Reviews & Referrals
Most customers check reviews before buying — yet frontline teams rarely ask. Reputation and referrals stay accidental instead of systematic. (Exact survey % varies by year; cite BrightLocal on publish.)
Everybody checks reviews. Basically nobody asks for them. This hub fixes that overnight.
Before → after
What changes when this operator is live.
Before
Staff forget to ask. Occasional manual texts. Negative reviews sit unanswered. Referrals happen only when someone remembers.
After
After a completed visit, AI asks for an honest rating, routes happy customers to the review link, drafts replies, then optionally runs a separate referral thank-you.
Steps to implement
Copyable operating order — connect, pilot, measure, then scale.
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Trigger the ask after completed jobs/visits from calendar or CRM status.
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Stage 1: request an honest 1–5 experience rating — no reward attached.
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Route 4–5 ratings to the public review link; escalate low ratings to a human.
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Stage 2 (optional): send a separate thank-you / referral offer after the ask.
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Auto-draft review replies; require human send on negatives and edge cases.
What this operator does
Productized capabilities — including the planned improvements for this hub.
- 1
Stage 1 — honest review ask
After a completed visit/job, AI asks for a 1–5 experience rating and routes happy customers to the review link. No reward is gated on leaving a review.
- 2
Stage 2 — separate referral reward
After the review step, a separate thank-you / referral offer can run (guest invite, credit, seasonal perk) without conditioning the review itself.
- 3
Review reply automation
Drafts on-brand replies to new reviews and flags negatives for human handoff — reputation defense starts here.
- 4
Referral lead capture
Sends a clean referral link and tracks free inbound leads — usually the highest-intent acquisition channel a local business gets.
Failure modes
Where this hub breaks if you skip the guardrails.
- Review-gated incentives
“Leave a 5-star review to get X” violates platform rules and destroys trust. Keep reward separate from the ask.
- No reply on negatives
Unanswered 1-star reviews compound damage. Escalate immediately with full context.
- Asking too early
Asking before the job is complete or while the customer is unhappy backfires. Trigger only on completed, eligible visits.
When not to automate
Do not auto-ask during active complaints, refund disputes, or clinical incidents — wait for a human all-clear.
KPIs
Measurable outcomes the owner dashboard should track for this hub.
Review ask rate
% of eligible customers asked
Near 100% of completed jobs
Review conversion
Asks that become public reviews
By channel
Reply SLA
Median time to reply to new reviews
< 24h
Referral leads
Leads attributed to referral links
Cost = $0 ads
Vertical pack
Neutral SMB default, with pack-specific offer and tone notes.
Neutral “how was your visit?” → review link → optional thank-you referral.
Integrations
Without these connections, the hub is a slide — not a product.
CRM / contact DB
Lead segments, consent flags, ownership, and campaign history
SMS / messaging
Compliant outbound and two-way conversations
Google / review platforms
Review links, monitoring, and reply workflows
Calendar / booking
Real-time availability, booking, reschedule, and reminders
Compliance
Built-in guardrails: consent, incentives, handoff, and data minimization.
SMS & messaging consent
Only message contacts with documented opt-in for the relevant channel. Honor STOP/HELP. Align with TCPA (US), POPIA (ZA), GDPR/ePrivacy (EU/UK), and local carrier rules.
Review incentives (platform-safe)
Never gate a reward on leaving a positive review. Ask for an honest rating first. Run any thank-you / referral reward as a separate step after the review ask — Google and other platforms prohibit review conditioning.
Human handoff
Escalate billing disputes, medical/legal edge cases, angry customers, and “talk to a person” requests to a named human with full conversation context.
Shipped improvements
Content and product upgrades encoded in this hub.
Two-stage flow: honest ask first, referral reward second
No review-gated incentives (platform compliance)
Automated review replies with human escalation
Extended by
Hubs that protect or extend this operator’s ROI — open the related deep dive.
After this leak is plugged
Companions — payoff guidance, not Operator skill.
Ad Multiplier
Once this leak is plugged, paid ads stop funding a broken handoff — the same Google and Meta spend books more.
Open Ad Multiplier →