How to Respond to Negative Reviews: A Data Study of 2,799 Brands and 1,632 Real Replies

Short answer: reply to every negative review within 24 hours, in 60 to 120 words, signed by a real person. Acknowledge the specific problem, give one concrete next step, and move account details to a private channel. Do not lecture the reviewer about your terms. Brands that reply this way hold ratings more than a full star above brands that stay silent, and controlled research shows that starting to reply lifts ratings on its own.

Most companies do none of this. In our dataset, 71% of brands with negative reviews have never replied to a single one.

Key numbers

Why we studied gambling brands

Online gambling is one of the hardest review environments there is. Players lose money by design, withdrawals are delayed by identity checks, and accounts get closed for regulatory reasons the operator cannot always explain. Complaints follow. The UK Gambling Commission received 7,180 complaints through its contact centre in 2025: 25% about withdrawals and payments, 19% about customer service.

If a response strategy works here, it works for SaaS, fintech and e-commerce, where reviewers are usually calmer.

What we analysed:

1. 2,799 Trustpilot profiles of online casino, betting and lottery brands (94% UK-facing), collected 21 August to 30 September 2026. For each profile we recorded Trustpilot's own reply metric (the share of negative reviews a company replied to over the last 12 months), the number of negative reviews, the share of 1 and 2 star reviews, review volume, claim status and the date of the last reply to a negative review.
2. 1,785 negative reviews and 1,632 company replies from the 45 brands with the most negative reviews among those that reply to at least half of them. We measured reply time, length, repetition and content.

Negative means 1 or 2 stars, the same definition Trustpilot uses.

Finding 1: silence is the default

Of the 1,116 brands with at least one negative review, 790 have never replied to one. Even among claimed profiles, where replying takes a login and a text box, 44% of brands with five or more negative reviews have never answered any of them. Unclaimed profiles cannot reply at all: 137 of 138 unclaimed brands in that group have a reply rate of zero.

The silence is also recent, not historical. 720 brands received a negative review in the last 90 days. 518 of them, 72%, replied to none.

Among brands that do reply, many have gone quiet: only 29% of them replied to a negative review in the 30 days before our snapshot.

What this means for you: a reader who opens your profile and sees complaints with no answer does not assume you were busy. BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US consumers found that 42% are unlikely to use a business that never replies to reviews, and 89% expect owners to respond.

Finding 2: brands that reply hold much higher ratings

We split the 557 brands with five or more negative reviews by reply rate and profile size. Size matters because a profile with 30 reviews behaves differently from one with 30,000.

Average Trustpilot rating. Brands with 5+ negative reviews.

The gap holds in every size band. On large profiles it reaches 1.37 stars. Across all 557 brands, reply rate correlates with rating at r = 0.44, and with the share of negative reviews at r = -0.46.

Correlation is not causation. Better-run companies may both reply more and receive fewer complaints. That is why the next section matters.

What controlled research says

Two peer-reviewed studies in Marketing Science isolate the effect of replying itself.

Replying raises ratings. Proserpio and Zervas (2017) compared the same hotels on TripAdvisor, where they started replying, and on Expedia, where they did not. After hotels began responding, their TripAdvisor ratings rose by 0.12 stars and review volume grew by 12%. They also received fewer but longer negative reviews. The authors attribute this to who chooses to write: unhappy guests think harder before posting a complaint they know will be read and answered.

Replying also invites more reviews, including negative ones. Chevalier, Dover and Mayzlin (2018) found that management responses stimulate reviewing activity, and particularly negative reviewing, because reviewers see that the company is listening and expect their review to have an effect.

Read together, the studies say: replying works, but a reply is a public promise. If you answer and then nothing changes, you get more detailed complaints. Responding is not a PR layer on top of a broken process. It is the visible end of a fixed one.

Finding 3: how the best responders actually reply

We analysed 1,632 replies from 45 brands that answer most of their negative reviews.

Median reply: 15 hours after the review, 91 words long. The middle half of replies runs 62 to 118 words. Reviews themselves have a median of 45 words, so good responders write about twice as much as the person complaining.

Two patterns stood out when we compared reply style with brand rating across the 43 brands with at least 20 replies:

• Replies that lean on terms and regulation go with lower ratings (r = -0.32). A typical example answers "your games are rigged" with a paragraph on RNG certification, the licensing authority and the regulator, and no next step. It is accurate and it reads as a wall.
• Replies signed by a named person go with higher ratings (r = +0.26). "Kind regards, Wendy" reads differently from "Team Support".

Speed, length, apologies and templates showed almost no relationship with rating once a brand was already replying (all |r| below 0.10). The big gain comes from replying at all. After that, tone decides more than mechanics.

Sample note: 43 brands is enough to see direction, not to prove effect size.

The 4-part reply that works

Every strong reply in our sample had the same four parts, in this order.

1. Name the specific problem. Repeat what went wrong in your own words: "your withdrawal has been pending since 26 August after you sent your documents." This proves a human read the review. Generic openers such as "we're sorry for any inconvenience" read as templates, and 50% of consumers in BrightLocal's survey are unlikely to choose a business that uses templated replies.
2. Own your part without arguing. Apologise for the experience, not for the existence of rules. If a rule caused the problem, explain it in one sentence and in plain words.
3. Give one concrete next step. A named channel, what to send and when they will hear back: "email support@brand.com with your username, and our payments team will reply within 24 hours." 62% of good replies do this. Never ask for account details in public.
4. Sign with a name. A first name and team is enough.

Keep it between 60 and 120 words. Shorter looks dismissive, longer looks defensive.

Templates for the six most common complaints

The categories below follow the UK Gambling Commission complaint data and the topics we saw most often in 1,785 negative reviews. Adapt the words; do not paste them unchanged, because readers notice identical replies. For Trustpilot-specific situations (wrong facts, suspected competitor reviews, old complaints) see our Trustpilot reply framework and templates.

1. Payment or withdrawal delayed

Hi Alex, I'm sorry your withdrawal has been held since 26 August. That is too long, especially after you sent the documents we asked for. I've passed your case to our payments team. Please reply to the email we sent today, or contact us at support@brand.com with your username, and we'll give you a clear status within 24 hours. Maria, Payments Team

2. Account closed or restricted

Hi Sam, I understand how frustrating it is to lose access to an account with funds in it. Closures usually follow an identity or affordability check, and you are entitled to know which one applies to you. Please contact us at support@brand.com so we can confirm the reason and return any balance owed. Daniel, Customer Care

3. "The games are rigged"

Hi Chris, losing streaks like the one you describe are painful, and I won't pretend otherwise. Our games are independently tested, and each spin is random, so past results don't change the next one. If you'd like your session history or help with deposit limits, our team can set that up today at support@brand.com. Laura, Player Support

4. Bonus or promotion terms

Hi Jordan, thanks for flagging that your second welcome offer didn't arrive. That should not happen if the conditions were met. Send your username to support@brand.com and we'll check the offer history and credit it if it was missed. Tom, Promotions Team

5. Rude or unhelpful support

Hi Priya, I'm sorry. Being refused a supervisor is not the service we expect from our team. I've shared your review with our support lead. If you contact us at support@brand.com and mention this review, a senior agent will pick up your case directly. Kate, Head of Support

6. Review that does not match any customer

Hi there, we searched for an account matching your details and couldn't find one. If you played with us under a different email, please send it to support@brand.com so we can look into this properly. Ben, Customer Care

For the last type, reply first, then report the review to the platform if it breaks its guidelines. Trustpilot removed 4.5 million fake reviews in 2024, 7.4% of everything submitted, so platforms do act on genuine reports.

How fast to reply

Expectations are rising fast. In BrightLocal's 2026 survey, 19% of consumers expect a same-day reply (up from 6% in 2025), 32% expect one by the next day and 81% within a week.

The best responders in our sample already meet this: 65% of replies within 24 hours, 79% within 48 hours. Use this as your service level:

• 1 star, mentions money or account access: same business day.
• Other negative reviews: within 24 hours.
• Positive reviews: within a week.

Three formulas to track your review response

These are the metrics we used in this study. All three can be calculated from your own Trustpilot or Google profile export.

1. Response Coverage Rate (RCR)

RCR = negative reviews with a reply / all negative reviews (last 12 months)

This is the number Trustpilot shows on your profile as "replied to X% of negative reviews". Target: 90% or more. Median in our dataset: 0%.

2. Unanswered Negative Load (UNL)

UNL = negative reviews in the last 12 months x (1 - RCR)

This is how many unanswered complaints a new visitor can find on your profile. A brand with 400 negative reviews and a 30% reply rate shows 280 unanswered complaints. Reducing UNL is usually cheaper than raising your rating, and readers see it immediately.

3. Reply Lag

Reply Lag = median hours between review date and reply date

Benchmark from active responders: 15 hours. If your lag is above 48 hours, your replies arrive after most of the readers who saw the complaint have already left.

Priority score for a busy queue. When there are more reviews than people, sort them with:

Priority = stars weight (1 star = 3, 2 stars = 2) + money or access issue (+2) + review is on the first page of your profile (+2) + review is less than 7 days old (+1)

Answer everything scoring 6 or more the same day.

What to avoid

• Policy walls. Quoting licences, RNG certificates and terms without a next step. In our data it goes with lower ratings.
• Copy-paste replies. 17% of replies in our sample were near-identical within the same brand. One template is fine as a skeleton, ten identical replies on one page look automated.
• Arguing facts in public. Correct a factual error once, calmly, then move to a private channel.
• Asking for personal data in the reply. Usernames, emails and documents go to support, not into a public thread.
• Replying and changing nothing. As Chevalier, Dover and Mayzlin found, visible listening invites more complaints. If the same issue appears in ten reviews, fix the process, then reply saying it is fixed.
• Offering bonuses publicly to unhappy customers. It teaches every reader that a 1-star review pays.

Should you reply to every negative review?

Yes, with one exception: reviews that break the platform's rules (abuse, spam, reviews of a different company) should be reported, and still answered briefly if they stay visible. BrightLocal found that 80% of consumers are more likely to choose a business that replies to all reviews, while only 47% say the same of businesses that reply to negative reviews only.

Can you delete negative reviews instead?

Not legitimately, unless they break platform guidelines. You can report fake or abusive reviews (step-by-step for Trustpilot), and genuine ones can be updated by the reviewer once the problem is solved. If negative reviews rank for your brand name in Google, see how to push them down legally. A reply is the only tool you fully control, which is why the 71% who skip it leave the biggest lever unused.

Checklist

• ☐ Claim your profile. Unclaimed brands cannot reply at all.
• ☐ Calculate your RCR, UNL and Reply Lag today.
• ☐ Clear the backlog: reply to every negative review from the last 90 days, newest first.
• ☐ Set a 24-hour service level and a same-day level for money and access issues.
• ☐ Write six skeleton replies for your most common complaint types.
• ☐ Sign every reply with a real first name.
• ☐ Review recurring complaints monthly and fix the process behind them.

How Buylink can help

We run review programmes for SaaS, fintech and iGaming brands: profile audits, reply playbooks, backlog clean-up, guideline-based reporting of fake reviews and steady collection of genuine ones. If your profile has a high Unanswered Negative Load, book a call and we'll calculate it with you.

Sources

1. Buylink research dataset: 2,799 Trustpilot profiles of online gambling brands, collected 21 Aug - 30 Sep 2026; 1,785 negative reviews and 1,632 company replies from 45 brands, collected 14 Oct 2026.
2. Proserpio, D. and Zervas, G. (2017). Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews. Marketing Science 36(5), 645-665. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1043
3. Chevalier, J., Dover, Y. and Mayzlin, D. (2018). Channels of Impact: User Reviews When Quality Is Dynamic and Managers Respond. Marketing Science 37(5), 688-709. NBER Working Paper 23299: https://www.nber.org/papers/w23299
4. BrightLocal (2026). Local Consumer Review Survey 2026. 1,002 US consumers. https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey/
5. Trustpilot (2025). Trust Report 2025. https://corporate.trustpilot.com/trust/trust-report-2025
6. UK Gambling Commission. Customer complaints about licensees made to the Commission, 2025. https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/about-us/impact-metric/ro2-fair-and-open-gambling/customer-complaints-about-licensees-made-to-the-commission