Updated May 18th, 2023
It’s no longer a secret that you should be replying to reviews — the good, bad, and neutral. But as you may just be entering the world of review management, perhaps you’ve got reviews that date back a while. So the question becomes, should you respond to old reviews too?
The answer, of course, depends on the review and just how far back it goes. This post will help you determine when it makes sense to reply to an old review and provide you with best practices for how to do so.
Benefits of Responding to Old Reviews
While there are plenty of benefits of responding to reviews, there are a few additional benefits you get from replying to old reviews.
- Promotes repeat purchases and builds customer loyalty: Replying to customers who left a reply months or years ago can remind them of the positive experience they may have had or get them to try your business again if their experience was less than perfect.
- Shows prospects that you care: Replying to reviews is one of the most obvious indicators to people who are searching for a business like yours that you listen and care about your customers.
- Informs your review management strategy: Reading through old reviews and responding to them can help you strengthen your review management muscle and help you refine your review response plan going forward.
So let’s get into how to start responding to old reviews — starting with the negative ones.
Should You Respond to Old Reviews — That are Negative?
It should come as no surprise that you’re going to want to reply to all your negative reviews — no bad review left behind! Hopefully, you only have a handful of bad reviews. But this may mean going back several years to address customer concerns. Replying to a negative review from a few years ago can send a message to current and future customers that you are now listening and willing to engage with them to resolve an issue.
There’s one caveat here — if it’s a very hostile negative review, you may want to let that one be. You don’t want to re-engage a customer like that and cause more problems.
Though it can be time-intensive to reply to all your past negative reviews, you can keep the message short and simple. Here are a couple examples:
“Hi, sorry for missing your review. We are now actively listening to and monitoring our reviews and we’d like to resolve your issue. Please contact us by (this email) or (this number).”
“Hi, we’re sorry we missed your review and that you weren’t pleased with your experience. We are now actively listening to and monitoring our reviews and we’d love for you to give us another try — we hope to provide a better experience moving forward.”
Here is a 1-star Google review that uses a similar approach. You can see that the review was written 10 months ago, but the lawn care business has just responded in the last week.
Unfortunately, some things you just have to deal with no matter how unpleasant — and bad reviews are one of them. But you owe it to your business and customers to respond to negative reviews. And remember, negative reviews can even be a good thing. Even if it doesn’t recover that long-lost customer it will show your prospects that you are a reasonable, caring business. Better late than never is the adage of choice when you consider responding to old reviews!
Should You Respond to Old Reviews — That Are Positive?
Responding to old reviews that are positive requires a different approach. You don’t need to worry about replying to all of these if you have a lot (which is great by the way). But if you’re a small business with only a dozen or so past positive reviews, you may want to reply to them all. The biggest thing here — is just don’t respond to past positive reviews from months or years ago and ignore the negative ones — you should reply to those first!
Thanking a customer for taking the time to share their love for your business, even if it’s years later, is still a great move. Take this example below:
Even though this was a positive review provided two years ago, the owner responded much later. The way they responded is sure to leave that customer with a smile and maybe remind them of their experience and get them to return if they haven’t done so lately.
Customers should feel seen and heard, and most importantly appreciated. That includes happy customers! Because they’re the ones most likely to return. Additionally, responding to positive reviews provides an opportunity to highlight your products and promote your brand even more. Just keep it short and sweet and you’ll be sure to delight the customer that you read their review!
Q: Should I respond to old neutral reviews?
Aaron: Here is one area of replies I’m less bullish on. I think you can get the same wins in responding to neutral reviews as outlined above. It gives you the opportunity to thank them for the praise or a positive comment if it exists as well as addressing what fell a bit short.
Taking the tone here that you have made improvements, care and would love another chance to get their business just might get them to give you another shot when they get the email that you replied.
The bakery here is a good example and while the review left little to go on, she replied with reasons to stop back in.
Even though this was a positive review provided two years ago, the owner responded much later. The way they responded is sure to leave that customer with a smile and maybe remind them of their experience and get them to return if they haven’t done so lately.
Customers should feel seen and heard, and most importantly appreciated. That includes the happy customers! Because they’re the ones most likely to return. Additionally, responding to positive reviews provides an opportunity to highlight your products and promote your brand even more. Just keep it short and sweet and you’ll be sure to delight the customer that you read their review!
Get 100 review reply templates
Should You Respond to Old Reviews — That Are Neutral?
Should you have a high volume of past reviews, the neutral ones are less of a priority. If a reviewer simply stated something like “It was okay.” there’s really not a lot you can say in response. However if they provide specific details, that may be an opportunity to share more about your business. You can consider replying in that case — like the example below:
Taking the tone here that you have made improvements, care, and would love another chance to get their business just might get them to give you another shot when they get the email that you replied.
But in general, it’s hard for anyone to get excited about a neutral review. Even the customer who left it might have forgotten they even visited! So don’t be concerned if you don’t have the time to reply to old reviews that are neutral — you can skip them with no great consequence.
Instead, you can use the time you saved to be sure that you have a really good system for responding to new reviews that come in.
Final Thoughts On Replying To Old Reviews
Having a solid review response plan in place can help your business in a variety of ways. Going back and responding to old reviews is sure to reignite old relationships, show your prospects that you care, and help you refine your review response plan going forward.
But now that you’re on top of all your reviews, ensure you have a process to manage them moving forward. That typically means a platform or tool that can help you get more reviews, alert you when they come in, and help you respond in a timely manner. After all, 53% of customers expect a reply to a complaint within a day.
If you’re ready got a tool that can help gather reviews and make it quick and easy to reply to them, try GatherUp. Our SmartReply feature makes it easy to reply to reviews in seconds. Learn more by requesting a demo here.
