Business responses to positive reviews online: Face-work on TripAdvisor

Abstract

Abstract The exponential growth of consumer reviews has given rise to a new online genre: responses from businesses. While previous research predominantly focused on responses to negative reviews and mainly adopted a monolingual standpoint, in this contribution we analyze business responses to positive reviews, adopting a cross-linguistic perspective. We first explore the move structure of these responses, then delve into their different linguistic realizations, paying particular attention to potential face-work strategies. Replying to positive evaluations raises specific challenges for face-work, since it creates a tension between the choice of ‘self-enhancement’ and ‘self-effacement’ (modesty). Our findings show that the professional orientation of these interactions plays a determining role in the communicative choices adopted by the response writers. Indeed, responses to positive reviews display divergent face-work practices from patterns observed in other “positive” interactional contexts such as face-to-face or Facebook compliment responses. Specifically, we observed the pervasiveness of accepting strategies and the absence of evading or rejecting strategies. From a cross-linguistic perspective, responses written in Dutch and English tend more often toward values of modesty, whereas replies written in Italian display self-enhancement of their business, adding positive descriptions of their accommodations and promotional strategies. Furthermore, responses written in English and Dutch, display a more neutral style, while responses written in Italian opt for a more involved style (e.g., including positive small talk and returning compliments to their guests).