How to Respond to Bad Reviews: Turning Criticism into Growth

Take a second and think back to the last time you had a frustrating experience with a company. Maybe your order arrived late or the customer support agent was rude on the phone. As the situation became more annoying, you might have considered leaving a negative review—or maybe you actually did. What were you hoping for? A quick fix? An apology? Or maybe just a listening ear?

After you vented your irritation through a bad review, imagine what it would have felt like if the company responded promptly and professionally. Not with an automated message (let’s be honest, knowing you’re a “valued customer” and they “appreciate your feedback” doesn’t cut it), but with a thoughtful and personalized response that recognized your feelings and offered a real solution. You might have been surprised, and even impressed, that they genuinely cared and tried to make things right.

As a business, responding to negative reviews can have that exact effect. A well-written response to even the harshest criticism can strengthen your online reputation. It shows that you value feedback, take accountability, and want to improve. In fact, it can be the deciding factor for potential buyers who are comparing your brand with a competitor. 

By addressing complaints head-on, you can turn a bad situation into an opportunity to build trust and win over skeptics.

• 7 Best Practices for Responding to Bad Reviews
• Common Pitfalls to Avoid
• Personalize Replies with a Template
• Turn Negative Reviews into Learning Opportunities
• More Than Damage Control

7 Best Practices for Responding to Bad Reviews

A survey conducted in 2023 found that 76 percent of customers are willing to change their negative review to a neutral or positive one after their issue is resolved by the business. This means that effectively addressing customer complaints could potentially increase your overall star-rating! And since nearly 87 percent of customers regularly research their purchases online, establishing this habit of politely responding to bad reviews could also positively influence how future customers perceive your business.

Since turning potential damage into an opportunity for growth requires a professional, empathetic approach, we recommend following these best practices when responding to negative online reviews.

1. Respond Promptly

Think again about your frustrating company experience from before. After you left a negative review, if the company didn’t reply for a few weeks, would you take their response seriously? You’d probably roll your eyes at the thought that they finally got around to paying attention to you.

If you want customers to take your apology and resolution seriously, you need to take their complaint seriously. One way to do this is by addressing the review as soon as possible. A timely response demonstrates your dedication to resolving issues.

2. Stay Professional and Calm

Maintain a polite and professional tone even if the review seems unfair or harsh. Even though it may be tempting to fight back, avoid defensive or confrontational language as it could escalate the situation.

3. Acknowledge the Concern

Start by calling attention to the issue raised in the review. This shows that you are listening and value their input. And don’t forget, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all response — this is a personalized message, so be specific and include details they mentioned about their experience.

4. Apologize Sincerely 

If there was a mistake on your part, offer a genuine apology. Again, don’t just generically apologize for their poor experience. Personalize the response and apologize for the specific issue. This isn’t always easy, especially when you feel that their review isn’t an accurate representation of what happened. But even so, avoid making excuses.

Todd Jensen, CMO at Snoball, has seen firsthand how acknowledging the issue and genuinely apologizing can improve a brand’s online reputation.

5. Provide a Solution

Many issues won’t be able to be completely resolved to the customer’s expectation, but at least offer a solution. This could look like fixing the problem, suggesting steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again, or even offering a discount code for the future. 

If needed, suggest moving the conversation offline to handle it personally. Provide your contact information and ask them to send you an email or give you a call.

6. Express Desire to Improve

When a customer leaves a bad review, they most likely want to feel heard. Make sure they know their opinion is important and won’t go to waste by saying you’ll pass their feedback along to your team and use it to improve your processes. 

If it is a regular complaint, you might even be in the middle of applying the feedback. Mention that your team is already on top of it, working to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

7. Follow Up

After resolving the issue, follow up to ensure the customer is satisfied. Encourage them to update their review or leave a new one based on their improved experience.

Using these best practices ensures that your responses are consistent in tone and professionalism across platforms like Google and BestCompany.com. A unified approach builds a stronger, trustworthy brand presence​.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Many businesses don’t know how to handle criticisms well and end up falling into common traps. Someone might respond emotionally or defensively, because they take the review personally. Others think that ignoring bad reviews will prevent further damage, when in reality silence suggests indifference. Some companies believe a quick response is enough, so they use generic, copy-paste replies. 

All of these mistakes stem from a misunderstanding of how important reviews are in shaping public perception. In reality, each response is a chance to showcase your commitment to customer service and to win back the upset customer and potential future buyers​

It’s key to avoid…

• Ignoring the review. Not responding can give the impression that you don’t care about customer feedback. This can hurt your brand reputation and discourage potential customers from engaging with your business. Always address negative reviews, even if they seem minor.
• Emotional or defensive responses. Responding emotionally can make the situation worse, leading to public arguments. Instead, stay calm, professional, and solution-oriented. Avoid blaming the customer, even if the review seems unfair.
• Generic responses. You may think you’re clever, but customers can tell when a reply is copy-paste, and this comes off as insincere. Personalize your responses to each review by addressing specific concerns and showing genuine care.
• Making excuses. Don’t offer excuses without acknowledging the customer’s frustration. Instead, focus on providing a solution or steps you're taking to prevent the issue from happening again.
• Not apologizing. Even if you believe the customer is mistaken, a simple apology can go a long way. Acknowledge the issue and express regret for their negative experience. Customers like businesses that show empathy.

Personalize Replies with a Template

We recommend having a template for responding to negative reviews as it ensures consistency, professionalism, and quick responses. However, you must use the template as a baseline rather than a rigid script. A well-crafted template gives your team a strong foundation, ensuring key points like acknowledging the issue, offering a solution, and maintaining a polite tone are always included. But customizing each response to address the specific complaint is what really sets your brand apart. Customers want to feel heard, not like they’re receiving a canned reply.

Here’s a template to help you get started: 

The personalization tokens in brackets will help you to customize your response to each individual. Refer to these notes if you have any questions:

• [Reviewer’s Name]: Addressing the reviewer by name humanizes the interaction.
• [Express Gratitude]: Even if you disagree with the review, thank them for their feedback.
• [Specific Problem / Situation Mentioned]: Apologize for and acknowledge their specific concern as mentioned in their review.
• [Empathize with Emotion Mentioned]: Recognize how the issue has made them feel, especially if they used a specific adjective like angry or frustrated in their review.
• [Offer Solution]: Provide a fix to their problem. If this isn’t possible, at least suggest steps to ensure it won’t happen again.
• [Contact Info]: It’s best to take many of these conversations offline to avoid public arguments, so provide an email or phone number for them to contact you.
• [Improve Process]: Explain how you’ll be implementing their feedback.

Below is an example of a solar company who very politely responded to a negative review on their BestCompany.com profile.

1-star review by Tracy:

“I have been trying to contact the District Manager in my area…for 6 weeks without a single call back…My system has been installed for 3 months now and we can not pass city inspection… This is VERY frustrating that I can’t even get a call back…”

Sunrun’s response:

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Tracy. We understand your frustration with the delay in activating your system, and for that we apologize sincerely. To address this our team will be sending a private message seeking additional information so that we can assign an Expert to thoroughly assess your account and provide you with an update. Our commitment is to resolve your concerns as quickly and effectively as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please feel free to send us a private message. Thanks!”

Notice how Sunrun empathized with the customer’s frustration, apologized, offered a solution, did not make excuses, and used a gracious and professional tone throughout. This is a great example to follow.

Turn Negative Reviews into Learning Opportunities

Instead of seeing bad reviews as setbacks, think of them as stepping stones to improvement. It’s important to foster a culture where feedback, even the tough kind, is viewed positively so that your team can stay motivated and focused on growth. We suggest following these seven steps to shift your team’s mindset from “Oh no, we messed up” to “Great, what can we improve?”

Step 1: Review and Analyze Feedback

Start by collecting and thoroughly analyzing the 1- and 2-star reviews. Don’t just skim through them — conduct a deep-dive and look for patterns or recurring themes, like complaints about product quality, slow customer service, or delivery delays. By categorizing these issues, you can start to pinpoint exactly where things are going wrong. Finding recurring patterns will also help to address systemic issues rather than isolated incidents.

Step 2: Discuss Feedback with the Team

Next, it’s time to huddle up with your team. Organize a team meeting and get everyone involved — sales, customer service, operations, product development, etc. — because tackling these issues requires a holistic approach. The more brains, the better! During the meeting, share the negative reviews and discuss what went wrong. This is your chance to brainstorm solutions and encourage collaboration between teams. By creating an open dialogue, your team can learn from the mistakes and figure out how to prevent them from happening again. It’s not about blame; it’s about improving together.

Step 3: Identify Areas for Improvement

Based on your analysis and team discussion, select a specific area that needs a little TLC. Decide which specific teams should get together to execute the feedback implementation. 

For example, maybe you have found a recurring theme of shipping delays. That probably means it’s time for the customer service team to partner with operations and brainstorm ways to speed things up.

Step 4: Implement Changes and Communicate Internally

Now it’s time to turn those ideas into actions. The teams assigned to this project should get together and develop a game plan. When drawing up this plan, be sure to assign responsibilities to specific people, set a recurring meeting to discuss progress, and lay out a desired timeline for when each task should be finished. Clear communication is key here, so nobody’s left wondering what happens next.

Step 5: Train and Empower Employees

To ensure these changes stick, don’t forget to train and empower your team. Conduct ongoing training sessions that focus on the insights gained from negative feedback. Make sure they understand why these changes matter, so they’re fully on-board with the new approach. You may find it helpful to create real-world case studies. Walk through the issue step by step, showing what went wrong and how it was resolved. 

This isn’t just a “how-to” on fixing problems; it’s about helping your team anticipate and handle similar situations better in the future. Whether it’s boosting their product knowledge or enhancing their communication skills, these sessions will lead to improved performance and happier customers. 

Step 6: Monitor Changes

Once the improvements are in place, don’t just sit back and hope for the best — monitor their effectiveness! Keep an eye on whether the complaints around that theme have dwindled. Consider launching another review campaign with new customers a few months later to see if complaints around that same topic come up anymore. If the changes are hitting the mark and complaints are down, give yourselves a pat on the back! But if not, it’s time to fine-tune your approach and see what else can be improved. 

Pro Tip:

Build a spreadsheet to track the number of reviews that mention negative recurring themes.

Step 7: Celebrate Successes

After all the hard work of responding to and resolving negative reviews, don’t forget to celebrate the wins! When a customer updates their review from negative to positive, it’s a team victory worth sharing. Acknowledge the team members who played a role in turning things around, whether it was the customer service rep who followed up or the development team that tweaked the product. Highlighting these successes boosts morale and reminds everyone that all the hard work was worth it.

By treating negative reviews as learning opportunities, businesses can continuously improve and foster a customer-centric culture. This proactive approach enhances both employee performance and customer loyalty.

More Than Damage Control

Responding to negative online reviews isn’t just damage control — it’s a chance to show your business’s human side, turn frustrated customers into happy ones, and even impress potential buyers. A heartfelt response that acknowledges the issue, offers a solution, and takes the conversation offline can work wonders. 

But it doesn’t stop there! Those negative reviews are also goldmines for insights that can help you improve your products, services, and overall customer experience. By analyzing feedback and making changes you’re building a stronger, more customer-focused business​. So, embrace those negative reviews with open arms.