Replying as a Person Instead of the Team

Signed, the team

A customer writes that the pizza arrived forty minutes late and cold. Underneath, the reply: thank you for your feedback, we strive to provide excellent service, please contact us. The Team.

Scroll down. A five-star review praising the crust has the same reply, word for word. So does a three-star review about parking.

Nobody reading the page believes anyone read those reviews. The replies were posted to clear a list.

Who reads the reply

The reviewer may read it once. Everyone deciding whether to order reads it after them, often several replies in a row.

They are not checking whether you apologised. They are checking what happens here when things go wrong, and whether a person would deal with their problem.

A form letter answers that badly. It says the complaint went into a system, and nobody in particular is responsible for what happens next.

What gives a template away

• The same wording under good reviews and bad ones.
• No detail from what the reviewer wrote.
• Phrases nobody says aloud, such as we strive to exceed expectations.
• An apology for any inconvenience instead of for what happened.
• Contact us, with no name, number or email to contact.
• A signature from nobody: the team, management, customer care.

The last is the easiest to change and changes the most. A name forces the rest to improve, because few people will sign their own name to a sentence they would never say.

What a name changes

A reply in the first person can make commitments a team cannot: "I spoke to the kitchen on Saturday." "I will call you this afternoon."

It gives the reviewer someone to ask for when they phone, and it gives the next reader a person to picture.

It also makes someone accountable in public, which is exactly what makes the reply believable. A person has put their name to this.

Who should sign

In a small business, the owner. In a business with several locations, the manager of the location the review is about, with the owner stepping in for the serious ones.

A first name and a role is enough: the owner, the manager at the north location. Full names are optional.

If a marketing company drafts or monitors replies, that can work well, provided the named person reads each one before it goes out and would say it in person.

When the person who signed old replies leaves, leave those replies alone. New ones come from whoever is responsible now.

Writing it in the first person

Start with the detail. "I am sorry your order on Friday arrived late and cold" does what "we apologise for any inconvenience" never can.

Say briefly what happened or what you changed, without blaming the customer: "we had two drivers out that night instead of three, and I have changed the Friday roster."

Offer something specific and a direct way to reach you, then stop. Three or four sentences is plenty.

Write it the way you would say it across the counter, then read it aloud before posting. Anything that sounds stiff out loud reads stiffer on the page.

Do not reveal anything about the customer that they did not write themselves, such as their address or past orders. The reply is public.

A worked example

A pizzeria with two locations shared one login for its Google listing among several staff, and whoever had a quiet moment answered reviews.

Every reply used the same three sentences and the same sign-off from the team. A complaint about a missed delivery got the same thanks as a review praising the dough.

The owner noticed when a regular customer joked about it at the counter. Read in a row, the replies looked automated, because in effect they were.

The cause was not laziness. The template had been written to make replying quick and safe, and it achieved that by removing everything personal.

Each manager was added as a user on the listing instead of sharing a login. Each now replies to their own location's reviews under a first name and role, and the owner answers the angry ones herself.

Every reply mentions something from the review, and complaints end with the manager's direct line at that location.

Good reviews deserve a person too

A short, specific thank-you under a positive review is worth more than an elaborate one: "Glad the gluten-free crust worked for your daughter's party."

Vary the wording. Twenty identical thank-yous under twenty reviews tell readers the same thing as twenty identical apologies.

Resist stuffing replies with search phrases such as best pizza in town. They read like advertising, and advertising is what the reader came to the reviews to get away from.

Where the name appears

On Google, a reply appears under the review labelled as a response from the owner. The signature at the end is the only place a person appears.

On Facebook, a reply posted as the page shows the page's name. Other review sites differ, and some show the business name alone.

So the name has to be in the text. A reply ending with a first name and a role reads as a person on every site.

The counter-case

A larger business with a customer service department may reasonably reply as a team, as long as each reply is written for its review and signed by the person who wrote it.

Staff who do not want their name online can sign with a first name only, or with a role. For abusive reviews, a role may be wiser than a name.

And a name does not rescue a reply that argues with the customer or reveals their details.

For most small businesses, though: a real name, the first person, and one detail from the review.

Starting this week

1. Read your last twenty replies in a row.
2. Remove phrases nobody says in person.
3. Decide who signs for each location.
4. Sign with a first name and a role.
5. Mention one detail from every review.
6. Give complaints a direct line to that person.
7. Add managers as users instead of sharing a login.

Step one is usually enough to convince anyone. Read in a row, as customers read them, templated replies sound exactly as automated as they are.

Replies read by future staff rather than customers are covered in employer reviews and the people you want to hire.

Frequently asked questions

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.