It's not your customer's job to give you direct feedback after each interaction with your brand. Their role is to simply make a purchase with you and hopefully receive the intended value. So, when a customer does give you feedback, it's a very kind gesture.
Whether that feedback is positive or negative, it was likely written with the intention of improving customer experiences in the future. No matter what, feedback is valuable and can provide important insights for you to consider as you adapt your marketing strategy.
Since feedback is something customers choose to selflessly write and submit in their free time, the least you can do is write them a genuine thank you letter in return. After all, it's important to send your customers thank you letters simply to show them you appreciate their time and trust. So, below, we've included some tips on how to write a thank you letter specifically in response to customer feedback.
![→ Access Now: 11 Customer Thank You Letter Templates [Free Prompts]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/5796f0a8-8e32-4782-a574-ac08771adb45.png)
12 Tips for Writing a Thank You Letter for Customer Feedback
Pro Tip: Use HubSpot's Customer Thank You Letter Templates
1. Review the feedback carefully before writing a response.
The worst thing you can do is immediately craft a thank you letter when you receive customer feedback. For positive feedback, this may result in a letter that's overzealous. For negative feedback, this could cause you to be thoughtless and unprofessional.
Take some time to read and re-read the feedback, and consider passing it along to others for review. After you've become calm and collected, you can start drafting a letter. You want to remain warm and grateful, yet professional, when responding to positive feedback. You should never take that opportunity to ask them for anything more.
It can be difficult to know how to respond to negative feedback from customers. Just remember that fighting fire with fire will only make matters worse. By viewing things from their perspective, you can remain empathetic.
2. Address customers by their first name.
You never want to pull the horrible mistake that's accidentally leaving a "Dear [CUSTOMER]" field as such. Make sure your personalization tokens are actually filling in with the appropriate names.
Using a customer's first name — versus their first and last name or last name with a title — is more personal. It shows that you've developed a solid relationship with that customer and that you feel comfortable addressing them on a first-name basis. So, evidently, you should close out the email with your first name, too.
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11 Free Customer Thank You Letter Templates
Fill out the form to access the templates.
3. Thank customers twice.
It's always good to start out the letter by thanking the customer for offering feedback. This shows, right away, that you appreciated the effort they took to craft a review. No matter if the feedback was positive or negative, it still deserves acknowledgment.
You should also close out the letter with a second thank you. This is especially important if the feedback is negative. You might have used the body of the email to express concern over the feedback, give explanations, or discuss ways you may improve in the future. But, to sum it all up, you're grateful that the customer let you know about a negative experience so you could come to these conclusions.
4. Apologize for the inconvenience, if necessary.
Specifically for negative feedback, it's important to apologize regardless of whether you believe it to be accurate or not. Even if you think their anger or frustrations are misplaced, remind yourself that they're probably pretty upset and disappointed if they took the time to formulate feedback.
So, say sorry and mean it — or at least pretend to. If you can, promise them that your team will work hard to ensure that that incident will never happen again. If something went terribly wrong, like a support rep accidentally deleting all your email contacts, you may consider offering an incentive in return. That should only be reserved for extreme circumstances as you don't want your company to be taken advantage of.
5. Show them some empathy.
It can feel frustrating for a customer if a company responds to their honest feedback with a list of defensive explanations. Take a moment at the beginning of the letter to acknowledge that you see what they're saying and understand how it must have made them feel.
This is valid for both positive and negative feedback. Simply, customers want to feel heard. They want to know that their feedback is actually going to be used to improve the customer experience and not just thrown away. So, show them that it's meaningful to you by responding with empathy and care.
6. Give a brief explanation based on their feedback.
It's nice for customers to know that you've taken the time to read their feedback and actually analyze it. For positive feedback, this usually means extending how happy you are that they had such a great experience. You can outline what teams were involved in that process, and how you're always working building stronger customer interactions.
For negative feedback, you may want to try to explain what may have gone wrong. Hopefully, that negative experience was an outlier, and you can explain the circumstances that caused it to occur. If it has been a recurring complaint, you can be honest and admit that, but be sure to tell them what changes are being discussed and implemented to prevent those incidents from happening again.
7. Leave room for them to add additional information.
Your customer may have more to add that they forgot to include in the original feedback. So, before closing your letter, make sure to let them know they can always contact you with additional questions, comments, or concerns.
This opens up an opportunity for your relationship to grow beyond this specific incident. They will feel more comfortable coming to you with feedback in the future, and that will only help you consistently adapt and improve your customer conversations.
8. Include a small gift.
It's important to remember that it's not the customer's responsibility to provide your business with feedback. Be grateful when they do, as they're dedicating their free time to giving you advice.
If you want to truly thank them for their efforts, then give them something of value in return. It doesn't have to be big or expensive — a small discount or reward will do. One way to do this is to offer a free download or content link which will appease customer interests while drawing more traffic towards your site.
9. Personalize the customer experience.
Most companies have a contingency plan in place when sorting through customer feedback. If the review is overly negative, the company will send a standard discount or apology reconciling the issue. Sometimes if the review is extremely positive, the customer will receive a gift for their customer loyalty as well. While this is a good intention, it doesn't personalize the experience for the customer.
Studies show that about 41% of customers switch companies due to poor personalization. If you just send customers the same gift every time they're upset or happy, they're going to catch on to your system.
Instead, provide rewards or discounts that are specific to the customer's feedback. If they say they liked a product, send them a discount to buy another one or to upgrade. If they didn't like a product, offer a free return or a replacement for another product. This personalization will make your thank you letter much more genuine as well as more effective.
10. Avoid upselling and cross-selling.
Customer reviews aren't typically the best time to approach customers with a sales pitch. When a customer leaves a negative review, the last thing they're thinking of is buying another product from you. Even if the review is positive, reaching out with another sales offer can make your thank you letter appear as a means to another sale.
While it may be tempting to upsell or cross-sell, these sales tactics are usually ineffective when thanking customers for reviews. Instead, focus on actually reading the customer's review and appreciate the value that their insight provides. Just because you aren't making another sale doesn't mean you aren't deriving added value from these customer insights.
11. Be timely with your response.
If you want to optimize the effectiveness of you thank you letter, then it needs to be delivered in a timely manner. When customers leave a negative review, respond to them immediately to learn more about their interaction with your company. This shows that you're closely monitoring feedback and are deeply invested in customer needs.
One factor to keep in mind here is that the timing of your response may depend on the communication medium you're working with. For example, 64% of Twitter users expect a response from a company within one hour, while in comparison, 85% of Facebook users expect a response within six hours. Each social media channel has its own unique response standards which can play a major role in the customer's experience.
12. Consider adopting customer service tools.
Businesses that are looking to build customer loyalty need to be organized and consistent. Even your thank you messages should match the tone and feel of your brand's image. If your thank you letter doesn't have the same quality as the rest of your content the customer may view it as a half-hearted effort.
Consider adopting customer service tools to ensure consistency in your messaging. Tools like help desk software and email templates can help your team keep track of customer feedback and deliver consistent responses. This way you can optimize your team's efficiency without sacrificing the quality of your customer service.
Based on these tips, we've created the perfect thank you letter templates that will surely please your customers.
Thank You for Your Review Letter
Dear [Customer name],
Thanks for the feedback on your experience with our customer support team. We sincerely appreciate your insight because it helps us build a better customer experience.
If you have any more questions, comments, or concerns or compliments, please feel welcome to reach back out as we would be more than happy to assist.
Best,
[Your name]
Thank You Letter for Positive Customer Feedback
Hey [Customer name],
Thank you for the kind words. I'm delighted to hear that you had such a great experience interacting with our customer support team. I completely understand how rewarding it can feel when your problem is solved within minutes, and I'm glad to hear that our support team was able to accomplish that for you. I will definitely relay that message to the rest of my team.
Feedback like this helps us constantly improve our customer experiences by knowing what we are doing right and what we can work on. So, I appreciate you taking the time to send us this helpful response.
Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any more questions, comments, or concerns.
Cheers,
[Your name]
Thank You Letter for Constructive Customer Feedback
Dear [Customer name],
Thank you for giving us feedback on your experience with our customer support team. I'm so sorry that you were told to wait on hold for over 20 minutes. I understand how frustrating that must have felt, and it should have never happened. There was some miscommunication on our end when it came to handling the error message on your software, which was most likely why it took so long to get back to you with a solution.
We will be taking note of your feedback to ensure that this incident never happens again. Again, I apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you, and I appreciate you taking the time to send us this helpful response.
Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any more questions, comments, or concerns.
Best,
[Your name]
Next, check out this post on when to collect customer feedback.
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