Marketing and presence
Reviews and reputation
How do you get more reviews and handle the ones you receive?
Six short steps. No email or account.
- Who needs it
- Every local service business. Review count and rating are decisive in local search.
- When it matters
- Immediately. Asking at job completion is when customers are most willing.
- Compare first
- Timing of the ask
- Matters most when
- just started, established, growing, mature
Is this the right tool for you?
People choosing a local business read reviews before they call, and a business with few or stale reviews loses to one with many recent ones. Happy customers often do not think to leave a review unless asked, while unhappy ones often do without prompting.
Signs you need it now
- Your happiest customers have never left a review because you never asked.
- Your latest reviews are months or years old.
- A negative review sat unanswered because nobody saw it.
- Reviews are spread across several sites and you do not check them.
When another area fits better
- Your listings themselves are missing, incomplete or inconsistent. Read the getting found locally guide
Recognise two or more of these? Sort out reviews and reputation next.
Tell us how your business runs and get a plan that puts reviews and reputation in order with everything else: what to set up first, your must-haves and what to compare.
What matters at your size
Working alone
Ask every satisfied customer at the end of the job with a direct link by text or email, and reply to every review yourself. A routine beats a tool at this stage.
A small team
Automated review requests triggered when a job closes or an invoice is paid, alerts for new reviews and one person responsible for replies.
Several teams or locations
Review monitoring across locations and sites, response guidelines for staff and reporting on ratings by location or team.
How the way you work changes the choice
- Trades and home services
- Reviews are a main reason customers choose you. Ask on the day the job is finished, while the customer is pleased.
- Professional firms
- Some professions have rules on testimonials and client confidentiality. Check yours before asking, and never disclose client details in replies.
- Shops, restaurants and walk-in trade
- Prompts at the counter, on receipts and by follow-up message work well. Respond to complaints quickly and publicly.
What to compare
Timing of the ask
Requests triggered at job completion convert far better than periodic campaigns.
Platform rules
Incentivising or gating reviews violates major platform policies and risks removal.
Already included
Many job management tools include review requests. Check before buying separately.
Cost and setup effort
- Asking for reviews and replying costs nothing; paid tools mainly automate requests and bring reviews from several sites into one place.
- Many job, booking and CRM tools already send review requests. Check before buying a separate tool.
- Ask every customer, not only the ones you expect to be happy, and never offer rewards for reviews or post fake ones; sites and regulators penalize both.
Trade-offs to weigh
- Manual routine or automated requests
- A personal ask gets a higher response from each customer; automation makes sure nobody is forgotten.
- Standalone or built into your job tool
- Built-in requests fire at the right moment in the job; standalone tools monitor more sites and report better.
When to sort it out
Immediately. Asking at job completion is when customers are most willing.
Your next step
Answer six short questions about how your business runs. You get an operating plan: where reviews and reputation fits among your priorities, the must-haves to hold every option to, and what to compare when you choose.
Where this comes first
Trades and businesses that usually sort this out early.
Often decided alongside
Other parts of marketing and presence.