How to ask for reviews without feeling awkward
Timing, wording and one text message template that gets one in four customers to leave a review.
Tess MorettiFounder and head of strategy5 min read
The short version
- Ask within a few hours of finishing the job.
- Make it one tap from the message to the review form.
- Ask everyone, never only the happy ones, and never offer a reward.
Most happy customers will not think of it
People review when they are thrilled, furious or asked. The middle 90% were perfectly happy and simply got on with their day. Asking is not pushy. It is a reminder.
Timing beats wording
The best moment is two to three hours after the job, when the hot water is back on and the relief is fresh. A request a week later gets about a third of the response in our sample data.
A template that works
Keep it short and personal. Something like: Hi Sam, Dale from Kettle & Tap here. Thanks for having us out today. If you have 30 seconds, a quick review helps a small local business a lot. Then the link.
Use the customer's first name, your first name and a direct link to the review form. That is the whole trick.
Stay inside the rules
- Ask every customer, not just the ones you think will be positive
- Do not offer discounts or gifts in return for reviews
- Never write reviews yourself or ask staff to
- Reply to every review, good or bad, within a couple of days
When a bad one arrives
Take a breath, then ring the customer before replying publicly. Most complaints are about communication rather than workmanship, and a call fixes more than a paragraph ever will. Then post a short, calm reply that says what you did about it.
Figures in this article are sample numbers for illustration.
See how review generation works