The reply is written for the next customer
When someone reads your reviews, they are not only reading the reviews. They are reading what you did about them. Sixty reviews with nothing underneath them reads one way. The same sixty with a short, calm reply under each one reads a completely different way.
In our experience across 2,300+ profiles, this is the cheapest trust a local business can build. The customer already wrote the words. You just have to show up underneath them. That is the whole Local Guide Method in one line: your customers do your SEO for you, and your job is to make it easy for them and answer when they do.
What an empty review section tells people
Picture two plumbers side by side on Google. Both have a 4.7 rating. Both have about 60 reviews. One has a reply under almost every review. The other has none.
A shopper does not read those as equal. Silence looks like a business that is too busy, too big, or gone. A reply looks like a person who is still there and still cares. Same stars, different answer.
There is a second reason to close that gap. Sharper competitors go looking for it. A business with strong reviews, no owner replies and no way to book is an easy target, because every missed message is a job somebody else can pick up. If you can spot that pattern on a competitor in ten seconds, they can spot it on you.
How to reply to a Google review
- Sign in to the Google account that manages your Business Profile.
- Search your own business name on Google, or open your profile from the Google Business Profile tools.
- Find your reviews.
- Pick a review and use the reply option under it.
- Write two or three sentences and post it.
Your reply shows publicly under the review with your business name on it. Write it like the next customer is reading over your shoulder, because they are.
What to write when the review is good
Keep it under about forty words and give it three parts. Thank them by name. Say what the job actually was. Invite them back.
Weak: "Thanks for the great review!"
Better: "Thanks, Maria. Glad we got the water heater swapped out the same morning you called. Give us a shout if that upstairs bathroom ever acts up again."
The second one is doing real work. Someone searching for a water heater replacement reads that and learns three things: you do that job, you came out fast, and a real person answered. A generic thank you teaches them nothing.
What to write when the review is bad
Reply to the bad ones too. This is where most owners either go silent or go to war, and both cost you the next customer.
Wait until you are not angry. Then write four short lines:
- Thank them for telling you.
- Say one specific thing you understand about the complaint.
- Say what you are doing about it, if anything.
- Give them a way to reach you directly.
Do not relitigate the job in public. Do not call them a liar, even a polite one. In our experience a calm four line reply under a one star review does more for a profile than almost anything else on it, because it is the only place a stranger gets to watch how you behave when something goes wrong.
Make it a ten minute habit
You do not need a system. You need a slot. Pick one morning a week, open your profile, and clear every review that does not have a reply yet. Ten minutes covers a normal week for most local businesses.
Two things make that slot stick. Turn on review notifications so a new review reaches your phone instead of sitting there for a month. And fix the other hole while you are in there: if there is no obvious way for someone to call or book you from your profile, the reply you just wrote is sending people to a dead end. If you want a second set of eyes on both, we will look at your profile for free and tell you what is missing.
So, every review?
Every review you can. If you are sitting on two hundred with none answered, do not try to clear them in one night. Reply to the last thirty, then every new one as it lands. Within a month your profile reads like someone is home, which is the only thing you were ever trying to say.
Idea spark: Chris Koerner on The Koerner Office podcast.
Quick answers
- Do I have to reply to every Google review?
- Reply to every one you reasonably can. If you have a big backlog, clear the most recent thirty and then answer each new one as it comes in.
- Should I reply to bad Google reviews?
- Yes. Stay calm, thank them, name the problem, say what you are doing about it, and give them a direct way to reach you. Do not argue in public.
- How long should a review reply be?
- Two or three sentences is plenty. Under about forty words reads best on a phone.
- Can I ask a customer to change their review?
- You can fix the problem and invite them to take another look, but do not offer anything in exchange for changing a review.