Reviews
How to respond to Google reviews without sounding like a robot
Most businesses do one of two things with their Google reviews. They ignore them, or they tap the little heart. Both are a missed opportunity, because replying to your reviews, properly and in actual words, does real work in two places at once.
The first is Google itself. When you reply to a review, you are telling Google the profile is active and managed, which is one of the signals that helps you show up in local search. A heart does nothing here. A written reply is content, and it is content with your own words in it. Reply to enough reviews and you are quietly reinforcing what your business does and where, every time.
The second is the person reading them, and this matters more. Someone choosing a builder, a lawyer, a dentist is nervous. They scroll your reviews looking for a reason to feel safe. A wall of five-star reviews with no replies reads as fine. A wall of five-star reviews where the owner has taken a moment to thank each person, warmly and like a human, reads as a business that actually cares. At the point of decision, that is persuasive.
A measured reply to an unfair review makes you look reasonable and the reviewer look less so, without you having to say a word against them.
So here is how to do it well.
Keep it short, warm and specific where you can. “Thanks so much Sarah, it was a pleasure working with you on the Brighton job, all the best” beats a copy-pasted “Thank you for your feedback.” People can smell a template, and a template undoes the trust you were trying to build.
Do not say the same thing every time. If every reply is identical, both the reader and Google notice. Vary it. It only takes a few extra seconds and it reads as genuine.
Be careful in regulated fields. If you are a lawyer, an accountant, a health professional, never confirm in a reply that someone was a client or reference any detail of their matter. Keep it warm but generic: “Thank you, we really appreciate you taking the time.” The confidentiality matters more than the personal touch.
Then there are the negative ones, which is where most owners panic. Do not. A calm, gracious reply to a bad review often does more for you than the good ones, because every future reader is watching how you handle it. Thank them, acknowledge it without arguing, offer to make it right offline. Never get defensive in public. A measured reply to an unfair review makes you look reasonable and the reviewer look less so, without you having to say a word against them.
One question owners always ask alongside this: how many reviews do I actually need? The honest answer is not a fixed number. Enough that you do not look thin next to the businesses you compete with, and recent enough that they still count. Ten fresh reviews you have replied to will do more for you than fifty old ones sitting untouched.
It is worth knowing this reputation now feeds something newer too. The AI tools people increasingly ask for recommendations lean heavily on your reviews and how you engage with them. We wrote about that in why your reviews now decide who gets recommended. Getting your reviews right, and replying to them like a human, is no longer just a Google thing. It shapes whether you get chosen everywhere.
If you want a simple way to gather more reviews and a hand getting on top of responding to them, that is part of what a Website Visibility Audit covers.
Heath Stableford
Founder, Built Advisory
Heath has worked with small businesses across South Australia for more than ten years. He started Built Advisory after seeing too many good owners stretched thin, carrying every role themselves and losing work they never saw. His job is simple: handle the part that keeps you visible, so you can get back to the work you are actually good at.