Five Hundred Happy Customers a Week, and Twelve Google Reviews
The place is busy. People say thank you at the counter, regulars bring their friends, and the appointment book is mostly full. And yet your Google listing shows 12 reviews, the newest one from a couple of years ago, and one of them is a one-star from somebody who couldn’t find parking.
A stranger searching for what you do at 9 at night sees those 12 reviews. They never see the room full of people who love you.
Where reviews really come from
The part that’s easy to get backwards is that reviews don’t come from happy customers and clients. They come from being asked, at the moment somebody is happy, by the person they just dealt with, with the link right there in their hand.
Happy people mean to leave a review, and they say so. Then they get in the car, the phone rings, dinner happens, and the good intention is gone by Tuesday. If it ever does come back, there are 4 steps in the way (open Google, find the listing, find the button, and sign in), and somewhere in there it usually dies.
The people who go looking for a way to leave a review without being asked are mostly the ones with something to get off their chest. That’s where the parking review came from. Everybody else needs a nudge and a link, and both of those are yours to give. Together they take about a minute.
This week, without anyone’s help
It takes under an hour, with what you already have.
-
01
Get the review link from Google.
Open your Google Business Profile (the same place you’d change your hours). There’s a button that says “Ask for reviews,” and it gives you a short link that takes a person straight to your review box, ready to type. Copy it somewhere you’ll find it again.
-
02
Put it where the happy moment happens.
For a shop, that’s the register, so put the link on a small card beside the card reader as a QR code. Any free QR maker turns the link into a code, and a printer and a bit of card stock do the rest. For appointments and jobs, it’s the day the work wraps up, so keep one saved text on your phone, ready to send. Something like “Thanks for having us. If you have a minute, this link goes straight to our review page.” Save it once and send it every time.
-
03
Ask, out loud, while they’re smiling.
The card and the text do the carrying, but the ask is what makes it happen. When somebody says thank you, say something like “Would you mind leaving us a review? It really helps us out.” That’s the whole script. Make the same ask to everybody, don’t pick and choose who gets it, and don’t offer anything for it. Google’s rules say so, and it’s the right way to do it anyway, since a review is a favor.
-
04
Reply to every review already there.
That means the old ones, and the one-star too. Two kind sentences each is plenty, one to thank them and one to say something true back. For the parking one, something along the lines of “Sorry the parking beat you that day. The lot behind the building is easier, and we’d love another try.” A stranger reads the replies as closely as the reviews, because the replies are the only place they get to hear from you.
That’s it. Steps 1, 2, and 4 only happen once, and step 3 is the habit.
What changes if you keep it up
Slowly, the listing starts to look like the room. The next person who searches for what you do sees people like them, from recently, saying the kind of thing your regulars say at the counter every week. The one-star stops being one of 12 and turns into one of many, with your reply underneath it.
We won’t put a number on what that brings you, because we’d be making it up. It’s the kind of thing that adds up over time. You notice it later, when a new customer or client says “I read the reviews,” and you realize you didn’t have to do anything that day for it to happen.
If you run a non-profit, the same ask works with supporters and volunteers, and it matters just as much. Board members, donors, and grant reviewers look at the listing too.
I’ve run a music studio since 1999, and the break that put it on the map came from somebody an hour away who found our website and decided we looked like people worth calling. Being findable, and looking like who you actually are when somebody finds you, is most of the battle.
If you want a second pair of eyes
The steps above are the whole fix, and you don’t need us for any of it. If you’d like to talk through where else the hours might be going in your own place, write to hello@aibypeak.com. I read every one, and I write back myself.
