Five Stars And One Word: Why Your Reviews Just Say Good

"Good."

Five stars. That is the whole review.

Right under it, "Great service." Under that, a five star with no words at all. Scroll a little more and there is "Recommend."

Your rating looks fine, and the page still does not help anybody decide. A stranger reading it learns that people were happy with something, and has no idea what, or whether it was the thing they need.

Why short reviews happen

It is tempting to blame the customer. Most of the time the short review comes from how the ask went.

They were asked at the wrong moment. If the request lands while they are walking to the car or sitting in a parking lot with a toddler, you get the fastest version of a yes, and that is a star tap and one word.

Nothing reminded them what happened. A text that says "Please leave us a review!" with a link gives them a blank box and no memory to fill it with. The job was nine days ago. They remember it went well. That is all they remember, so that is what they write.

The ask sounded like a chore. "It only takes a second" tells them to spend a second. They did.

None of that is them being lazy. You got exactly what the ask was built for.

What a useful review has in it

A review that sells has a little bit of story. What they came in for, something specific that happened, and how it turned out. "Our AC died on a Saturday, they had someone out that afternoon, and he explained the part before replacing it."

That one sentence answers questions the next customer is already asking. Do they come on weekends? Do they explain things or just bill you? A page of "Good" answers neither.

How to get sentences without writing them a script

You cannot write the review for them. Handing somebody the words to post is a bad idea, and on Google it breaks the spirit of an honest review even if nobody catches it. Readers can also tell when twelve reviews use the same phrase.

What you can do is make it easy to remember the details.

Ask while the good part is still happening. The moment the customer says "wow, that was fast" or "I did not expect you to fix that too" is the moment. They just told you the review out loud.

Say their words back. "You mentioned we got here the same day. If you would put that in a review, it really helps the next person with a broken AC." You are not writing anything. You are reminding them of something they already said.

Name the job in the follow up text. "Thanks for having us out Saturday for the AC" gets better reviews than "Thanks for choosing us." The job name brings the memory back.

Ask for a sentence, not a favor. "Even one line about what we did helps" asks for a sentence, and a sentence is often all it takes to get a real review.

What to do with the one-word ones you already have

Leave them. A short five star is still a real review from a real customer, and it still counts.

Reply to them anyway, and use the reply to add the context they did not. "Thanks, it was good to get your water heater back up the same week." Only say what actually happened on their job. Now the review says something, even if you wrote the useful half.

Do this

1. 1Read your last twenty reviews and count how many are under ten words.
2. 2Look at the ask that got them. When was it sent, and what did it say?
3. 3Move the ask closer to the good moment, in person if you can.
4. 4Teach your team to listen for the compliment and repeat it back when they ask.
5. 5Rewrite your follow up text to name the job and the day.
6. 6Swap "it only takes a second" for "one line about what we did helps."
7. 7Reply to the short ones with a sentence about the actual job.
8. 8Never hand a customer words to post.

Where the card fits

The card helps with the timing part, which is most of this.

A tap card from shop.optechsol.llc lets your tech or front desk ask right when the customer is saying something nice. The customer taps, the review form opens, and the compliment they just said out loud is still fresh. That is when you get sentences instead of "Good."

The card will not fix a flat ask on its own, though. If the words around it are "real quick, can you leave us five stars," you will still get one word. Pair it with the repeat-it-back habit above.

The short version

One-word reviews come from one-second asks. Ask while they are still happy, remind them what they said, and let them write it in their own words.