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  5. Managing customer feedback

Managing customer feedback

4 minute read • Last updated: 31 October 2024

All businesses are likely to receive feedback from their customers. Some of it will be in person, but much of it will be online through social media, review sites and booking platforms.

When well managed, customer feedback can provide insights and offer huge opportunities for your business, so you should be actively encouraging it.

In this article:

  • The benefits of feedback
  • Ways to encourage feedback
  • How to manage feedback
  • Inclusive feedback
  • Platforms and tools to consider

The benefits of feedback

  • Immediate feedback

    With social media especially, you can receive close to real-time highlighting of successes, or areas for improvement and development.

  • Customer decision-making

    Customer feedback enhances a business's credibility, which attracts new customers. This influence on decision-making can significantly increase bookings.

  • Positive conversation

    Positive online conversations boost a business's reputation, attracting more customers. This favourable reputation encourages customer loyalty and engagement.

  • Builds trust

    Engaging with feedback builds trust and loyalty with customers and encourages repeat business.

  • Search engine optimisation

    Businesses with positive reviews may be weighted higher in search engine rankings. Find out more about how SEO works.

  • Knowing your customers

    Feedback give you insights into customer expectations which in turn helps you make informed decisions on how to meet and exceeded them in the future.

Ways to encourage feedback

The more feedback you get – good or bad – the more you will learn about the strengths and weaknesses of your businesses.

Woman surrounded by mobile phones

Managing customer feedback has challenges but opens up opportunities

Here are some ways you can do this:

  • Train staff to ask customers to leave reviews on your preferred online review channels such as when checking out.
  • Highlight your preferred review channels through your marketing materials and any receipts that you give customers on departure or when making a purchase.
  • Encourage online reviews through any follow up communications you have with customers such as emails.
  • Surveys on digital devices made available to customers, or suggestion cards that customers can complete and return prior to their departure.

How to manage feedback

Irrespective of whether the feedback has been shared in person or posted online, the general principles to responding are broadly the same.

Tips for responding to feedback

Be prompt

Not responding in a timely manner can appear that you don’t care or aren’t planning to respond at all. Remember, other potential customers are looking at online reviews and the response you give demonstrates the importance you place on customer satisfaction.

Be empathetic

In many cases the customer just wants to feel like they have been heard. An apology demonstrating an understanding of why the customer was disappointed will often be enough to resolve the situation to their satisfaction.

Acknowledge when things go wrong

Any business can make mistakes, so be open and recognise this. Thank the customer for raising the issue and offer reassurance by listing briefly the steps you will take to prevent this experience for other customers.

Be professional

Even if you disagree with the feedback, responding in a manner which is aggressive or defensive will reflect poorly on your business. It is better to thank the customer for taking the time to offer feedback, than to ignore or become involved in an online dispute.

Know when to take the matter offline

The nature of a negative review might be too serious or complex to respond to in a public forum. On these occasions it can be advisable to acknowledge the review with the offer of direct contact to investigate the matter further.

Woman using a mobile

Receiving a positive review

How to gain insights from positive feedback

Complimentary feedback should of course be responded to as well.

Ways you could use positive feedback

  • Awareness of what your customers really enjoyed about their experience gives you insights into what elements of your business to maintain, develop and promote.
  • Use these real customer feedback examples to recognise excellent staff performance and highlight successes in staff meetings.
  • Potential customers love to see positive feedback from satisfied customers as it provides reassurance when purchasing - sometimes referred to as social proof. So, highlight positive endorsements on your website. 

Negative feedback may also contain some positives, so you should acknowledge those elements too but not at the expense of ignoring the substantive feedback.

Personalise responses whenever possible

Handling all this feedback might feel time consuming so it can be all too easy to be tempted to post identical responses - especially if replying to reviews one after the other that are broadly the same in content.

Although sometimes they can help, be careful about using stock phrases, templates or AI-generated responses. You should be double checking any auto-generated response is appropriate as you want the customer to feel their feedback has been recognised and appreciated by a human being.

So, whenever possible, try and personalise at least part of your reply – even if it is just a single sentence within a larger generic acknowledgement – as again this will build trust and loyalty with your customers.

Example review

‘’I stayed here for two nights and found the staff to be pleasant. The rooms were clean and comfortable. I ate one night in the hotel restaurant and thought the food was really good, if a little expensive and took a while to arrive.’’ – JohnM1985

Example response

‘’Hi John, thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review. Really pleased to hear that our staff and rooms met with your satisfaction. We do pride ourselves on cooking all our meals from fresh, using only local sourced, sustainable ingredients. I recognise this might impact on our prices and I offer our apologies if it was a little slower in arriving than you expected. We are introducing a new menu soon and we’ll certainly take your comments on board. I do hope you can visit us again.’’ – Jill M. General Manager

In this example the business has personalised the response by using the reviewer’s name and picking out specific elements of their feedback. They have thanked the reviewer for their positive comments and while apologising for the slow service, they have also used this as an opportunity to highlight the quality of their meals and that they are introducing a new menu.

Inclusive feedback

Be open to feedback from customers who may have particular requirements, such as a disability. Learning from this feedback will make your business more inclusive and open it up to a wider market.

Customers with accessibility requirements will share information – both positive and negative – which generates word of mouth recommendations and reviews.

Those with lived experience are the experts, so be prepared to listen and act if they are telling you that your business could be more inclusive.

Inclusive customer feedback

  • 70% won’t return

    Number of disabled people who won't return to a business after poor customer service.

  • More brand loyalty

    Disabled customers have a higher level of brand loyalty than any other customer group.

  • 75% will share

    Number of disabled visitors who will tell others about a positive experience with a business.

  • 25% post on social

    Number of disabled visitors who will post about a positive experience on social media.

Sources: Purple 2023 and Euan's Guide Access Survey 2022

Platforms and tools to consider

Depending on the type of business you operate and the amount of feedback you generate, there are a variety of different platforms and tools you could be using.

Google Business Profiles and TripAdvisor are two of the most popular platforms for leaving reviews. In both instances it is possible for your business to be listed and reviewed without you having created or claimed your listing. It is therefore essential that you are managing your business profile on these sites.

Google Business Profile

Learn how Google Business Profile can benefit you.

Learn how to read and reply to reviews on Google.

Tripadvisor

Learn how to set up your Tripadvisor listing.

Learn about managing reviews and responses on Tripadvisor.

Social media

The nature of social media means that feedback can be received in almost real-time so it’s important to regularly check and respond to reviews. Remember to keep it professional and use your business profile for posting responses rather than your own personal account.

Learn more about using social media to interact with your customers.

Online booking sites

You also need to be conscious of reviews left on booking platforms such as Booking.com or Airbnb – especially so if they contribute to many of your bookings.

Learn about responding to guest reviews on Booking.com.

Learn about responding to guest reviews on Airbnb.

Google Alerts

You can use Google Alerts to receive email notifications when someone mentions your business online. You can set it up to track certain key words and phrases.

Learn about how to create a Google Alert.

Analytics

Analyse and track feedback. Review websites and social media will show you:

  • all feedback as a total number
  • how effectively customers are being engaged with
  • statistics for your business, which you can compare against your competitors

Further advice

For more information take a look at the guidance offered by Business Gateway on managing online reviews and responding to customers online.

Learn how to deliver great customer service

Customer service really does make a huge difference to how customers perceive your business. At all stages of the customer journey - from booking through to departure – you’ll need to be delivering high standards of hospitality and efficiency.

If your business offers clear online information and a great inclusive experience, delivered by friendly, well trained staff, then you can be sure to build a loyal customer base that will leave positive reviews.

Customer service

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