Replying to reviews

For a trades firm, reviews do the job a shop window does for a shop. A new customer cannot see your work before they book, so they read what other people said about it, and they read how you answered. This tour follows the owner of a sample plumbing and heating firm at half past five, when the vans are back and there are a few quiet minutes to deal with what customers have written.

What does the Reviews page show?

The Reviews page has three parts: the overall picture, the reviews themselves, and a drawer for writing a reply.

At the top, the page also says how many reviews are waiting for a reply, how many there are in all, and how many are hidden from your profile. In the sample there are 52 reviews in all, 2 waiting for a reply and 0 hidden.

Step by step

1. Open Reviews from the side menu. You can also get there from What customers say on Home, where the newest reviews are marked Replied or Not replied.

2. Read How customers rate you. The sample firm averages 4.8 across 52 reviews. The breakdown underneath shows how many gave five stars, four, and so on. A high average with a few ones and twos is normal. A cluster of threes is the thing to look into, because it usually means something ordinary is going slightly wrong on many jobs, such as arrival times.

3. Go to Waiting for your reply. New reviews are grouped here, apart from the ones you have already answered. The sample has two. One reads "Job was fine but the arrival time changed twice." The other is a warm five-star note. Some carry a Verified label.

4. Start with the mixed review. It is the one future customers will read most carefully. Choose Reply to open the drawer. Thank the customer, accept the point about timing plainly, and say what you are doing about it. Two or three sentences is enough. Do not explain your whole day; nobody reading wants that.

5. Answer the positive one too. The sample reply reads: "Thank you! Glad the radiator is sorted. See you next time." Short and personal is better than a long standard paragraph pasted under every review. Mention the job if you can, so it reads as a real person.

6. Press Send reply. The drawer notes that the reply is shown under the review on your profile. It moves from Waiting for your reply into Replied, and the count at the top drops.

7. Share a good review if you use social. On a published review with four or five stars, the review's menu offers Share to social, when your social publishing module is switched on. It is a simple way to turn a customer's words into a post, without writing one from scratch.

8. Leave hidden reviews for rare cases. A review can be hidden from your profile and published again. The page counts how many are hidden. Keep this for real problems, such as a review left on the wrong business, not for reviews you dislike. Customers notice a profile with only perfect scores.

How should you reply to a negative review?

Answer it in public, calmly, and in a few lines. A useful pattern is: thank them, name the problem in their words, say what you have changed, and offer to sort out anything outstanding directly. For example: "Thanks for letting us know. You're right, we changed your arrival time twice, and that's not good enough. We now confirm times the evening before. Please call the office if anything about the job needs looking at." A reply like that often does more for your reputation than another five-star review.

What not to do: argue about details, blame the customer, or offer refunds in public. Those conversations belong on the phone.

Why do replies matter as much as ratings?

Because readers judge the firm by the reply. A 4.8 average says the work is good. A thoughtful answer to a 3-star review says you listen when it is not. For a small firm without a marketing budget, ten minutes of honest replies at the end of the day is one of the cheapest ways to win the next booking.

Reviews also feed back into pricing and planning. If several customers praise speed and tidiness, those are things you can charge for. The pricing guide explains how to price for quality rather than simply matching the cheapest quote.

Tips for replying well

• Reply within a day or two. A reply posted weeks later looks like housekeeping, not care.
• Use the customer's first name or the job. It shows you read the review.
• Thank people for criticism. It is free advice about your service.
• Keep it short. Three sentences is plenty for almost any review.
• Ask happy customers in person. Requests are not sent automatically, so a word at the end of a good job is how reviews grow.

Common mistakes

• Copying the same reply onto every review. Readers spot it straight away.
• Getting defensive in public. Even if the customer is wrong, the reply is for the next reader.
• Ignoring the positive ones. A short thank-you rewards the customer and shows the profile is looked after.
• Hiding reviews to lift the average. It undermines trust, and the hidden count is shown on the page.
• Letting Waiting for your reply build up. Ten unanswered reviews take far longer than two a day.

What to do next

This is the last tour of the firm's day. To go back to the start, the Home tour shows the morning check before the vans go out. For the money side of running a trades business, read the cash flow guide.

The reviews, customers and figures in this tour are from a sample business.