Composing a reply to a compliment email means showing your customer how much you appreciate their kind words – as well as keeping them engaged with your brand. Constantly striving to provide a great customer experience is hard work, but when your efforts are praised – suddenly it’s all worth it. Customers who send you positive feedback are not only a breath of fresh air, they’re also very important for your business – retaining customers is less expensive and arguably more valuable than acquiring new customers. And what’s more, happy customers will tell six people how they feel, providing a nice boost of word-of-mouth marketing. To help you craft an effective response and overcome any awkwardness or embarrassment you might feel, here are some tips and a sample template you can modify to suit your needs.
How to respond to customer compliment emails
7 tips to reply to customer compliments:
- Choose the right sender
- Be genuinely grateful
- Accept the compliment
- Be enthusiastic
- Don’t overdo it
- Give something back if possible
- Ask your customer to spread the love
If you want to send a thank you email to a customer for positive feedback, pay attention to the tone and content so you engage customers further. You should:
- Choose the right sender. This may depend on your company’s policy and who the email is referring to. If a customer has sent an email to your support email address, it’s best if a manager replies to show that their email has been received and acknowledged. Conversely, if a customer is praising an employee directly, it makes sense for that employee to send the thank you email. Decide who the best person is, but make sure it’s composed and approved by the appropriate person, too.
- Be genuinely grateful. Praise can be received in a variety of ways depending on the situation. We may feel proud of ourselves and happy, but we may also experience embarrassment or the dreaded impostor syndrome. Regardless, praise means you did something right, so reflect on that in your email.
- Accept the compliment. If the customer sends a customer support agent an email saying how much they helped them and how good they are at their job, they don’t expect to be doubted. Responding with phrases like “It wasn’t me, it was my team” or “you’re exaggerating” is just shooting yourself in the foot. Accept the compliment and give credit where it’s due without negating your own contribution.
- Be enthusiastic. A lukewarm tone when saying thank you may disappoint the customer. They expect their feedback to be taken seriously and in a positive way. An enthusiastic response will bring warm feelings back to them.
- Don’t overdo it. How you say things always matters. Sometimes, in an effort to express gratitude, we may become excessively attentive (this is a trap anyone can fall into). For example, say things like “I’m humbled by your comments, I’ll keep your words close to my heart” (maybe not exactly that, but you get the idea). The key here is to be authentic – express exactly what you feel, no more no less. This is one of the most important reasons to use a template.
- Give something back if possible. If it’s a high-value or return customer, or if the situation allows it, you can give something back in exchange for the compliment: a free resource, a small discount, a coupon, or something else that shows gratitude with actions.
- Ask the customer to spread the love. One satisfied customer can become a great ambassador for your brand. If you deem it appropriate, ask your customer to share their experience on a review site like Capterra, Yelp, or another forum relevant to your industry
Sample phrases to use to respond to a compliment
- Thank you for your kind words.
- I really appreciate your feedback.
- That’s great, you made our day.
- That’s what we like to hear.
- We’re happy you’re happy.
- You put a big smile on our faces.
Play around with these phrases and make sure to adjust them to reflect the voice of your business. For example, if you’re a consultancy, it’s more likely you’ll use a more formal tone, while if you’re a startup or a B2C company, you might decide to be more lighthearted in your responses. See our examples below for more inspiration.
How to use our template
Any words included in brackets are placeholder text you can replace with whatever makes the most sense for your business (or remove altogether if it doesn’t apply to you).Feel free to modify this template and insert a touch of personality.
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Sample Template
Here’s a template for a reply to a compliment email from a customer:
Re: your amazing feedback
Dear [Customer name],Thank you so much for your feedback, [you put a big smile on our faces!] Our team is hard at work trying to continuously improve our [product/service] and it’s always rewarding to hear kind words. We love that you love us :)To express our gratitude in action, we’re pleased to offer you a [appropriate offering].Also, I don’t want to impose, but if you have some time, would you mind [sharing your impressions on social media or writing a review for us]? We have a presence on {link to review sites} and we’d really appreciate it if you could support us there.Thanks again![Your name]
3 examples of responding to customer compliment letters
Here are three different examples demonstrating how to adjust our template for different situations.
1. Responding to a compliment about fast service
Dear Brian,Thank you so much for your feedback, you put a big smile on our faces! Our team is hard at work continuously trying to ensure speedy service for our customers and it’s always rewarding to hear kind words. We love that you love us :)To express our gratitude, we’re pleased to offer you a 10% discount on your next purchase.Also, I don’t want to impose, but if you have some time, would you mind sharing your impressions on social media or writing a review about our team? We have a presence on Yelp and TripAdvisor and we’d really appreciate it if you could support us there.Thanks again!Gill
2. Responding to a compliment about a SaaS product
Dear Maureen,Thank you so much for your feedback, you made our day! Our team is hard at work trying to continuously improve our product to help our customers achieve their goals and it’s always rewarding to hear kind words. We love that you love us :)To express our gratitude, we’re pleased to offer you a two-month exclusive free trial of our brand new premium feature. I think you might find it a valuable addition to the main suite you’re currently using. Let me know if you’d like to take advantage of this and I’ll set it up for you. If you decide to keep it after the two free months, we can discuss a discount for you!Also, I don’t want to impose, but if you have some time, would you mind writing a review about our team? We have a presence on Capterra and GetApp and we’d really appreciate it if you could support us there.Thanks again!Sam
3. Responding to a compliment for a particular employee
Dear Sameen,Thank you so much for your feedback, I really appreciate it! I always try my best to do my job well and your kind words make it all worthwhile. I hope you don’t mind that I passed your feedback on to my team. Both my manager and my colleagues are really supportive and helpful and I wouldn’t be able to do my job like I do without their help.To express our gratitude, my manager and I agreed we should offer you a 10% discount on your next purchase. Just use the code FGEGTAF4456. If you need anything at any time, I’ll be happy to talk with you again.Have a great day!Leela