Reply to reviews on Yelp, Trustpilot, and Tripadvisor

You keep up with every review by checking each site on a steady schedule and answering new reviews in batches, and Kite runs that schedule for you. How it finds new reviews depends on the site.

• Trustpilot. Once you connect your Trustpilot Business account, Kite reads your service and product reviews directly, including the ones that don't have a reply yet. You agree on a schedule, such as every weekday morning, and each run picks up whatever arrived since the last one.
• Yelp and Tripadvisor. Kite can keep a standing watch on your Yelp and Tripadvisor listings and tell you when a new review appears. Both sites also email you when someone reviews your business, and you can forward those emails to your team's Kite email address so Kite starts the reply right away. You can also paste a review into the conversation at any time.

Each batch starts with a short summary. Kite might report five new reviews: three positive ones on Trustpilot ready to approve, a four-star Tripadvisor review with a reply ready to paste, and a one-star Yelp review that needs your input before Kite can reply well.

A personal reply answers what the customer actually said, and Kite writes each one from the review's own details. It reads the rating and the text, works out which product, visit, room, or staff member the review is about, and checks your knowledge base for anything relevant.

Then Kite writes the reply in your brand's voice. A five-star Tripadvisor review that praises the breakfast and mentions a server named Ana gets a reply that thanks the guest, passes the compliment to Ana, and mentions the Sunday brunch they might not have tried. A four-star Trustpilot review that says delivery took a week gets a thank-you and a note that orders now ship from a second warehouse, if your knowledge base says they do.

Kite keeps replies short and varies how they open, because a page where every reply starts with "Thank you for your kind words" reads like a form letter to the next person scrolling through. It writes for each site's audience, too. A reply on Tripadvisor speaks to future travelers as much as to the guest, while a reply on Trustpilot often needs to address an order, a delivery, or a refund.

A good response to a bad review stays calm, acknowledges the problem in plain words, explains any relevant fact without arguing, and offers a direct way to resolve it. Kite handles negative reviews on all three sites this way, and it starts by working out what went wrong before it writes anything.

Kite reads the complaint closely and separates the facts the customer states from their frustration. If a Yelp reviewer says they waited 40 minutes for a table they had booked, Kite checks what it knows about your reservation policy and Friday staffing. Often the most important fact is one only you know, such as whether the booking existed or whether the kitchen was short-staffed that night. In that case, Kite asks you directly instead of guessing.

Kite then drafts a reply that a stranger reading it would find fair. It names the problem, owns what you got wrong, and gives the customer a way to reach the person who can make it right, such as your manager's email address. It keeps the customer's private details, order numbers, and anything they told you privately out of the public reply.

On Yelp, Kite also helps you decide whether to answer with a public comment, a private message, or both. A public comment shows every future reader how you handle problems. A private message suits a situation where the details are personal or the customer is likely to want a refund. When a review looks like it breaks the site's rules, for example because the reviewer was never a customer, Kite explains why and you report it through the site. Kite still drafts a calm reply, because readers judge your response even when the review is unfair.

Kite posts approved replies to Trustpilot for you, and gives you finished replies for Yelp and Tripadvisor, because each site controls how owners can respond. Trustpilot lets a connected business account post replies to service and product reviews, so Kite shows you each draft beside the review it answers, and once you approve, Kite posts it.

On Yelp and Tripadvisor, you post owner replies through each site's own business tools: Yelp for Business and the Tripadvisor Management Center. For those, Kite gives you each approved reply ready to copy, labeled with the reviewer's name, the date, and a link to the review, so posting a batch takes a couple of minutes. Tripadvisor checks each response against its guidelines before it appears, so Kite writes replies that keep to them from the start.

As you come to trust Kite's replies, you can give it more autonomy on Trustpilot. For example, you might let it post replies to four- and five-star reviews on its own while it keeps bringing you anything negative or sensitive.

Your reviews are some of the most honest customer research you have, and Kite reads them that way while it replies. It notices the praise that comes up again and again and the complaints that appear more than once. A hotel might learn that a dozen Tripadvisor reviews mention the rooftop bar, while noise from the street comes up in reviews of the same three rooms.

Kite brings these patterns to you with examples and records them in your knowledge base, so later work can use them. The praise often belongs on your website and in your ads, in your customers' own words. The complaints point to problems worth fixing before they show up in the next review. Kite also keeps track of how many reviews still need a reply on each site and whether your ratings are moving, so you can see the backlog shrink.

For a deeper look at what customers say across every review site, see Analyze your customer reviews for common themes Coming soon .