Responding to negative online reviews and customer complaints is one of the crucial activities for all business owners: not doing so creates a bad impression, and bad reputation is tough to repair.

Millions of potential customers can see the lack of care for the unsatisfied customers: according to Brightlocal, a staggering 98% of people read online reviews for local companies.

Understandably, many people need some guidance on how to respond to negative reviews, especially harsh comments and critiques. Accepting, processing, and responding to scathing and highly critical reviews is tough when you're deeply invested in your business and face many other daily challenges.

We'd like to help you with our new guide to responding to negative online reviews!

In this article, we'll cover many different industries and show you plenty of real-life examples of handling bad reviews, what to pay attention to, and provide negative review response examples and templates you can grab and adjust.

Additionally, we'll provide you with useful tips and direct you to learning resources and tools for review responses.

How to respond to negative feedback: examples for various industries

If you're an experienced business owner or a working expert, the chances are you've received some negative comments about your work or a company, no matter your line of work.

Below, we've collected examples of negative reviews with responses you can use in various fields. 

Depending on the issue the customer faced, you may need a slightly different response, so we provide a couple of examples for each industry. They can serve as inspiration or even customizable templates: just copy, paste and personalize the response and you're good to go!

Healthcare providers

In most cases, negative online reviews for healthcare providers are about:

• Poor diagnostics or treatment
• Poor bedside manner and lack of interest
• Long waiting times, scheduling and other bureaucratic issues

Read more: Google reviews for doctors: the ultimate guide

Here's how to handle negative feedback for all of those concerns.

Poor bedside manners/misdiagnosis or treatment concerns

Instead of responding in a manner that can discredit the customer’s feelings and experience, here is a better solution for responding to a negative review by a patient:

"Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available],

We are sorry you had a negative experience with our health service. We take customer feedback very seriously and strive to provide the best quality care possible. We would like to know more about what went wrong and how we can improve. Please contact us at [email] or call at [phone number] to discuss your concerns. Thank you for choosing us, and we hope to hear from you soon."

Here's another bad review response template you can use, if applicable:

"Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available],

We are sorry to hear you are concerned about your diagnosis/treatment. We take such issues very seriously. We’ll review the situation in detail to understand what went wrong and take steps to ensure such problems don’t happen in the future. We’d also like to offer you a free consultation with one of our doctors. Please contact us at [email] or call at [phone number] if you have further concerns. Thank you for choosing us, and we hope to hear from you soon."

Read more: SEO for medical practices: 6 best strategies

Long wait times or scheduling problems

Here's one of the negative review response templates you can use in this situation:

"Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available], 

We apologize for the scheduling issues/long wait times you experienced. We understand how frustrating it can be to not be able to book an urgent appointment.

We are reviewing this situation to see how we can improve our scheduling and wait time management. We hope to get a chance to make a better impression. 

Again, we apologize for not setting an urgent appointment for you.

Thank you for choosing us, and we hope to hear from you soon."

Restaurants and bars

In restaurants, the most frequent customer complaints address bad food quality and poor service.

Here's how to reply to bad reviews in restaurants.

Bad food quality or menu variety

The owner didn’t reply to the bad review, which is common for busy restaurant owners.

However, here is an example you can use that will make a better impression on the customer:

"[Reviewer’s name], 

Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review.

We're sorry our restaurant and food quality didn’t meet your expectations. 

We plan our menu and prepare dishes with the utmost care, and we feel bad about falling short in this area. We will look at our offer and preparation methods to see what we can do to achieve better results. 

Providing high-quality food is a standard we strive for every day, so I’m sorry our rolls, steak and salad didn’t reflect that.

I will pass this along to the kitchen staff. Thank you for your honest opinion – such constructive feedback is crucial to us."

Poor service

"Thank you for your feedback, [Reviewer’s name]. 

We apologize for the long wait times and poor service. I will look into this issue and make the necessary changes to ensure our employees are at your service. 

We’re sorry your experience at our bar wasn’t better, but feedback like yours helps us make improvements in the right direction.

We hope you’ll revisit us in the future so that we can make a better impression."

Here's another option to respond to negative reviews about the service:

"Thank you for your feedback, [Reviewer’s name].

We apologise for the long wait times – it’s been a busy period. We’re sorry your experience at our bar wasn’t better.

We always aim to provide timely and excellent customer service, and we’ll see what we can do to improve.

We hope you’ll revisit us in the future so that we can make a better impression."

Travel: hotels, Airbnbs and other accomodation

Dirty or uncomfortable room

Here are two response templates for complaints about unsanitary accomodation:

"Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available],

We apologize for the problems you experienced.

Our premises' cleanliness and guests' comfort are always our priorities, and we’re sorry our hotel fell short of your expectations. We hope you’ll revisit us in the future so that we can make a better impression and we’d like to offer you a discount during your next stay. Thank you for your valuable feedback."

Or, try this:

[Reviewer’s name],

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We take cleanliness and hygiene very seriously. We are sorry to disappoint you. We’ll review the situation and address this issue with our staff to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.

Thank you for your feedback, and we hope we’ll see you again."

Booking errors

"Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available],

We apologise for the booking error. We’re very sorry for the confusion and any problems it caused you. We are reviewing this situation to see why it happened and how we can improve our process. We hope you’ll revisit us in the future so that we can make a better impression, and we’d like to offer you a discount during your next stay.

Please contact us at [email] or call at [phone number] if you have further concerns."

Standard lower than advertised 

In case the customers report that their accommodation isn't what they expected, here's how you can respond:

"Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available],

We are sorry the room didn’t meet the standard advertised in its description. We’ll review the situation in detail, and we’d be grateful for more information about the issues you noticed so that we can ensure such problems don’t happen in the future. We’d also like to offer you a discount during your next stay.

Please contact us at [email] or call at [phone number] if you have further concerns. Thank you for choosing us, and we hope to hear from you soon."

Read our negative hotel reviews guide for more tips.

Home Services

Poor customer service or unprofessional behaviour

"Dear [Reviewer’s name],

We apologize for the experience you had with our company. The employee’s behaviour was unprofessional, and we’re sorry for your discomfort and inconvenience. We’ll address this situation with our staff to prevent such things from happening in the future. Thank you for your valuable opinion."

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Automotive

Car problem

Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available], 

We're very sorry to hear that you’ve had a problem with your car.

We strive to offer our customers excellent quality, and we apologize we failed to deliver on that front. We'll review our processes to resolve issues and prevent them from occurring in the future. Also, allow us to offer you a free service check to ensure everything is safe and in order.

Please contact us at [email] or call at [phone number] to make an appointment. 

Thank you for your feedback.

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Legal

Lost case

Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available], 

We are sorry to hear that your case's outcome is unsatisfactory. 

We always strive to provide our clients with the best legal representation, and we understand very well how important it is to achieve a good result. We’ll review the case to see whether we can improve our case preparation process. 

Please us at [email] or call at [phone number] to further discuss your particular case and how we can help.

Again we apologize and thank you for your feedback.

Read more about negative review responding in:

1. Responding to a BBB complaint
2. Responding to a bad Glassdoor review

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High price

Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available], 

We are sorry to hear that you feel we overcharged you for the legal service we provided. We do what we can to offer fair and competitive pricing, but we understand it’s subjective matter. 

We appreciate your feedback and will use the knowledge you provided to offer a free consultation in certain situations.

Please us at [email] or call at [phone number] to further discuss your particular case and what we can offer.

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Real Estate

Unresponsive agent

Dear Mr/Ms [insert name if available], 

We are sorry our agent didn’t respond to your communication attempts. We understand how frustrating this situation can be.

We’ll review the situation in detail to understand what went wrong and take steps to ensure such problems don’t happen in the future. We’d also like to offer you a free consultation with a different agent. 

Please contact us at [email] or call at [phone number] to make an appointment. 

Thank you for your business and detailed feedback.

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Other services

Wedding venue 

Thank you for your feedback, [Reviewer’s name]. 

We are sorry to hear that we failed to meet your expectations. Communication is a key part of our brand, so we deeply apologize for not reflecting that. 

We passed the information along to our team. We take such criticism very seriously and will do our best to iron out the issues you mentioned. 

We hope you found a great venue and that your wedding was fantastic.

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>>Click to download our full template list <<

Best practices for responding to negative reviews

Even the best template won’t cover every potential scenario. Here’s a list of best practices to follow when responding to negative reviews:

1. Acknowledge the customer's concerns – if the issue is real, don’t try to hide it. Even if the problem highlighted in the review isn’t 100% real – for example, it stems from misuse or misunderstanding of the product – at the very least, try to acknowledge the person’s concerns somehow. 
2. Apologize for any issues or problems they experienced – apologize for the issues or problems your customers faced, even if you feel they weren’t entirely your company’s fault. There may be something you’re unaware of. 
3. Offer a solution or explanation for the issue – if you know the root cause behind the problem, explain it honestly in an easily understood way. Tell the customer what they can do to fix the issue or – at the very least – avoid it in the future. Or tell them what you’re going to do to improve things.
4. Provide contact information for further assistance – you should always end your responses with contact details the person can use to reach out to your customer service team directly in case they need further help (both email and phone in case they prefer to take the conversation offline). 
5. Keep the response professional and empathetic – no matter what problems the review highlights, no matter whether they’re real or not, you should always write your responses in a professional, toned, and empathetic manner. 
6. Personalize the response to address the specific concerns mentioned in the review – avoid answering customer concerns with messages that contain general statements. Customize your responses so that people who read them see someone took the time to address their issues. 
7. Avoid canned responses and respond promptly – try not to use so-called “canned responses”, i.e. pre generated statements about a known issue. It can make your customers feel sidelined – not appropriately engaged. Also, respond to reviews promptly, especially when they’re negative.

How to respond to negative reviews easier

Responding to negative reviews takes up a lot of time and energy, and most local business owners don’t have that – that’s why most negative reviews are left unanswered or answered poorly.

Using pre-made templates helps speed up the process, but often, non-personalized answers won’t significantly impact your brand’s online reputation. If you don’t have time to commit to answering reviews in detail, ResponseScribe can help you.

Whether is it is responding to negative reviews on Facebook, bad Yelp reviews or any other platform.

ResponseScribe is an end-to-end service that helps businesses respond to online reviews by creating personalized, on-brand messages on their behalf.

ResponseScribe utilizes AI, but our real strength lies in people. Depending on your chosen pricing plan, the review responses you get can be created partly or entirely by human writers. You can count on responses with the best possible personalization and customization.

We aim to manage as much of the review response process as you, as the client, want us to. Would you like us to create entire responses based on our extensive experience and knowledge about the business you gave us? No problem.

Do you prefer to remain in control and want to edit or approve every response before it’s published? We’re ready for that, too. You’ll get SMS or email notifications once we prepare the copies.

Our prices start at just $20 per month, and we monitor reviews on 50 + review sites, including Facebook, Google, and Yelp. You can ensure no critical review goes unnoticed – simply connect your review sites and let us do what we do best!

What do you gain by using ResponseScribe?

• Professional, personalized responses – thanks to ResponseScribe, your customers will receive curated, personalized responses to their reviews aligned well with your company’s image and branding. No concerns will go unanswered, and your team will be able to focus on more productive and essential tasks.
• Saved time and money – our price starts at $20, and we have a quick turnaround – we usually deliver responses within an hour of the review.
• Communication consistent with your image – our trained responders will craft professional, empathetic responses that will always be consistent with your brand's broader communication strategy. It’ll help you create a good image among your customers, improving brand loyalty.

• Help with building your online presence – over 10,000 local businesses trust ResponseScribe with their review responses. We know how to create a presence for companies online, and we want to use this knowledge for your benefit – to help you interact with your customers and build long-lasting business relationships. 

Conclusion

Responding to negative reviews is crucial – an unhappy customer can be determined to make their voice heard.

You can make this process even easier by using ready-made templates for various scenarios or – better yet – investing in an end-to-end service like ResponseScribe that’ll take this entire process out of your hands (or as much so as you prefer).

Our service will help you create professional, on-brand responses to even the harshest criticism. You’ll save time and money and show your existing and potential customers you care.

Want to check ResponseScribe out? Start your free trial today – we’ll gladly show you how our service can help you!