Years ago, I drove past a billboard for a local real estate agency that read:
Proud to be named Sydney’s Nicest Real Estate Agents*
*As voted by our Mums
I still remember it.
In a world full of businesses calling themselves leading, trusted, award-winning and number one, it was one of the most refreshing pieces of advertising I had seen.
They weren’t dressing an opinion up as evidence. They were making fun of the fact that businesses are very good at saying nice things about themselves.
And there are only so many times you can tell someone you are trustworthy, experienced, responsive or excellent at what you do before the reasonable response is:
Of course you think that.
Reviews are different.
They are your customers saying it for you.
Reviews are a little like scalable referrals
A referral has always given businesses a head start on trust.
Call them. They did ours and were brilliant.
You borrow some confidence from the person making the recommendation before you have ever dealt with the business yourself.
Reviews make some of that experience visible to everyone.
One customer tells you the emergency plumber arrived within an hour. Another says the landscaper communicated clearly through a complicated project. Someone else explains that they were nervous walking into a salon but immediately felt comfortable.
One review is one experience. Hundreds of reviews over several years start to become evidence of a pattern.
They show that the business is active, what customers are actually engaging it for and whether the experience described on the website resembles what happens after someone becomes a customer.
That history matters too. Fifty great reviews this month are useful. Years of real customers describing real work tell you something slightly different about longevity and consistency.
We care more about patterns than a perfect 5.0
Obviously, a genuine five-star rating is lovely.
But we do not think businesses need to become terrified of the occasional poor review.
One furious one-star review surrounded by years of happy customers may simply be an outlier. Humans are involved. Things happen. Sometimes the way the business responds tells you something valuable too.
A repeated pattern concerns us more.
If review after review says the work was excellent but communication was difficult, pay attention. If customers continually mention how clearly everything was explained, perhaps communication is one of the strengths you should be leaning into.
Reviews should not only confirm what you hope is true about the business. They can help show you what actually is.
And yes, reply to them
A thoughtful response adds another layer of information for the next person reading.
Our rough formula is simple:
Thank them. Acknowledge what they valued. Add something genuine from your side of the experience. Thank them again.
If they mention a difficult project, acknowledge what made it interesting. If they name a team member, recognise them. If there is something specific about the work that you are proud of, say so.
You do not need to turn the response into a paragraph of keywords and service locations for the benefit of an algorithm.
Reply to the person.
Everyone else reading gets to see how you treat them.
Please keep the evidence real
The reason reviews are so valuable is precisely because they are not supposed to come from you.
So do not fake them.
Do not buy reviews, invent testimonials or manufacture the appearance of happy customers who do not exist.
If there is one thing we have learnt in marketing, it is that fake has a habit of catching up with you.
The same goes for followers, engagement, claims, awards and every other shortcut to looking more established than the business really is.
If you can prove something, show the proof.
If you cannot prove it, do not dress an opinion up as evidence.
Sometimes you might even be better off letting your mum vote.
