Practice
Review reply tone
Reply tone is the register a business writes its review responses in, and it is the single most-noticed element by readers scanning a profile.
Two failure modes dominate: corporate boilerplate, which reads as automated, and defensiveness, which reads as an admission. Both are more damaging than the review itself.
The register that performs consistently is first-person, specific, and unhurried, signed by a named individual with a role.
In practice
Write as the person who was there. Delete any sentence that could appear in any other business's reply unchanged.
Common questions
- Should replies be formal or casual?
- Match the platform and the customer. Tripadvisor expects a manager's register; a barbershop's Google reply should sound like the barber.