How to Respond to Customer Reviews

Customer service can be challenging and if you feel frustrated by it, you are not alone. This article will give you some tools to feel confident addressing feedback that you receive publicly, in the form of product ratings.

First, a quick primer. Customers can rate your products after they have purchased them. They can rate products on a scale of one to five stars, with five stars being the highest rating. They must leave a review if they wish to submit their product rating.

Try to Respond to All Reviews

Respond to both positive and negative reviews in a timely manner. Not only will this approach make it clear that you are invested in your products' success, but it will also show that you are paying attention to your customers and are listening to what they have to say. If customers feel that nobody will actually hear or address their compliments or concerns, they are more likely to lash out and provide aggressive or unhelpful comments. If, however, they know that you are interested in what they have to say because they have seen that you address other people's questions or comments, they will probably take a more measured, respectful approach.

Responding to all customer reviews—even if it's just a quick, "Thanks for your kind words, Sam!"—will lay a solid foundation of respect and collaboration on your Ratings page that can make potentially challenging situations more approachable.

Use Review Responses to Redirect Customer Questions

If a customer has an issue with your product, the preferred method for them to bring that to your attention is the Product Support button in the sidebar of the product page. Frequently, however, customers leave ratings in place of submitting support requests.

If the customer has not used the Product Support button to reach out to you about their problem, respond to their comment and urge them to submit a support request.

Get to the Heart of What Your Customer is Saying

When you read a negative review, you may just hear anger or criticism. Ignore that initial impression and read the comment a few more times. A few things may be happening:

Your customer may be having trouble because they did not take the time to learn how to install or use your product. Or maybe they took the time, but they missed some details.
- Solution: Encourage your customer to submit a support request. If their review identifies a specific problem that you address in your documentation, direct them to the relevant resource.
Your customer may struggle with expressing themselves in English (or another language), and that challenge manifests itself as abruptness or rudeness.
- Solution: Encourage your customer to submit a support request and suggest what they should include in the request so that you can better understand the issue that they are having.
Your customer may not realize that there are other avenues to reach out to you for support.
- Solution: Explain to your customer where they can find the Product Support button to contact you with product questions.
Your customer may not realize that you are personally invested in maintaining and improving your product, and may write their review like their talking to an empty room or an anonymous forum.
- Solution: Respond to your customer by name (or handle). Encourage them to contact you with their questions via a support request.
Your customer may just be having a bad day (or a bad year) and be taking it out on your product's rating.
- Solution. Be compassionate. We all have bad days. Respond to your customer to show that you're listening to their criticism and that you would like to hear more about it. Encourage them to contact you with a support request.

Thank Your Customer for Their Feedback

In some cases, the reviews that you receive will be warranted and may bring issues to your attention that you had not realized were a problem. In these instances, it's very easy to thank the reviewer for their constructive feedback.

In other cases, the reviews that you receive may be the result of operator error. Customers may be frustrated with something that they perceive to be a problem with your product, when, in fact, the product works just fine, but they have failed to install or use it correctly. In these instances, it may be more challenging for you to thank the customer for their feedback. So what do you do? You can thank your customer for reaching out, or thank them for taking the time to leave a review. Then you can recommend that they get in touch with a support request so that you can point them to what the problem might be.

What is the value of thanking customers for their reviews?

"Thank you" is a polite response and will set the tone for future polite and respectful interactions.
"Thank you" recognizes that your customers have taken time out of their day to think more or less deeply about their experience with your product. The information that they are providing to you is valuable. Even if you just have a lot of comments that indicate that customers are struggling to use your product properly, that in itself is actionable. Maybe you need to improve your documentation or highlight in your product description where the documentation can be found.
"Thank you" shows that you are invested in having happy customers. When potential customers read reviews and your responses to them, they will pick up on the tone of your responses (polite, appreciative, hostile, aggressive, dismissive) and that may affect their decision to buy the product and, later, to either contact you with a support request or just leave a review.

Need to Change or Remove a Review?

If a customer wishes to change their review, they will need to contact us in order to do that.

If you, the Creator, wish to remove a review because it is abusive or inaccurate, please contact us directly.

Report Unacceptable Behavior

In rare instances, you may receive inappropriate reviews that are obscene, hostile, or threatening. If this happens, please contact the Blender Market team with a screenshot of the objectionable communication.