Beyond the Thank You: How to Effectively Respond to Positive Online Reviews

Take a moment and imagine this…

You work for a long-distance moving company and you just received a 5-star Google review. The customer was thrilled with your team’s punctuality, cleanliness, and speed moving all their precious belongings across the country. They even mentioned that they would be recommending your company to their friends who are moving soon. You’re proud of your team, so you screenshot the review and message it to them.

Now what? It’s easy to think it ends there.

Many companies instinctively put time and energy towards the negative online reviews. It makes sense that a 1-star review needs immediate attention while a 5-star review can speak for itself. And even though positive reviews are powerful on their own, the real power lies in how you respond.

Taking the time to reply to positive reviews on platforms like Google Business Profile and BestCompany.com is more than a polite gesture  — it’s a strategy to reinforce customer loyalty and enhance your brand’s online reputation. Acknowledging the kind words of happy customers makes them feel appreciated and shows that you are committed to maintaining a relationship with them beyond the initial product or service. It also helps prospective customers see that your company is friendly and appreciates every bit of feedback.

Let’s explore how to get the most out of responding to positive online reviews.

• 6 Best Practices for Responding to Positive Reviews
• Common Mistakes to Avoid
• Craft Personalized Responses with a Template
• Leverage Positive Reviews for Marketing
• Harness the Power of Positive Reviews with Snoball

6 Best Practices for Responding to Positive Reviews

Responding to positive online reviews can strengthen your relationships with current satisfied customers and improve your company’s online reputation. But to get the most out of this approach, you can’t just send a quick, “Thank you! Your feedback matters to us.” That defeats the purpose and feels impersonal. Here are six things to keep in mind when interacting with positive reviews on your brand’s online profiles.

1. Be Prompt and Personal

Don’t let too many days go by without recognizing a customer’s raving review. If you respond quickly, it shows that you are paying attention and truly do appreciate their feedback. Use the individual’s name and mention specific details from their review to make your response feel personalized.

2. Express Genuine Gratitude

Thank the reviewer sincerely. A simple "Thank you for your kind words!" can go a long way. Don’t stray too far from the brand voice, but don’t be afraid to put your personality into the response. For example, something like, “That seriously means so much to us 😊” feels more human.

3. Highlight Key Benefits

The customer might mention something specific that they liked, so be sure to reinforce that positive aspect by bringing it up in your reply. For instance, if the reviewer praises your customer support team, you could say, "Taking care of our customers is our number one goal, so it makes us very happy to hear that you had a good experience with our customer support team!"

4. Encourage Future Engagement

Invite the happy customer to continue engaging with your brand. Some invitations might include:

• “Don’t forget to follow us on social media!”
• “Let us know if you have a friend that could benefit from our product / service.”
• “If you ever have questions or need help, don’t hesitate to reach out at ###-###-####.”

5. Praise Employees

Positive reviews sometimes reference a specific employee that the customer worked with, especially in home service industries. For example, they might mention the sales rep or customer service rep that supported them through a specific instance. Be sure to acknowledge that employee in your response by saying that you think the employee is great too and you’ll pass their kind words along to them. 

6. Keep It Short and Sweet

While it’s important to be thorough, keep your responses concise. It’s okay if you’re not able to incorporate every single best practice into each response. It’s better to have a short and sincere reply that the customer will read than a long and drawn-out message that they’ll only skim through. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Because many businesses believe that their time is better spent responding to negative reviews, they might neglect the process for replying to positive ones. Remember, the purpose of responding to these positive reviews is to build connections and a glowing online presence. But if you slip into any of these pitfalls, you might damage relationships and appear disinterested instead.

It’s key to avoid…

• Generic responses. Don’t use a one-size-fits-all response. If all your replies sound the same, customers will feel unappreciated. They have great B.S. detectors and will know if you’re just pressing Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V to respond to their messages.
• Over-promoting. While it’s okay to mention a service or product briefly, be careful not to turn your response into a sales pitch. Keep the focus on appreciating the customer rather than pushing additional services.
• Arguing or being defensive. Even in 4- or 5-star reviews, there might be minor criticisms. Resist the urge to defend or argue your point. Instead, acknowledge their feedback, thank them for their review, and do your best to solve their small concern (if possible).
• Ignoring the specifics. Don’t respond in a way that makes it seem like you didn’t actually read the review. If the customer mentions something specific, explicitly acknowledge it directly rather than giving a generic "Thanks for your review."
• Delays. Waiting too long to respond can make your business appear less attentive. Try to reply to positive reviews within a reasonable timeframe, ideally within a few days.

Craft Personalized Responses with a Template

You might find it helpful to have a basic template on hand when replying to positive online reviews. As mentioned previously, you’ll want to keep your response short and sweet, not paragraphs long, which means you most likely won’t use every best practice in each response. That’s okay! Having a comprehensive template allows you to keep best practices top-of-mind, shorten it, and customize it to each individual reply.

Here’s a template that will help you get started:

Again, don’t forget to change it for each reply! Copying and pasting is not in your best interest here. If you have any questions about the personalization tokens in brackets, refer to these brief notes:

• [Reviewer's Name]: Use the customer's actual name to personalize the message.
• [Express Genuine Gratitude]: Thank them for the positive review, but do it sincerely and with some personality. Try to avoid the cliche phrases.
• [Specific Service / Product Mentioned]: Reference any service or product the reviewer specifically called attention to.
• [Positive Emotion / Outcome]: Reinforce how the service made the customer feel (e.g., happy, confident, supported).
• [Specific Benefit / Feature Mentioned]: Recall a particular aspect the reviewer appreciated.
• [Specific Action / Service]: Briefly touch on a key benefit of your service that aligns with the review.
• [Call to Engagement]: Prompt them to continue engaging with your brand (e.g., social media, referral, contact information).
• [Company Name]: Always include your brand's name for reinforcement.

Here is an example of a solar company who used some of these best practices to successfully respond to a positive review on their BestCompany.com profile.

5-star review by Cathy:

“Shannon was amazing, very helpful and really knows her information about solar energy, I would highly recommend her.”

Sunrun's response:

“Thank you for sharing your feedback, Cathy! We are thrilled to hear that your representative, Shannon, was attentive and was able to help answer your questions. Thanks for helping us create a planet run by the sun!”

Leverage Positive Reviews for Marketing

Hopefully you now feel empowered to go to your company’s online profiles and respond to positive reviews. But the power of words shared by your happy customers doesn’t end there.

These positive online reviews are dynamic assets that can be leveraged far beyond a thank-you message. By creatively using them in your marketing efforts, you can amplify their impact. Let’s look at a few places you should consider including positive reviews.

Company Website

A very prominent place to use reviews to build trust with potential customers is on your website. Create a dedicated testimonials or reviews page where you showcase positive feedback. If you don’t have the bandwidth to build a new page, you could display a rotating carousel or section of standout reviews on your homepage to immediately strengthen credibility with visitors.

Email Campaigns

If you have a newsletter that goes out to potential customers, you could include snippets of positive reviews to showcase customer satisfaction and success stories. This builds trust and might bring them one step closer to actually investing in your product or service.

If you have a regular email campaign that is sent to current customers, use positive reviews as a call to action, encouraging them to leave their own review.

Video Testimonials

Video content often has higher engagement rates and can be more persuasive, so turning written reviews into compelling video testimonials can entice more people to interact with the review. Reach out to customers who left detailed positive reviews and create interview-style testimonials that dive deeper into their positive experiences. These can be shared on YouTube, your website, and social media platforms.

Pro Tip:

If you're working on a budget with limited resources, it's still possible to get great video testimonials! Use a free video conference software, like Zoom, to record the happy customer talking about their experience. Next, use a free design tool, like Canva, to add simple titles and animations.

Sales Collateral

Nothing adds credibility to your claims and helps convince potential customers like the real-life stories of happy customers. Include quotes from positive reviews in your brochures, flyers, presentations, and other materials.

Social Media Content

No matter which social media platforms your company uses, you should consider regularly posting positive reviews. You can still keep up appearances by creating visually appealing graphics that highlight the key points of the review. And if you have their permission, you can even tag the customer to increase engagement. 

If publishing actual posts about reviews is against your social media brand guidelines, you could share customer reviews on your stories instead (on Instagram or Facebook). This won’t impact your feed, and you can save them as highlights to keep them accessible for future visitors.

Office Displays

If you have a physical location, create a display area where you showcase printed positive reviews. You might consider including the reviews that call out the names of individual employees. This not only boosts employee morale but also impresses visitors and clients.

Outside of the office, you can shine the spotlight on your positive reviews at trade shows and different events. Feature positive reviews on a backdrop, pop-up banner, poster, or small tabletop sign.

Sharing real customer experiences can help move prospects further down the sales funnel.
By strategically incorporating positive reviews into your marketing, you can improve your brand's credibility, build trust with potential customers, and ultimately drive more sales.

Harness the Power of Positive Reviews with Snoball

Now that you understand the value of responding to positive online reviews and how to leverage them in your marketing strategy, the next step is to put this knowledge into action. Integrating positive reviews into your overall strategy doesn’t have to be overwhelming — especially if you have the right tools.

If you're ready to take your reputation management to the next level, consider signing up for Snoball. With Snoball, you can effortlessly collect and respond to reviews on your BestCompany.com and Google Business Profile accounts. Plus, Snoball’s powerful reputation marketing features allow you to create custom widgets for your website and transform your best reviews into marketing assets. Don’t let your positive feedback go to waste. Turn it into a driving force for your business growth with Snoball.