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How to get more customer reviews
Key takeaways
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If you want more reviews, you need to ask for them
Most businesses know reviews matter. They help people decide whether to contact you, they give future ideal clients a sense of what it’s like to work with you, and they provide evidence that other people have trusted you enough to spend money with you.
Yet plenty of businesses still leave reviews completely to chance. They do good work, finish the job, send the invoice, move on to the next thing and quietly hope the client might think, “You know what I should do right now? Go and write them a lovely Google review.”
Sometimes they will, but quite often they won’t. It doesn’t mean they weren’t happy. It usually means they went back to work, picked up the kids, answered three emails, made dinner or did any of the other things competing for their attention.
If you want more reviews, testimonials and useful client feedback, you usually need to ask for them.
People are busy, even when they’re very happy
A happy client may tell you they loved working with you. They might recommend you to someone over coffee, send you a lovely email or tell a friend to give you a call.
Writing a review is a separate action, though, and it’s rarely sitting near the top of anyone’s to-do list. That’s why asking matters.
You’re giving someone a prompt at a point when their experience with your business is still fresh. You’re also making it easier for them to do something they may already be quite willing to do, but simply hadn’t thought about.
There’s nothing awkward about asking when the request is genuine and well-timed. You’re not demanding praise, you’re asking someone if they’d be willing to share their experience.
Reviews help future ideal clients make a decision
When someone is researching your business, they’re usually looking for more than what you say about yourself.
Of course your website says you’re good at what you do. You wrote it.
Reviews add another voice to the decision. They help future ideal clients understand what other people valued, what the experience was like and whether the business delivered what it promised.
That’s particularly important for service businesses because people are often buying something they can’t fully assess before they commit. They may be choosing an accountant, plumber, consultant, health provider, designer or any number of other services where the relationship and experience matter just as much as the final outcome.
Reviews help fill in some of those gaps. They show what other clients noticed and what they thought was worth mentioning.
Reviews and testimonials do different jobs
Reviews and testimonials often get lumped together, although they can be useful in different ways.
A Google review helps someone who is researching your business through search or your Google Business Profile. It sits in a place where people are already comparing businesses and deciding who they might contact.
A testimonial can be used more deliberately across your marketing. You might include one on a service page, proposal, capability statement, case study, social post or email, depending on what the client has said and where it makes sense.
The most useful testimonials also tend to be specific. “Great service, highly recommend” is nice to receive, but it doesn’t tell a future ideal client very much.
Something like, “We had put off updating our website for two years because we didn’t have the time to deal with it. Mell took care of the content, kept the project moving and made the whole process much easier than we expected” gives someone far more information.
It tells them what the problem was, what the experience felt like and what changed as a result. That gives another person something they can actually relate to.
Timing makes a difference
The best time to ask for a review will depend on the business, because there isn’t one perfect moment that applies to everyone.
For a project-based service, it might be when the work is finished and the client has had time to see the result. For an appointment-based business, it could be shortly after the service. For an ongoing relationship, it may make sense to ask after a milestone or when the client has just commented positively on the work.
That last one is particularly useful.
If someone emails you saying they’re thrilled with what you’ve done, you don’t need to sit there admiring the email forever. Thank them, then ask whether they’d be happy to share that feedback as a review or testimonial.
They’ve already told you how they feel, so you’re simply making it easy for them to share it somewhere useful.
Make it easy for people to respond
If leaving a review requires someone to search for your business, find the right listing, work out where the review button is and then remember what they wanted to say, you’ve created unnecessary work for them.
So make it easy for them and send them the direct link.
If you’re asking for a testimonial, a little guidance can also help. You don’t need to write the response for them, but a few prompts can make it easier for them to work out what to say.
You might ask them to “talk about”:
- what they were looking for help with
- what they valued most about working with you
- what changed as a result, or
- what they would say to someone considering your business.
People often find a blank box surprisingly difficult. A few prompts make the task easier and usually lead to feedback that is more useful than a generic “they were great”.
Don’t wait until you suddenly realise you need reviews
This is where businesses often get caught.
Someone looks at the Google Business Profile and realises there hasn’t been a new review for nine months, so suddenly getting reviews becomes a job that needs to happen immediately.
Then everyone gets asked at once.
It’s much easier to build asking for feedback into your normal client process so it happens consistently over time. That might mean sending a review request after a job is completed, adding it to your follow up process, or making it part of how your team wraps up a project.
The process doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to happen.
A steady flow of genuine reviews also gives future ideal clients a more current picture of the business. Someone researching you can see that people are still using your services and still taking the time to talk about their experience.
Existing clients can leave reviews too
You don’t need to restrict review requests to brand new clients.
If you’ve worked with someone for years and they’ve never reviewed your business, you can still ask them. In some cases, long-term clients can provide particularly useful feedback because they’ve experienced more of your business and can talk about the relationship over time.
The request can be simple:
“We’ve really enjoyed working with you over the past few years. If you’d be happy to leave us a Google review about your experience, we’d really appreciate it. Here’s the link.”
You don’t need to turn the request into a formal campaign. You’re simply giving someone who already knows your business an easy opportunity to share their experience.
Ask before turning private feedback into marketing
Sometimes the best testimonial arrives when you weren’t asking for one.
A client sends an email saying how happy they are, a client messages you after a project or someone writes something lovely in a survey response. That doesn’t automatically make it public marketing content.
Ask whether they’re comfortable with you using their comments, and be specific about where you’d like to use them. You can also check whether they’re happy for their name, business name, or photo to be included.
Some people will happily agree to everything. Others may prefer their first name only or want the feedback used without identifying details. Either is fine. The important part is that you’ve asked before publishing something that was originally shared privately.
Pay attention to what people actually say about you
Reviews and testimonials are useful for more than convincing other people to contact you. They can also tell you what clients genuinely value about your business.
And sometimes it won’t be what you expected.
You might think people choose you because you’re fast, while your reviews keep mentioning how well you explain things. You may believe your technical expertise is the main reason clients stay, while their testimonials repeatedly mention reliability, communication or how easy you are to deal with.
That language is useful because it comes directly from the people buying from you.
If the same themes keep appearing, pay attention. They can help you understand why people choose your business, why they stay and what they tell other people about you. That can influence the way you write your website, proposals, service descriptions and other marketing because you’re using the things your clients have already told you matter.
Don’t write the review for them
There’s a difference between helping someone leave a review and telling them exactly what to say.
You can give prompts, make the process easy and ask them to talk about a particular service if that’s relevant. Then let them write it in their own words.
A slightly imperfect review that sounds like a real person is far more useful than something that reads like it came directly from your marketing brochure.
People can usually tell when something has been heavily scripted, and “Mell told me exactly what to write” probably isn’t the endorsement we’re aiming for.
And definitely don’t write one for yourself
If you’re short on reviews, writing one for your own business from another account, asking staff to do it, or getting friends and family to leave reviews about services they haven’t actually used is a very bad idea.
Apart from the obvious issue that it isn’t genuine, it defeats the whole purpose of collecting reviews in the first place. Reviews work because they reflect real client experiences. Once you start manufacturing them, you’re creating marketing that looks like proof but isn’t.
It can also backfire if people notice. A handful of suspiciously enthusiastic reviews from people connected to the business can do far more damage than simply having fewer reviews.
Ask real clients, make it easy for them, and let them use their own words. That’s the stuff that actually helps future ideal clients decide whether they want to work with you.
Reviews should be part of your marketing
Reviews, testimonials and client feedback shouldn’t sit off to the side as something nice to collect when you remember.
They’re part of how people research your business and decide whether you might be the right fit. They show what other clients value, provide another perspective on what it’s like to work with you and give your marketing evidence that goes beyond what you say about yourself.
If you’re delivering good work and your clients are happy, then give them the opportunity to share that experience. Quite often, they are perfectly willing to do it, you just need to ask.
And while we’re talking about asking…
If you’re reading this and you’re a Starfish Marketing client who hasn’t left me a Google review yet, this is me very politely practising what I preach.
I’d love you to leave one here. See…I asked. Now it’s your turn.
Frequently asked questions about how to get more customer reviews
How do I ask customers for a review without making it awkward?
Ask when there’s a natural reason to do so, such as after completing a project, providing a service or receiving positive feedback. Keep the request simple, explain that you’d appreciate them sharing their experience and provide a direct review link so they don’t have to go looking for it.
When is the best time to ask for a customer review?
The best time is usually when the customer’s experience is still fresh. This might be after a project is completed, following an appointment, when a result has been achieved or after a customer has already told you they’re happy with your service.
What’s the difference between a review and a testimonial?
A review is generally published by the customer on an independent platform such as Google, while a testimonial is customer feedback that a business has permission to use in its own marketing. Reviews can help people researching your business, while testimonials can be placed on relevant service pages, proposals, case studies, social content and other marketing material.
