How to reply to a bad Google review
A bad review is read by the next hundred customers. Your reply is read by the same hundred - and it is the part you control.
Team Sunaam · 9 August 2026 · 2 min read
A one-star review feels like an attack. It is actually a stage. The person who left it has usually stopped reading; the next hundred customers have not.
The shape of a good reply
Four parts, in this order, and short.
- Thank them. Genuinely, briefly.
- Acknowledge the specific thing. Not "we are sorry you feel that way" - name what went wrong.
- Say what you are doing. One sentence.
- Move it offline. A number or an email.
Under sixty words. Long replies read as arguments.
Examples
Restaurant, slow service
Thank you for telling us, Rahul. Forty minutes for a main course is too long and we are sorry. Saturday evenings have been overwhelming our kitchen and we have added two people to the pass since. If you will give us another try, ask for Anup and dinner is on us.
Salon, unhappy with a cut
Thank you for the honest feedback. A cut you are not happy with is our responsibility to put right - please call us on 033 4000 1234 and we will fix it at no charge, with a senior stylist.
Clinic, long wait
Thank you for the feedback about your wait. We are sorry it took that long. We have changed how we schedule the evening slots this month. Please contact the front desk on 033 4000 1234 so we can look into your visit.
Notice what the clinic reply does not do: confirm the person was a patient, mention a treatment, or discuss anything medical. In a healthcare context that is not caution, it is a legal requirement.
What never to say
- "This never happened / you were never here." Even when true, it reads as calling a customer a liar in public.
- Anything about another customer.
- Discounts as a reflex. It teaches people that a one-star gets a coupon.
- A copy-pasted paragraph. Ten identical replies are worse than none - they say nobody read any of them.
Reply to the good ones too
A profile where only complaints get answered looks defensive. Two words on a five-star review is enough.
Doing this at volume
Twenty reviews a week in three languages is a real job. Sunaam drafts replies in the language the review was written in and in your tone - and you read, edit and post. Nothing goes public without a person pressing the button, which is exactly the right place for the line to sit.