How to reply to a bad Google review, with examples
Most advice about answering a bad review is the same four words dressed differently: stay calm, be professional. Useful the way "be healthy" is useful. What you actually need at 10pm, staring at two stars and a paragraph about your staff, is the words.
So here are the words. Four situations, what to write, and why.
First, the one rule that matters more than any template.
The reply is not for the person who wrote it
They have already had their experience. They are not going to read your reply and change their mind, and if they do, that is a bonus, not the plan.
Your reply is for the next person — the one reading your reviews with their thumb hovering, deciding whether to book. That person is not put off by one bad review. Nobody trusts five stars across the board. What they are reading for is how you behave when something goes wrong, because that tells them what happens if it goes wrong for them.
Which means a defensive reply costs you far more than the review did. The review says one customer had a bad day. An argumentative reply says this is what you are like.
Wait a day, but not a week
Write it the next morning, not the same night. The version you write while angry is always worse, and you cannot unpublish a reply anyone screenshotted.
But do not leave it a fortnight either. An unanswered negative review sitting at the top of your profile, with every positive one answered, reads as though you had nothing to say.
Four situations, four replies
A complaint about waiting
"Waited 25 minutes for a flat white on Saturday. Not good enough."
Hi Dan, 25 minutes is far too long and I'm sorry. Saturday
morning got away from us and we were short a barista on the
machine. That's on us to staff properly, not on you to wait.
We've changed how we roster weekends since. If you're willing
to give us another go, ask for Ana and coffee's on me.
What is doing the work: a specific number repeated back, so it is clear you read it. A cause, without turning it into an excuse. Something that actually changed. An offer that is small, real and does not require a stranger to email your complaints address.
What is missing, deliberately: "we apologise for any inconvenience", which is what a company writes when it does not want to say sorry.
A complaint that names a staff member
This is the one people handle worst, and it is the one where a bad reply does real damage — because your team reads their reviews too.
"The blonde girl on reception was rude and couldn't have cared less."
Hi Sarah, thanks for telling us — I'd rather know. I'm sorry
you felt brushed off; that isn't how we want anyone to be
treated. I'd like to understand what happened properly, so
I've sent you a message, or you can reach me directly on
hello@example.com.au. I'll look into it either way.
Never name the staff member back, never confirm who was working, and never take a side in public. You do not yet know what happened, and even if the customer is entirely right, disciplining someone in a public review reply is the fastest way to lose the rest of your team.
Note what this does not say: it does not say "that doesn't sound like her". That sentence means "I don't believe you", and every reader hears it.
A complaint about price
"$85 for a trim. Absolute rip-off."
Hi Mark, thanks for the feedback. $85 is our standard rate for
a cut and style with a senior stylist, and it includes the
consultation and finish. I know that's more than some places
nearby, and it won't be right for everyone. Our prices are on
the website so there are no surprises — if that wasn't clear
when you booked, I'd like to know where we could have said it
better.
Do not apologise for your prices. You will not win this reader over and you will unsettle every customer who pays them happily. State the price, say what is in it, acknowledge it is not for everyone, and move on. The next reader learns that your pricing is deliberate and published, which is exactly what you want them to learn.
A review from someone who was never a customer
Competitors, mistaken identity, someone venting about a different business with a similar name.
Hi, thanks for getting in touch. We can't find a booking or
order matching this, and we'd genuinely like to help if we've
got it wrong — could you email hello@example.com.au with the
date? If this was meant for another business, no hard feelings.
Polite, factual, and it quietly tells every future reader that you checked and found nothing, without ever calling anyone a liar. Then report it, which is a separate job with its own rules — here is what Google will and won't remove.
The three things never to put in a public reply
Anything that confirms who they are or what they bought. For most businesses this is just good manners. For a health practice it is a genuine privacy problem: a public reply that acknowledges someone as a patient discloses that they are one. Health practices have a further layer of rules on top — we have written those up separately.
A refund, a discount or compensation. Offer it privately. Offered publicly, it becomes a price list: leave one star, receive one voucher.
Anything you would not say with the person standing in front of you and their friend filming. Because that is the situation. Screenshots are forever, and the reply that feels satisfying to write tonight is the one that turns a two-star review into a post.
What about asking for good reviews to push it down?
You can ask customers for reviews. You cannot pay for them, and you cannot incentivise only the happy ones.
The ACCC's position is that an incentive has to be offered regardless of whether the review turns out positive or negative, and it has to be disclosed. Filtering for happy customers first — asking "how was it?" and only sending the review link to people who say "great" — is review-gating, and it produces exactly the misleading overall picture the rules exist to prevent. Google will also remove reviews it identifies as incentivised.
The enforcement is real, not theoretical: the Federal Court ordered HealthEngine to pay $2.9 million in penalties over conduct that included publishing misleading patient reviews, and Service Seeking $600,000 over misleading customer reviews.
Ask everyone, or ask nobody.
The honest summary
You cannot delete your way to a good rating. What you can do is answer every review — good ones briefly, bad ones properly — so that anyone reading down the page sees a business that pays attention.
That is a real job, and it is a job that mostly needs doing on a Sunday night after a shift, which is why it is usually the thing that does not get done.