Review Management and Reputation for Local Businesses
Key takeaways
- Review count and recency influence local rankings, not just your average score.
- Prospects read your replies to bad reviews as a proxy for how you treat customers.
- Review gating — asking only happy customers for a public review — violates Google's policy and FTC guidance.
- A steady trickle of reviews beats a sudden burst, which looks inorganic and can be filtered.
- The best time to ask is immediately after a good experience, not days later by email.
What you get
- Responses to every new review within 48 hours, written in your voice
- Monitoring across Google, Yelp, Facebook and your industry platforms
- A review request system your staff can actually run
- Escalation handling for reviews that need your personal attention
- Monthly report: volume, rating trend, and how you compare to named competitors
Responding
Every new review gets a reply within two business days.
Positive reviews get a specific thank you that mentions what the customer actually said — not a copy-pasted line, which readers spot instantly and which makes a business look automated.
Negative reviews get a calm, factual, non-defensive reply that acknowledges the problem and moves the conversation offline. This one is worth doing properly: prospective customers read the one-star reviews first, and what they are really assessing is how you handled it.
Asking
The most effective moment to ask for a review is right after a good experience, in person or by a message sent within the hour. We build that into your process, give your staff the exact wording, and keep it inside the rules.
We do not gate reviews — surveying customers first and only inviting the happy ones to post publicly. It violates Google’s policy and FTC guidance, and the downside is not worth the lift.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get bad reviews removed?
Only when they actually violate platform policy — spam, a competitor posting fake reviews, someone reviewing the wrong business, or content containing personal attacks. We will file those. A genuine unhappy customer's review cannot be removed, and the right response is a good public reply.
Do you write fake reviews?
No. It is fraud under FTC rules, it gets profiles suspended, and it is increasingly easy for platforms to detect. If an agency offers this, that tells you what else they are willing to do with your business.
How do you write responses that sound like us?
We start with a short call about how you talk to customers and what you want to stand for, draft the first two weeks for your approval, then run independently. You can always review or override anything before it posts.
Is your business showing up in AI answers?
Find out in minutes. We run your niche and city through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI, then send you a report showing exactly who gets recommended instead of you.
Free. No card required.