions on how to upload a Yelp profile photo.
- An approved business account name. This can be confusing, as the name of your business or company will be rejected. You must use the first and last name, or last initial, of a business representative. Again, we recommend using that of the owners. Here are detailed instructions on how to change or add the business account name.
Once you have everything approved by Yelp, you can begin responding to negative Yelp reviews by posting a Public Comment and, when appropriate, sending a Direct Message.
How to post a Public Comment on Yelp
No matter what the review says, you should always respond first publicly. Heres how to respond to Yelp reviews by posting a Public Comment:
1. Select Reviews from the left-hand sidebar on your business page:
2. Locate the review you want to respond to and select Add Public Comment under the review.
3. Enter your response and select Preview.
4. Review for grammatical errors, then select Post Comment.
How to respond to a customer via Direct Message
When a customer leaves a negative Yelp review, after posting a Public Comment, it may be appropriate to reach out for more information or to make things right by messaging them directly. Heres how to respond to Yelp reviews by sending a Direct Message:
- Select Reviews from the left-hand sidebar on your business page:
2. Locate the review you want to respond directly to and select Send Direct Message under it.
3. Enter your direct response and select Send.
Negative Yelp review response template
You should always craft a custom response for each customer never copy-and-paste the same response over and over. That will make your business seem robotic and inauthentic. However, you can use this sample and other industry-specific review response templates as a basic response you can tweak to meet your needs:
Hi [Customer Name], thanks so much for your candid review of our business. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced. As a result of your feedback, we scheduled a meeting with the involved parties to review process and prevent this from happening in the future. Were sending you a direct message to let you know how wed like to make this right with you, and if you have any other concerns, feel free to contact us as [Phone Number] or [Email Address]. Thanks again!
How to respond to Yelp reviews without knowing the order number
If a customer mentions a specific product but not their order number in their negative Yelp review, you can respond publicly and use the directions listed above to send a Direct Message asking for it. That way, other readers see youve responded, and you can help the customer more specifically later on.
Why you should respond to fake Yelp reviews
Fake reviews are reviews left by people who did not have an experience with your business. They can be spam, they can be left by competitors, or just by people discussing something unrelated to your business, like political rants.
Its important to flag reviews of this nature by following these directions on how to remove a Yelp review. Once youve done that, you should respond to these reviews because it can take a while for Yelp to pull a fake review.
How to respond to a fake Yelp review [Template]
When responding to a fake review, its important to maintain a polite tone, while making it clear to other readers that its not an accurate Yelp review of your business. Here are a couple templates you can tweak and use to respond to fake Yelp reviews:
Hi [Customer Name], we think you may have the wrong business! We have specific policies in place to prevent situations like this from happening. Wed like to clear up any confusion and assist you in any way we can. Please contact us at [Phone Number] or [Email Address] so we can help you. Thanks, and we hope you have a great day!
Hi [Customer Name], while we understand you may be upset, we think theres some confusion about your mentioned experience! Because it doesnt relate specifically to our business, were unable to help you in the way youd like! You can always contact us at [Phone Number] or [Email Address] if we can answer any questions you might have about our location. Thanks, have a great day!
Positive Yelp Reviews
While there isnt any anxiety for most business owners when it comes to positive reviews, there are a few best practices you should follow when theyre left on your Yelp business page.
Why you should respond to positive Yelp reviews
Celebrate those wins and thank your biggest fans for their business and praise! Responding to positive Yelp reviews shows people you care and it can help increase business and the number of positive reviews you get.
How to respond to positive Yelp reviews [Template]
Responding to positive reviews is much easier, as you dont have to address a specific situation. Instead, you get to thank the customers who keep you in business this part should be fun!
Heres a simple template to get your positive Yelp review response ideas going:
Hi [Customer Name], thanks so much for the wonderful feedback! Its customers like you that keep us going every day. Your business means so much to us, and we look forward to seeing you again soon!
For specific instructions on how to respond publicly to a Yelp review, jump to our negative review response section.
How to get more positive Yelp reviews
You always want to ask your happiest, most satisfied customers to review you online. Any negative feedback should be directed internally so you can make improvements to your processes and products.
Here are a few steps you can take to get more positive Yelp reviews of your business:
- Pre-screen your customers, ensuring the positive feedback turns into public raving reviews, while negative feedback is just between your business and your dissatisfied customer.
- Follow-up with customers who didnt respond initially. Doing so can usually double the amount of feedback you get!
- Regularly send requests for reviews. Doing so at least weekly if not daily increases the chance that customers will remember their experience and review you.
- Automate the process so your time can be better spent on vision-casting for the future of your business.
- Follow all these best practices by signing up for our free trial, which makes it simple for your business to get more 5-star reviews.
If you want even more in-depth information, learn how to get Yelp reviews that dont get filtered by its airtight fake review detection algorithm.
Removing Yelp Reviews
Removing Yelp reviews is a tricky business. While Yelp is very particular and pretty good at filtering out fake reviews, there are occasionally some that make it through. You can remove some, but not all negative reviews, if they violate Yelps policies.
Can you remove a negative Yelp review?
You cant remove a Yelp review just because its negative, but there are some circumstances where Yelp will pull a review if you report it.
For Yelp to remove a review, it has to violate Yelps policies. Yelp does not allow reviews that contain:
- Spam
- Threats, harassment, hate speech or bigotry
- Sexually explicit content
- Conflicts of interest
- Violations of privacy
- Payment demands
- Irrelevance to the business being reviewed
- Promotional content within reviews
If you think a review of your business is eligible for removal, learn how to remove a Yelp review.
Can a business sue for a negative Yelp review?
Your business technically can sue for any negative review, but unless it falls within specific parameters, you likely wont win.
Most reviews in the United States are protected under the First Amendment: freedom of speech. However, if a reviewer made a detrimental, false claim about your business that cost you financially, you may be able to sue on the grounds of defamation. The difference here is that freedom of speech protects the right to expressing ones opinion, but not making a false factual claim.
For business located internationally, different laws and definitions are wrapped around the term defamation. Its definition is stricter in Australia, while in Canada, anything stated as a fact is something a reviewer can be called to backup with evidence.
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers. If your business is considering filing a lawsuit, we recommend consulting a legal professional before making a decision.