How to Respond to Yelp Reviews Process Checklist

This template will show you how to respond to Yelp reviews. 

Before anyone makes a purchase, visits a restaurant, goes on holiday or buys anything, they trawl through the reviews on Google, they look for recommendations on TripAdvisor and they read the advice of others on Yelp. 

Customers have the power to share their experiences with the world through online websites like Google, Yelp, and Facebook.

Yelp is one of the big five review platforms. Although similar to Google, in the way they ‘’connect people with great local businesses”, Yelp focuses on long-form reviews as opposed to short one-liners. It provides the kind of in-depth, thorough review that every wary customer craves.

“Yelp has been one of the most popular Internet rating and review sites for local businesses since its initial inception” – Wordstream 

Founded in 2004 by PayPal employees, Yelp has individual pages that are dedicated to businesses. Yelp users submit their reviews on these pages, using a one to five-star rating system, and businesses can, and should, respond to these reviews.

So, how should you, as a business, respond to Yelp reviews? 

Glad you asked!

This template will provide you with a process to follow that will identify the best way to respond to your good and bad Yelp reviews. 

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Complete the following fields to provide top-level information about the review.

Decide if you want to respond publicly or privately.

Reasons for responding publicly
Responding publicly shows customers and potential customers that you care and are attentive. It allows everyone to see how seriously you take customer feedback

Reasons for responding privately
Responding privately can make it more personal for the customer, or you may want to ask for more information about a delicate issue. 

Confirm if the review is positive or negative by answering the below question. 

Answer the below question to establish how to respond to the review. 

Identify how you can add value to the customer’s review in the field below.

Respond to the Yelp review by copy and pasting the following response script into your reply. 

Make sure you customize the response and adapt it accordingly. 

{{form.Customers_name}}, thank you for submitting your review.

Your review means the world to us, and we wanted to expand on your comments by {{form.I_can_add_value_to_the_customers_review_by…}}

We appreciate your support and value your custom.

We look forward to receiving more reviews from you in the future. 

Thank you again.
{{form.Your_name}}

Create additional template responses by adding a text widget. Find out more here.  

Respond to the customer’s Yelp review by copy and pasting the following response script into your reply. 

Make sure you customize the response and adapt it accordingly. 

{{form.Customers_name}}, thank you for submitting your review. We appreciate your ongoing support and value your custom. 

We look forward to receiving more reviews from you in the future. 

Thank you again.
{{form.Your_name}}

Create additional template responses by adding a text widget. Find out more here.  

Read the descriptions below and decide which type of reviewer you are dealing with in the drop-down field below. 

People that leave negative reviews, tend to fit into the following categories:

Unhappy. Somewhere along the line things went wrong with this customer. Perhaps you dropped the ball, or you messed up their order. This customer has had a negative experience. 

Rager. A rager will use their words, emotion, and tone to abuse. They leave nasty comments and make threats. This reviewer is a punisher. 

Faker. A faker is someone who leaves a fake review

Misguided. This customer has been misinformed. Their review is based on inaccurate information that they’ve seen, read or heard.

Answer the following questions to determine how to respond to the unhappy customers negative review. 

Customers review: {{form.Copy_and_paste_the_review_here:}}

Identify the solution to the problem the customer is having in the field below. 

Respond to the Yelp review by copy and pasting one of the following response scripts into your reply.

Make sure you customize the response and adapt it accordingly. 

Example script 1: No follow-up 

{{form.Customers_name}}, on behalf of {{form.Company_name}}, I’d like to apologize for your bad experience with us. 

To rectify this, we will {{form.What_is_your_solution_to_the_problem?}}. 

Once again, we are sincerely sorry for this and please do not hesitate to reach out to us if this doesn’t resolve your issue.

We are grateful for your feedback as it means we can continue to improve. 

Thank you,
{{form.Your_name}}

Example script 2: Follow-up 

{{form.Customers_name}}, on behalf of {{form.Company_name}}, I’d like to apologize for your bad experience with us. 

To rectify this, we will {{form.What_is_your_solution_to_the_problem?}}. 

Please could you let me know if this resolves your issue? 

We are grateful for your feedback as it means we can continue to improve. 

Thank you,
{{form.Your_name}}

Create additional template responses by adding a text widget. Find out more here.  

As the customer has been misguided, identify what the correct information is in the field below. 

Respond to the Yelp review by copy and pasting the following response script. 

Make sure you customize the response and adapt it accordingly. 

Example script.

{{form.Customers_name}}, on behalf of {{form.Company_name}}, I’d like to apologize for your bad experience with us. 

We’ve had a look into this and we believe you have been misinformed.

{{form.Add_the_correct_information_for_the_unhappy_customer_here:}}

We will make this clearer for future customers.

Once again, we are sincerely sorry for this confusion and any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if this doesn’t resolve your issue.

We are grateful for your feedback as it means we can continue to improve. 

Thank you,
{{form.Your_name}}

As the customer has been misguided, identify what the correct information is in the field below. 

Update the customer with accurate information in your response. Copy and paste the following response script into your Yelp review reply. 

Make sure you customize the response and adapt it accordingly. 

Customers review: {{form.Copy_and_paste_the_review_here:}}

Example script.

{{form.Customers_name}}, on behalf of {{form.Company_name}}, I’d like to apologize for the confusion we have caused. 

{{form.Add_the_correct_information_for_the_misguided_customer_here:}}

We will make this clearer for future customers.

Once again, we are sincerely sorry for this confusion and any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if this doesn’t resolve your issue.

We are grateful for your feedback as it means we can continue to improve. 

Thank you,
{{form.Your_name}}

Answer the following questions to determine how to respond to the rager customers negative review. 

Customers review: {{form.Copy_and_paste_the_review_here:}}

As the customer has been misguided, identify what the correct information is in the field below. 

Respond to the customer by copy and pasting the following response script into your Yelp review reply.

Make sure you customize the response and adapt it accordingly. 

Example script.

{{form.Customers_name}}, on behalf of {{form.Company_name}}, I’d like to apologize for your bad experience with us. 

We’ve had a look into this and we believe you have been misinformed.

{{form.Add_the_correct_information_for_the_rager_here:}}

We will make this clearer for future customers.

Once again, we are sincerely sorry for this confusion and any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if this doesn’t resolve your issue.

We are grateful for your feedback as it means we can continue to improve. 

Thank you,
{{form.Your_name}}

Monitor this review, but do not respond. 

Escalate this review to your Review manager by sending the below email.

A complaint should always be acknowledged and addressed, but a rager is simply there to incite anger. Don’t feed them the very treat they are seeking. 

Select the reasons why you feel this review is fake. You can select more than one reason. 

Monitor this review, but do not respond. 

Escalate this review to your Review manager by sending the below email. They will be able to report or flag it to the marketplace as inappropriate.

Make sure this review is captured in your review management software or database. 

Share this feedback with the company by sending the below email. 

Work through the below list to establish if this review should be posted on social media.

If each sub-task can be checked off, then this review can be sent to the social media manager so they can create a social post, similar to this one:

Assess the review against the below criteria before sending it to the social media manager.

If the review meets the above criteria, send this email to the social media manager, so they can publish the review on social media. 

Complete the following fields to establish if this review needs to be shared with any other department. 

Answer the following question to determine why you are sending this review to another department. You can select more than one reason. 

Once you have established the reasons for sending this review to another department, send the email below. 

Confirm if the customers review requires a follow-up response. 

If the answer is ”Yes”, use dynamic due dates to set the date for the follow-up message.

To find out how to set a dynamic due date, check this article out.  

Time to follow up with the customer! 

Sources 

• Spiegel Research Centre – How Online Reviews Influence Sales
• Tinuiti – How To Respond to Negative Reviews
• Bright Local – Local Consumer Review Survey
• Bright Local – The 6 Types of Reviewer and How You Can Deal with Them
• Sprout Social – Creating an online review management strategy
• Local Clarity – Comprehensive Guide to Online Review & Reputation Management 
• Social Fish – 10 Reasons to Have a Social Media Response Triage Flowchart
• RBOA – How to: Perform Social Media Triage 
• Forbes – 10 Tips to Dealing With Trolls
• Carol Roth – Tips for Dealing with Internet Trolls and Haters in Business
• Moz – How to Deal with Fake Negative Reviews on Google
• Which – How to spot a fake review
• Yelp – About 
• Yelp – Dos and don’ts of responding to reviews on Yelp
• WordStream – The Complete Guide to Yelp Reviews: Getting, Removing & More
• TechRepublic – 7 best practices for managing online reviews of your business
• WebFX – How to Respond to Yelp Reviews
• Revinate – Responding Privately to Reviews

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