Answer the holiday backlog in order: unresolved complaints first, after fixing what you can, then complaints already put right, then detailed praise. Make every reply specific, and book a weekly time to check from now on.

The reviews from the busy weeks

Between late November and New Year, customers kept writing reviews: on the Google listing, on the Facebook page, on whichever review site they prefer. Nobody at the business had time to answer them.

Now it is the third week of January, and there may be fifteen or twenty waiting. A few are complaints. Most are kind. Some are a star rating with no words at all.

Leaving them feels easier with every week that passes. But each unanswered complaint stays on the listing, read by everyone deciding whether to visit, with no sign that anyone saw it.

The backlog is worth clearing, and the order you clear it in matters.

Put them in one list

Before writing anything, gather every review since the busy season began into one list: the date, the site, the stars, and the main point the reviewer made.

Reviews arrive in different places. Answering them site by site, in whatever order each site shows them, means the oldest complaint on the quietest site waits longest.

The list also shows patterns. Three reviews mentioning the same wait at the counter are one problem, not three.

The order to reply in

The first group needs something before any reply. If the customer is still waiting for a refund, a call or a replacement, deal with that privately first, then reply publicly once there is an outcome to report.

Fix it, then reply

A public reply promising to look into it, posted six weeks late, reads as more delay.

Where you can identify the customer from an order or a booking, call or email them, put the problem right, and only then reply on the review. The reply can say what happened and what changed.

Where you cannot identify them, reply publicly with an apology for the slow response, a short account of the problem, and a named person with a direct phone number or email.

Either way, later readers see a business that dealt with it, which is what they were looking for.

One real detail in every reply

Replies written in a batch drift towards the same three sentences, and readers scrolling through them notice.

Before writing each one, pick out the single thing the reviewer cared about most, whether a person, a product, a wait or a price, and answer that.

A reply that mentions the knife they bought and the staff member who helped them choose it says more than a paragraph of general thanks.

Two or three sentences is enough. A reply is not the place for promotions, order numbers or a debate about who was right.

A worked example

A kitchenware store on a busy main street sells cookware, knives and small appliances, from the shop and through a small online store.

Between late November and New Year it gathered eighteen reviews on Google and Facebook. Nobody replied, because the owner and two staff spent December on the shop floor and at the wrapping table.

In mid-January the owner made the list. Two reviews were complaints. One customer had reserved a stand mixer online for pickup, driven across town, and found none on the shelf.

The other had tried to exchange a duplicate gift without a receipt and been refused.

The first customer's details were in the online order system, so the owner called, apologised and had a mixer delivered.

The owner's reply then explained that the website had shown the previous evening's stock, and that items now show as low in stock when only a couple remain.

The second customer could not be traced, so the reply apologised, set out the exchange policy plainly and gave the owner's direct line. Gift receipts are now offered with every December purchase.

The detailed praise came next, each reply naming what the reviewer had named. The star-only ratings got nothing.

Pass the praise on

Detailed praise usually names someone: the person who spent twenty minutes on a choice, found the last one in the back, or stayed after closing to finish an order.

Reply to it publicly, and then tell that person. Staff rarely hear what customers say about them by name, and a review read out at the start of a shift costs nothing.

A weekly time from now on

The backlog formed because nobody owned the job. Give it to one person at a fixed time each week; twenty minutes on a Monday morning is enough for most businesses.

Make sure the alerts reach that person. Google My Business and Facebook can both email when a new review arrives, but only to people set up on the listing or the page.

Both also have phone apps that can post replies, so a short answer can go up in a quiet moment rather than waiting for a desk.

In the next busy season, check every few days. A two-line reply in December beats a careful one in late January.

The counter-case

Not every review needs the same treatment.

Abusive reviews, or reviews from people who were never customers, are matters to report to the site, not to argue with in public.

Professional practices bound by confidentiality should reply in general terms, without confirming that the reviewer was ever a client.

And a business with two holiday reviews has no backlog to sort, only two replies to write this morning.

For everyone else: unresolved complaints first, the rest in order, one real detail in each reply, and a weekly time from now on.

Clearing the backlog

  1. List every review since late November.
  2. Mark the complaints still unresolved.
  3. Contact those customers before replying publicly.
  4. Reply in order, complaints first.
  5. Name one real detail in each reply.
  6. Pass detailed praise on to staff.
  7. Book a weekly time to check reviews.

Step three is the one most often skipped. A public apology posted while the customer still waits for a refund reads as words; the same reply after the problem is solved reads as proof.

Fitting that weekly check into the rest of the year is covered in a website year planned around your busy season.

Frequently asked questions

Is a reply six weeks late still worth posting?

Yes. Most people reading replies are future customers weighing up the business, and a late but specific answer reads far better to them than silence.

Which reviews should I answer first?

Complaints still unresolved, after dealing with the problem privately. Then complaints already put right, then mixed reviews, then detailed praise. Star-only ratings can wait.

Should I reply before fixing the problem?

Not if the customer is still waiting for something. Contact them first if you can, put it right, then reply publicly with the outcome, which is what later readers want to see.

How do I keep replies from sounding copied?

Find the one thing each reviewer cared about most and answer that. One real detail per reply is enough, and readers notice identical replies stacked one under another.

What should never go in a public reply?

Order numbers, personal details, promotions, and arguments about who was right. Keep it calm and short, and offer a named person to contact directly.

How often should someone check for new reviews?

Weekly, at a fixed time, with one person responsible and alerts reaching them. In the busy season, check every few days rather than letting a backlog build.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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