How should you reply to a negative Glassdoor review? Reply quickly, thank the reviewer for the feedback, keep every trace of sarcasm out of your answer, offer to continue the conversation offline, and give the person a private way to reach you. Done in that order, a bad review usually stops hurting your reputation, and it can even leave you looking better to the employees and candidates reading over the reviewer’s shoulder.
When a negative Glassdoor review comes your way, it can be hard to know what to do. It is tempting to ignore the review or fire back an angry reply, but both of those choices only make matters worse. If you respond quickly and reply negative glassdoor reviews professionally, with genuine thanks for the reviewer’s feedback, then chances are good that their bad review will not have any lasting impact on your reputation as a company or as an employer. In fact, it could actually help improve your standing among other employees, because everyone can see that criticism reaches a real human being at your company and gets taken seriously. Here are five ways to respond positively when you are faced with an unhappy Glassdoor user, and why each one works.
1. Reply to negative Glassdoor reviews quickly
Reply negative glassdoor reviews as quickly as you reasonably can. Responding to reviews in a timely manner is important, and it is worth building the habit for good reviews too, not only the painful ones. If your company has received a lot of positive feedback and you want to show that you are also taking your employees’ concerns seriously, it helps both you and them when you respond quickly to anything that lands on your Glassdoor profile page, whether it is negative or positive.
A fast reply shows that you care about what other people think about your business, and that you will try harder so that employees not only write positive things down but genuinely feel comfortable enough in their working environment that they do not feel they need anything else from their managers. Speed also limits the damage. A review that sits unanswered for months reads as an accepted fact. A review answered within a day or two reads as one side of a conversation that your company was willing to have in public.
2. Thank the reviewer for their feedback
Thank the reviewer for their feedback. Even if you disagree with their opinion, it is important to acknowledge that they took time out of their day to give you feedback at all. The least you can do is say thank you and let them know that what they said resonated with you in some way.
Three habits make that thank you land properly:
- Be polite and respectful, no matter how unfair the review feels to you.
- Thank the reviewer for their feedback, plainly and early in the response.
- Focus on the positive aspects of your business and treat their criticism as an opportunity to improve yourself and what you do.
Gratitude is not surrender. You are not agreeing that every detail of the review is accurate. You are signalling to every future reader that feedback is welcome at your company, which is exactly the signal a candidate is looking for when they scroll through your review page before an interview.
3. Avoid sarcasm when you reply negative glassdoor reviews
Sarcasm is a double-edged sword. It can be read as proof that you are not taking someone’s comments seriously, or it can be read as proof that you are taking their comments extremely seriously and resent them for it. Either reading damages you, and you do not get to choose which one the reader picks.
If you want to respond in a positive way, avoid sarcasm at all costs. The same goes for anything that sounds like it: rhetorical questions, scare quotes, or a closing line that hints the reviewer was never really that good at their job. Write the reply, leave it for an hour, then read it back as though you were a candidate who has an offer from your company sitting in their inbox. If a single line makes you wince, cut it.
4. Offer to discuss the issue offline
The most effective way to respond is by offering to meet with the reviewer and discuss their concerns in person. A public review thread is a poor place to work through the detail of what went wrong, and it is a worse place to trade versions of events. Move it somewhere the reviewer can speak freely.
Give them options rather than a single door:
- Offer to discuss the issue in person.
- Offer to discuss the problem over the phone.
- Offer to discuss the issue via email, if that is more convenient for both of you.
State your case in a professional way, but do not try to convince them that what they are saying is wrong or incorrect. The purpose of the public reply is to prove you are reachable, not to win the argument. The purpose of the offline conversation is to actually fix the thing that caused the review.
5. Provide a way to reply privately
When you see a negative Glassdoor review, it is important to reply negative glassdoor reviews as quickly and as clearly as possible. You want to make sure that the reviewer feels heard, so do not make them go through the same process as everyone else. They should be able to contact you privately, through a named person and a direct address, not a general inbox.
If there are specific questions or concerns they have about their experience working with your company, offer answers in the comment section on their review, if they have not already been answered. If they ask for more information about a specific issue, provide links where it can be found online, such as the relevant page on your own website.
What should you do after you reply?
It is important to remember that negative Glassdoor reviews harm your Reputation Management. The initial response should be quick and courteous, before you take any further steps toward resolving the issue or responding privately. Not only will this help you maintain your integrity, it will also show your employees that they can trust you with their future career goals.
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