Getting More Reviews

Two things, and the second one surprises people. The obvious one is trust — someone comparing three businesses reads the reviews before they get in touch. The less obvious one is ranking. Google weighs review count, rating and recency when deciding which businesses show up in the map results. More recent reviews means more visibility, which means more customers, which means more reviews. It compounds.

Recency matters more than most owners realise. Forty reviews from three years ago is worth less than fifteen from the last six months.

The request goes out automatically, but something has to tell the system the work is finished. Depending on how your business runs, that's one of two things.

If your customers book appointments. The calendar does it for you. When an appointment is marked as showed or completed, the request goes out shortly afterwards. Nothing for you to do at all.

If your work isn't booked on a calendar. There's no automatic signal that a job wrapped up, so you mark it yourself — moving the job to complete in your dashboard, which takes a couple of seconds. That's what fires the request.

We'll set this up for how your business actually works and walk you through it on your launch call. If you're ever unsure whether a request went out, you can see every one in your dashboard.

You can also send one by hand any time — useful for a customer you dealt with off-system, or a regular you've never asked.

Mention it before they go. That's it. Someone who's been told a text is coming is far more likely to act on it than someone who gets it cold.

You don't need a script, but it helps to have a line ready for the moment the work is done — at the chair, at the counter, at the door, or on the phone as you wrap up. Something like: "If you were happy with today, you'll get a text from us shortly with a link. A review would mean a lot." Say it while they're standing there pleased with the result. That moment is worth more than any follow-up.

One more thing on timing. If something went wrong and you sorted it out properly, that customer is often your most enthusiastic reviewer. Don't skip them because the start was rocky.

Google notices whether a business replies, and so does every customer reading your profile. A business that responds looks like one that's paying attention.

The good ones. Handled automatically so they never sit unanswered. You'll see them in your dashboard and can add a personal reply whenever you want — worth doing for regulars.

The bad ones. These come to you, because a canned response to an unhappy customer reads worse than no response at all. Message us and we'll help you word it, especially the first few.

You will eventually. Everyone does, and a profile with nothing but five stars reads as suspicious to customers and to Google both.

A reply that works. "Sorry it went that way, Dave — that's not how we normally do things and I'd like to put it right. Give me a call on the office number and ask for me directly."

These aren't fussy best practice. Both can get your Google profile suspended, and one of them is federal law.

A new profile with few reviews is a hard sell, and filling it from new customers alone takes months. The faster route is the people you've already served, who like you and have simply never been asked.

Pull together everyone you've worked with in the last year or two — name, mobile number, and email if you have it. It's usually sitting in one of these places:

A spreadsheet with name, phone and email is all we need. Send it across and we'll load it in and space the asks out rather than sending them all at once — a steady trickle looks natural, and forty appearing in one afternoon looks like something you bought.