How to Respond to Reviews

Introduction

Feedback doesn’t have to be scary. Both positive and negative feedback is what drives change, and helps people and organizations grow and improve.

Plus, feedback, including reviews published on Glassdoor, is a two-way street. When employees share their opinions about working at your company, you can join in the conversation and share your side too, for free.

Need help getting started? We’ve got you covered. These templates will give you exactly what you need to communicate with current and former employees leaving reviews, and importantly, anyone reading them as well. You’ll quickly learn how easily you can turn the feedback loop into a critical recruiting mechanism that will help you fill your pipeline with informed and engaged candidates.

Results of Responding to Reviews

Reviews are an important piece of your candidate’s job search. In fact, 86% of employees/job seekers are likely to research company reviews and ratings when deciding where to apply for a job.¹ Those reading reviews aren’t just skimming the surface. A majority (65%+) of Glassdoor users read at least 5 reviews before forming an opinion of a company, making them some of the most informed candidates on the market today.²

But what if your company’s reviews are less than glowing? Or, you want to give your opinion about something an employee has shared? The antidote for this problem is simple. Respond to your company’s reviews.

Responding to reviews has positive impacts beyond impressing prospective candidates. It can also impact your company’s bottom line and determine its future success. Having trouble convincing leadership of this? Try these proof points:

• IMPACT ON RECRUITING. The average cost per hire is $4,129,⁴ but companies with bad reputations pay 10% more per hire.⁵
• IMPACT ON EMPLOYER BRAND. Of Best Places to Work companies, which financially outpaced the S&P 500 by 295% between 2009 and 2019,⁶ more than half (56%) respond to reviews.
• IMPACT ON BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS. Salesforce leverages company and CEO ratings on Glassdoor as leading metrics in deciding which companies to potentially acquire. ⁷

The Rules of Reviews and Responses

In order to gather balanced and actionable feedback for employers, Glassdoor asks employees to include “pros,” “cons” and “advice to management” in their reviews.

Glassdoor also maintains strict community guidelines to ensure all reviews and responses are helpful, balanced and authentic. Reviews go through a two-touch content moderation process which includes both a technological review and sometimes, human review as well. If reviews or responses do not abide by these guidelines, they will not appear on our site.

To make sure your responses are within our community guidelines:

1. Be courteous and professional.
2. Do not include the name of the individual who you believe wrote the review.
3. Do not threaten the writer of a review with legal or other punitive action.

Responding to Reviews Best Practices

• Ensure title and name of the responder is correct
• Draft responses in Word or Google Docs to allow for proper editing of spelling, grammar, and tone
• Say “Thank You”
• Acknowledge positive feedback
• Address specific concerns honestly
• Take the high road
• Avoid corporate jargon
• Offer to take the conversation offline

When it comes time to formulate your response, in addition to 
following the best practices, we recommend keeping the three As in mind:

1. Acknowledge. Oftentimes people are looking for you to acknowledge a problem rather than offer an empty apology. Be transparent about explaining the current situation, and/or offer insight into what’s being done making changes.
2. Articulate your position, stick to the facts. Offer data and research to back your position to keep your emotions out of your response.
3. Advise. Your response is not just for the current or former employee who reviewed your company, it is also for prospective candidates. Advise future candidates on what they can do to have the best possible experience.

Test Your Knowledge

Let’s put the best practices to work! Read the following responses to reviews and determine whether the responses follow the best practices and community guidelines.

1. Response
   Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. From the top down, the key to our business is our commitment to not only customer service, but to our associates. Because taking care of associates is one of our core values, we’re always looking for ways to ensure our associates have equal access to growth and development opportunities. We strive to provide an environment where associates feel they’re valued, treated fairly and respected. Our associates are encouraged to provide further feedback to feedback@businessxyz.com.
2. Response
   Julie, I know you may not approve of our modified commuter benefits, but we don’t have the funds right now to cover all commuter costs as our employee base has grown too large. If you can’t be appreciative of the benefits that you do receive then we may not be a good fit for you any longer...
3. Response
   Thank you for taking the time to write a thoughtful review! We appreciate hearing about your personal experience and are glad to learn that you enjoy working with your team members and our unique work perks. We care very deeply for our employees and like to provide fun benefits like bagels on Fridays and chair massages every quarter. We are growing quickly which presents its challenges. We are dedicated to always improving our benefits package, which includes providing 401k matching in the future. If you’d like to provide further feedback please email me 
at feedback@businessxyz.com.

Key: 1. Yes; 2. No; 3. Yes.