Last week, we explained how to use Chat GPT to analyse trends and find actionable feedback based on those reviews. Another way to improve your customer satisfaction is to reply to reviews customers have written. If you want to do that, there are a few things to consider:
- The tone of voice of the responses should match your brand
- The responses should be accurate
- 1 silly mistake can ruin your online reputation
So how can we make sure that an AI tool doesn’t cross the boundaries set? You can simply give instructions to handle this. The Rundown published a list of 6 things to keep in mind when writing a prompt for Chat GPT, which is pretty useful:
- Task: Clearly define what you want to do.
- Context: Provide relevant information about your situation.
- Examples: Include a training set to refer to.
- Persona: Explain your role in the company.
- Format: Be specific about the expected outcome.
- Tone: make sure it uses the write spelling and tone of voice.
To help you, I configured a sample of a prompt:
I’m the customer service agent of a garden centre and have to manage online reviews. Write a response to reviews on online platforms based on my input. Reply in a professional yet personal way and use the customer name in reply. Keep replies to the point. Don’t use an introduction or end, just write the reply. Reply in British English. Maximum of 60 words per reply.
If the review is 1 or 2 star, never say the customer is wrong. Thank them for giving feedback. If 1 star, invite customer to come to centre and ask for the manager to discuss complaint. Bring the receipt. Hope we can make it up. If 2 star, thank customer for feedback and that we will use it to improve the business. If 3, 4 or 5 stars, thanks for feedback and hope to see them back soon.
For a simple task, this prompt is sufficient. You might have noticed that the examples are missing – we’ll come back to that in a minute. If this is the prompt we can do some testing with real reviews of customers. Let’s start with an easy one from Gene:
Good selection of plants. Not a rushed environment, friendly staff, good quality plants. A little pricy but you will find tomato plants that you will not find any where else. Heirloom tomato plants were a great find.
And the reply we generated:
Thank you for the feedback, Gene! We’re glad you enjoyed our selection of heirloom tomato plants and found our environment welcoming. We acknowledge your concern about pricing and will take this into account as we strive to improve. We look forward to seeing you again soon!
I think the reply is pretty professional and it ticks the boxes, doesn’t it? The trick, however, is to see how the replies to complaints are since that’s more complicated. Two examples:
Bought the purple basket with the pink one together 10 days ago and it’s almost dead, ask for exchange and they said they don’t guarantee.
Obviously, this was 1 star review from Jane, so let’s check the reply:
Thank you for your feedback, Jane. We’re sorry to hear about your experience. We strive to ensure our products meet high standards, and we take your concerns seriously. Please come to the centre and ask for the manager with your receipt, and we’ll do our best to resolve this for you. Hope we can make it up to you.
And another complaint, from Adam this time:
I ordered some saskatoon bush plants through in the fall and confirmed the order in the spring. When the plants didn’t arrive I called to see why and was told they didn’t arrive. I told them I’d like to call the nursery and was told “Don’t call them” – always a reason to call. I called the plant nursery and they said no order was placed. Thanks for nothing
And the reply generated:
Thank you for sharing your experience, Adam. We apologise for the confusion regarding your order and the inconvenience it caused. Please come to our centre and ask for the manager with your receipt. We value the opportunity to discuss this further and hope to make things right for you.
As you can see, the replies are written in line with our initial instructions. The only thing you have to do, is to monitor the reviews on your profiles. Simply copy the review to generate a ready-to-go reply. What usually happens is that you make some tweaks to the replies generated. To improve the output quality, you can upload a file with samples to OpenAI so they can be used to understand how you want to have the responses. That’s where the examples mentioned in the first part of this paragraph come in!
The examples, or a training set as we call it, are really helpful. Simply make a Word file with a bunch of reviews & responses and upload it to your OpenAI account.
AI & reviews: a lot to learn
The importance of efficiently managing and learning from customer feedback cannot be overstated since they are the ones shopping in your centre and paying the bills! As explained, having an export of customer reviews helps you to get deeper insights into customer sentiments and trends. By utilising AI and data analysis techniques, you can easily pinpoint areas for improvement.
The importance of responding to reviews with a professional and personal touch underscores the ongoing dialogue between your business and consumers. Even negative feedback, when handled correctly, can be turned into an opportunity for improvement.
This holistic approach to managing reviews—gathering data, analysing trends, providing actionable insights, and engaging with customers—ensures that businesses remain adaptable and customer-centric in their operations. Simple AI tools like OpenAI/ChatGPT are here to help you!
