Learn the art of handling unfavourable feedback by joining us for “How to Respond to Negative Reviews”, where we’ll explore who should respond to company reviews, how often and why critical opinions aren’t necessarily a bad thing.
Welcome to Responding to Reviews Tutorial with Glassdoor
Introduce yourself – My name is Dania Riad, and I run the Marketing Programs here at Glassdoor EMEA.
Here today to talk about something passionate about – I love working for Glassdoor, and helping companies in targeting the perfect talent for their company.
I spend most of my days at Glassdoor spreading the word about just how important your employer brand is, and I’m here today to tell you how reviews factor into that employer brand and how you can effectively manage them
Also love to tell stories – I want to give stories of companies that are doing a great job of telling their company’s story and managing their reputation
Goal for today: give you one or two key takeaways to go back to your company and start implementing right away
So, here’s what we’re going to go through. I’ll give you a quick overview of how your brand relates to reviews
Then we will talk about something people don’t always realise: that bad reviews aren’t always bad for business and can actually turn into a recruiting advantage.
We’ll talk about how you can get started in this responding to reviews process and then we will wrap up with 5 tips to keep in mind when you do respond.
Alright, let’s kick things off and open up the conversation with: what exactly is an employer brand?
I love starting out with this quote from Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com: “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
I absolutely agree with this. How would your people describe the experience of working at your company? “Laid back”? “Work hard, play hard”? That’s your employer brand. And ultimately it’s your employees who will define it for you.
Companies can say they are such a great place to work and shout it from the rooftops. But all they ultimately want is if your employees are not happy, they’ll tell everyone they know and, frankly, your brand will suffer.
Whether you like it or not, your employees have a voice. They share it with their social networks and now they’re sharing it on sites like Glassdoor.
That means your company is probably already on Glassdoor. What are your people saying? Have you gone to check out your rating or read your reviews? That’s a great place to start, when starting the journey of owning that voice.
Use reviews to find out more information about your company and its reputation. Know what work you have to do going forward
Consider this your first impression for many of your potential candidates
How healthy is your employer brand? Here are three questions to ask yourself.
Would current employees recommend your company to a friend?
What are job seekers saying about you on social media?
What is your company rating on Glassdoor?
The answers to these questions are some of the components that make up your employer brand. It’s important to keep an eye on all three of them to make sure that your brand stays strong and vibrant.
The best thing you can do for your employer brand is to respond to reviews on Glassdoor. Embracing transparency by responding to reviews is also one of the most effective ways of attracting quality candidates.
3 steps to making your brand and company reputation stronger.
Embrace feedback: The days of one-way conversations are over. The more transparent you are as an organisation, the healthier your culture will be.
Share what makes You unique: Don’t be shy to post photos, videos and company updates.
Get Executive Support: Summarise the activity on your Glassdoor profile for your executive team and point out the trends, good and bad.
Obviously! Right?
Who would want to be hired at a company that tries to hide what it is like to work there? That’s the impression you give if you’re not willing to be transparent
So that transitions us into the question: are bad reviews bad?
This is something we should all think about.
Let’s face it: constructive criticism can sting.
Your immediate reaction may be to get defensive and even offended, but we have found that bad reviews can actually be good for business.
Candidates want complete information. They notice when there are no bad reviews and can become suspicious. They will assume that you are censoring feedback.
Think of it this way: you are not losing job seekers by showing bad reviews, you’re steering them toward jobs and companies that won’t disappoint them.
This also gives you a platform to actually improve your reputation. 65% of GD members agree their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review. When candidates see that you’re engaged and listening, they’re more likely to have a positive feeling towards you – therefore, attracting the right candidates
It’s common sense but you’d be surprised how often this is overlooked: CHECK FOR TYPOS!
Remember that once it’s live it’s live. I recommend you write your responses in a word doc before publishing to Glassdoor to make sure you catch quick typos. This includes ensuring that your name and job title are correct!
Be courteous and professional
Be courteous and professional when writing your response, look to not name the person who you feel may have written the review, and do not threaten any individuals.
We’re often asked who from your company should respond to reviews?
I would say anyone at your company who is authorised to speak on your behalf is an acceptable company representative.
This may be your Managing Director or CEO, PR and Marketing professionals, or any other team members responsible for managing your brand.
Note: anyone within the company who responds to reviews as an employer representative will have their title appear next to that employer response.
Alright! So let’s get into tips to follow when responding to negative reviews.
First of all, remember that your response will be public, and that you’re responding on behalf of your company – ensure that you have checked your response for any typos, and that your position and name are correctly displayed.
While articulating your position, stick to the facts, and offer facts and any research to back up your response. If you feel that the person leaving the review was in the wrong – others may come to this conclusion too – try to keep emotions away from your response. This may mean that you step back, breathe and come back to respond to the review at a later time.
At Glassdoor, we take a neutral stance in all reviews (we do not act as the finder of fact). There could be false information posted by an angry employee. In these cases, it is again best to respond as professionally as possible while also refuting the post (with fact, not defensiveness.)
These are the hardest ones for folks to reply to, so let’s talk about some other tips that might help.
Don’t be discouraged by a really bad review. Recognise that bad reviews give you the opportunity to bond with employees and candidates.
Take constructive feedback to heart. Don’t go on the defense; remember that even the best companies have room for growth.
In this Reward Gateway example, a former employee at the company left a negative review and specifically mentioned the lack of career advancement. The CEO, Glenn Elliott, responded personally, which allowed for an open and transparent conversation, and gave both the employee and the employer a chance to be heard.
The CEO didn’t come across defensive or short, but instead took the time to carefully craft a kind note back. He thanked the employee for pointing out the positive aspects of the company, demonstrated that he understood the employee’s frustrations, acknowledged that the company isn’t perfect, and took the opportunity to explain the steps the company is taking to improve. Finally, he wished the former employee well and signed off personally.
It is crucial that you turn negative feedback into a positive learning experience.
Reward Gateway sets a great example for how to respond to reviews – both good and bad. Importantly, the company states openly that it welcomes both the positive and the negative, setting employees up to feel empowered and comfortable sharing honest feedback.
Tip #2: Saying thank you shows that you are listening and sets you up in a position to be gracious and professional.
Tip #3: People appreciate acknowledgement of their problem, and often they are looking for transparency on a situation and empathy as opposed to an empty apology – be honest, and give them that.
Spencer Rascoff, CEO at Zillow responds to reviews every Friday. As a result, four candidates in a recent 30-day period said that reading Spencer’s employer response cemented their decision to accept the job offer.
You may have also noticed this in the Reward Gateway example we just looked at. Saying Thank You shows you are recognising and are listening to your employees’ concerns
Action Plan: Engage with your Employees
Show that you’re listening and appreciate the input to make your company an enjoyable place to work
The best approach is to thank your reviewers for providing feedback
If you really do feel that the review includes inaccurate information or a false view of the company, you can flag the review to be re-reviewed by our content team
Also, in case anyone had any questions, our community guidelines are posted in the Help Centre on glassdoor.co.uk/employers
Case Study: Tips from Best Places to Work winners
What is the common thread that runs through all four of these Best Places to Work winners? They all share a commitment to making their people feel heard, validated, and empowered. They understand that the success of their businesses begins with employee satisfaction. And a big part of making that happen is inviting their people to leave reviews on Glassdoor and then responding to them.
Responding to reviews can help you recruit. Another quote from HomeServe UK (#3 on the Best Places to Work list) is: “Word of mouth from your People can be a really powerful tool for attracting the best people.” Whether or not you respond to reviews can literally be the deciding factor in whether or not a candidate comes to work at your company.
This is a powerful thought. Take a minute to think about how this could benefit your company, and take action!
When you see issues being raised by multiple people, it’s important to address them and to show what your plan is to fix the negatives mentioned in the review
In the Employer Centre, we offer a Word Cloud to our clients that crawl all the feedback left on their profile. It inflates the size of the word based on how many times it is mentioned. This give anyone in HR, Recruiting or Talent Acquisition the opportunity to quickly scan employee sentiment.
Use this feedback to address both pros and cons within your company – encourage that feedback by engaging your employees.
Nobody is perfect, not even Glassdoor. Negative reviews provide an employer with opportunities to show their authenticity and that they care about their employees – but listening and actioning the feedback.
Consider this free advice to make your company better.
Shift your thinking to realise that what bad reviews are really providing you with is a transparent look at what it’s really like to work at your company. Embrace the bad as you would the good.
Case Study: Canon EMEA received a negative review. Let’s break down how the company dealt with it.
They start out by thanking the reviewer (which we just spoke about). Then, Canon acknowledged and validated the reviewer’s concerns without trying to deny that a problem exists. This builds trust which then allows Canon to authentically present their own perspective. They point out that Canon is committed to taking action, and is taking steps to address them -- even if the results are not immediately obvious. This shows they take these concerns seriously and want to improve the situation.
This is good example of a professional response. They are not defensive, they take the feedback in stride and commit to using the review to improve their processes for next time. This is Canon’s opportunity to show prospective talent how the organisation handles problems.
We’ve talked a lot about how to deal with dissatisfied employees, but remember to not only respond to negative reviews, but to positive ones as well! Positive reviews are great chance to show your appreciation for all your employees, including (perhaps especially!!) the ones who are happy and satisfied with your company.
Reviews of all kinds give you an opportunity to see where you’re doing well… as well as where you can improve. Just make sure that you are really using these reviews to fix problems.
Every company has areas that could use some work. Reviews help you identify the trouble spots in your company. Read and respond to both positive and negative reviews, and look for trends to identify areas of your company that need improvement.
For example, if you’re seeing multiple reviews discussing poor culture, maybe you should consider creating an action plan to address those issues. If you see negative reviews about work-life balance, maybe it’s time to reconsider that aspect of your company culture. Reviews provide a deeper look at employee sentiment, and you can use this to your advantage.
Case study: Harrods
Again, this is a great way to handle a negative review. No employer is perfect, and in this case Harrods thanks the reviewer and acknowledges that they have fallen short of their standards. They highlight the company’s commitment to providing a positive work environment before inviting the reviewer to share more information privately in an effort to make things right. The Director makes it clear that they’re working to fix the problem and that this reviewer’s experience doesn’t reflect how they want employees to feel when working there. This reiterates the company’s values and gives a very authentic and genuine response for any person reading the reviews. It shows that Harrods is, in fact, a proactive employer that takes employee feedback seriously.
Action Plan: Accentuate the positive
Job seekers use the reviews on Glassdoor to make decisions about where to apply or what job offer to accept, so use a response to emphasise what makes your company an attractive place to work
Refer to one of the reviewer’s positive comments about your company to both personalise your response and to reiterate the compliment to potential job candidates
Perhaps you don’t have many reviews to respond to yet. In that case, here are some great ways you can start asking your people for more feedback today. And of course, the best first step is signing up for a Free Employer Account on Glassdoor.
Should you respond to just negative?
- Here at Glassdoor we believe in the transparent voice. I would suggest that you respond to all reviews equally, and with a consistent voice. We touched on who may look to respond to reviews earlier, and to recap – that can be anyone who is authorised to do so, that you feel will be the right company voice.
How do you get started?
- You can simply login to your free employer account and start responding to reviews today. If you have any questions about logging into your account, do contact us directly and we can assist you with that. One top tip, will be to ensure that your job title and name are correct, before you go ahead and post a response. And remember – look out for those typos.
Is this something only large companies should do?
Not at all, we believe that companies of all sizes should encourage reviews, to grow their Glassdoor voice and presence. On our slide that touched on ‘getting feedback’ we mentioned some great key ideas that companies of all sizes can utilise. For example – annual reviews – Happy Anniversary, leave a Glassdoor Review, or feedback on your interview process. If you have a tonne of kitkats – you could also test out the ‘have a break, have a kitkat idea’.
