The Dos and Don’ts of Automated Review Responses

If you want to perfect your customer response rate, there’s no better way to do that than automated responses. 

But tread lightly. There’s a fine line between curating automated responses that resonate with your clients and setting up automation that undermines your connection with your audience. 

If you’re worried about compromising personalization, we’re here to guide you in this blog by taking a look at the following:

• What Are Automated Responses?
• What Is an Autoresponder?
• Benefits of Automating Customer Service Reviews
• Tips for Using Automated Review Responses
• Positive Review Response Examples
• Negative Review Response Examples
• Review Response Automation Software: What To Look For
• Acquiring More Reviews To Support Your Customer Retention Strategies

First, What Are Automated Responses?

Automated responses are computer-generated responses to questions, requests or reviews. They are often used in automating customer service to provide quick and easy answers. Automated responses can also be used in marketing, where marketers automate social media efforts to send personalized messages or generate leads.

You can create automated responses using a variety of tech:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots can simulate conversations with humans, answering questions about a product or service.
• Rule-based systems follow a set of guidelines to generate responses based on a customer’s purchase history.
• Machine learning algorithms learn from stored and fed data to generate responses.

Since we’re on the topic of response automation, let’s briefly talk about autoresponders and how they’re used to automate emails.

Automate Emails: What Is an Autoresponder?

An autoresponder is a computer program or script sending automatic emails triggered by certain events. 

For example, an autoresponder can be set up to automate emails sent to new subscribers to a mailing list or to send a reminder email to customers who have abandoned their shopping carts. The autoresponder might also be set up for sending automatic emails or a series of follow-ups, each with different information about the company or its products or services.

As such, automated responses were primarily used for sending automatic emails before. But now, they are used in responding to customers in different online channels. Automated review responses could be created by a brand specialist utilizing AI tools such as ChatGPT or when they set up automated social media messages on Facebook.

The Benefits of Automating Customer Service Reviews

Here’s why many use review response automation to boost their customer retention strategies:

Perfect response rate. When done correctly, review response automation allows you to show you care about your customers and their feedback.

Time savings. Responding to reviews can be time-consuming, but using tools to automate social media listings allows you to streamline your processes.

Scalability. Automated tools can easily scale to meet your needs, even if your business receives a high volume of reviews.

Cost savings. Automated social media replies are much cheaper than hiring a customer retention strategies team to respond to messages or comments.

Spam and slander detection. Some automated tools have built-in features to detect and filter out spam and defamatory reviews.

4 Tips for Using Automated Review Responses

To ensure you reap the benefits of automated review responses, here are a few top tips to guide you in automating customer service responses:

The Dos

1. Do Use Dynamic Fields When Using Response Automation Tools

Using dynamic fields, you can customize the response for every review by including information relevant to the customer’s location, star rating, sentiment and more. This ensures that customers receive tailored responses that are specific to their message.

2. Do Have an Automated Response for Getting Back to Customers

Not all customer feedback or concerns can be answered through a triggered response. So, come prepared with a programmed response for complex topics that says, “Our team will get back to you shortly,” or somewhere along those lines.

The Don’ts

3. Don’t Copy and Paste When Using AI

AI systems are trained on large amounts of data, and if you purely copy and paste, you may miss text that is irrelevant to the message you want to reply to. In this case, the AI system may be unable to provide accurate results.

4. Don’t Insert Irrelevant or Too Many Links

You can insert a link to your FAQs page in your responses if need be. But remember that automated messages can be considered spammy if they contain irrelevant links, excessive sales pitches or other forms of marketing. 

Positive and Negative Review Response Examples

At some point, your business or brand will face both positive and negative feedback from clients, and it’s essential to know how to handle both with finesse. 

Here are some negative and positive review response examples to illustrate how to respond in each case:

Positive Review Response Examples

• Thank you for your kind words, [customer name]! We’re so glad you enjoyed our [name of product]. Our team at [company name] always strives to provide the best possible experience for our customers, and your feedback helps us to do that.
• Thank you so much for your positive review, [customer name]! Our team at [company name] is glad you had a great experience at [branch location]. For future partnerships, please reach out to [name] at [contact details].

Negative Review Response Examples

• We’re sorry to hear that you had a negative experience with our [type of service], [customer name]. We value your feedback and will use it to improve our offerings in the future. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [contact details].
• We’re sorry you were disappointed with our [name of product], [customer name]. We understand your experience was different from what you expected, and we’d like to learn more about what went wrong. Please get in touch with us at [contact details] so we can investigate and make things right.

What To Look For in Review Response Automation Software

Don’t settle for automation tools that send out blanket statements with zero customization capabilities. Instead, look for response automation software that offers the flexibility listed below.

Triggered responses. The response automation software should be able to trigger specific responses based on the type of review, such as 4-star with commentary or 5-star with no commentary.

Customizable content. For instance, when you want to automate social media replies, you should be able to customize dynamic fields during setup. This will ensure that the responses are personalized and human-like.

Automatic username autofill. The tool should be able to autofill the customer’s username programmatically. It should also check for offensive usernames and automatically disregard them in the response.

Nuanced responses. The tool should enable you to create nuanced responses, depending on how much time you put into setup. This will help you create a more personalized and practical response experience.

Survey management. You shouldn’t have to manually create and distribute surveys or manually enter and analyze the results. Such a feature can free up your time so you can focus on other tasks.

How To Get More Reviews To Support Your Customer Retention Strategies?

Reviews speak to doubts that prospective customers may have. And since reviews come from your prospects’ fellow consumers, they are likelier to trust them over your brand voice. Here’s how to get more reviews:

• Ask for reviews. This may seem obvious, but it can be as simple as asking your customers to leave reviews. You can do this in person, over email or in your marketing materials.
• Make it easy to leave reviews. The easier it is for customers to leave reviews, the more likely they are to do so. You can make it easy by providing a link to your review page on your website or by including a QR code that customers can scan with their phones.
• Personalize your requests for reviews. When you ask customers to leave reviews, take the time to personalize your request. This will make them more likely to take the time to do so.
• Make sure your reviews are visible. Put your reviews front and center on your website. You can also share your reviews on social media and encourage your followers to leave their own.

Rize Reviews: Automated and Personalized Messaging

If you want your business to benefit from automation without compromising personalization, Rize Reviews can help respond to and monitor your reviews.

Get in touch with our team to learn more about how our reputation software can help you ramp up your response rate!