Lesson 3 of 4
Reviews and referrals: the cheapest growth there is
Ask every customer, the right way, at the right moment
The idea
Before you try a new restaurant, you probably check its reviews. So do your customers. Reviews are what a stranger reads before they call you, and what Google and AI assistants quote about you.
Step 1
The happy moment
Delivery day, a result, a thank-you
Step 2
One short ask
One sentence, one link
Step 3
One reminder
A few days later, once
Step 4
Your reply
To every review, good or bad
Breaks the rules
- Paying for reviews, or discounts only for five stars
- Reviews from staff or family, without saying so
- Hiding the bad ones
Works, and lasts
- Asking everyone, the same way
- Replying calmly to the bad ones
- Showing real reviews where people decide
Google's rules forbid offering anything in return for a review. The US rule bans buying reviews and hiding the bad ones.
Referrals
Ask who else
“Who else should see this?” on delivery day
Make it easy
A short note they can forward, with your link
Say thank you
Every time, whether it led to work or not
Today, with AI
AI assistants read reviews and quote them when people ask for a recommendation. A few specific reviews now work far beyond your own site.
Fake reviews got easy to make and are banned in more places, so sites remove suspicious ones faster.
What AI does well
Drafting the ask and the replies, and turning a long review into a short quote, with permission.
Where it goes wrong
It must never write reviews. Anything it drafts in a customer's name is a fake review.
What stays yours
Asking, and answering every review in your own words.
Check yourself
Do it in the studio
Try it here first
Your review ask
One sentence at one moment, with one link. Use it in the steps below.
Yours
On delivery day: “Would you tell others what working with us was like?” With one link to our Google profile.
- 01
Write your review ask above.
free - 02
Or have the emails written: Create → Email → Sequences, Ask for a review, then Write it.
20 credits - 03
Reply to your last five reviews, good or bad, in your own words.
free - 04
Add your best reviews on Your report → Facts, with their links, so the team can quote them.
free
Done when Every customer gets the same short ask at the same happy moment, and every review gets a reply.
Go deeper
University courses on the same topic, if you want to go further.
London Business School
Information in the Modern Economy (MBA)How information shapes markets, including online reviews
Harvard Business School Online
Digital Marketing Strategy and AI, Module 5: Engaging CustomersKeeping customers involved, building community, and why customers leave