Insight
How to Get More 5-Star Customer Reviews
Companies with more 5-star reviews earn more customers. Here’s how to get both—and other great benefits.
Customer reviews are one of your most valuable sales and marketing assets. 98% of consumers read multiple reviews before choosing a business to work with. So if you aren’t getting reviews, you’re missing out on new customers.
Here’s how to get more 5-star customer reviews with business text messaging, so you can stand out in search results, and win more business.
Why Do 5-Star Reviews Matter?
Online reviews are crucial. They affect Google search rankings and who customers choose to work with. But 5-star reviews (the highest rating given) have even larger effects.
5-star reviews influence:
How high you rank in Google searches
How many customers choose you over competitors
How much people are willing to pay and average transaction value
How many industry awards and recognitions you receive
Whether you get included in many “Best of” and “Top Providers” lists
More 5-star reviews leads to more customers, higher transaction value, and lower customer acquisition costs. That’s the business trifecta.
View our Ultimate Guide to Online Reviews for more details and sources on why reviews matter.
3 Steps to Earn Tons of 5-Star Customer Reviews
1. Create customer experiences worth five stars.
In order to get 5-star reviews, you have to delight customers. The customer experience has to back your 5-star reviews up.
For most businesses, delighting customers takes three things.
Great product or service.
It needs to work great, be easy to use, and leave customers better off than before they found you. This is true whether you work in retail, healthcare, home repair, legal or accounting, or anywhere else.
Strong customer relationships.
Customers leave raving reviews for people they care about, not just brands. If you want 5-star reviews, your front-line team needs to be building quality relationships with customers. You’ve got to be likable, knowledgeable, and helpful throughout your customer interactions.
Smooth logistics and operations.
A great product and great people can still get undermined by poor communication or inconsistent follow-through. If customers have a difficult time working with you, that reflects in the reviews they share.
Once you create incredible customer experiences, asking for reviews becomes easy.
2. Ask for the review — then ask again.
Most happy customers won’t leave a review unless you ask for them. Here’s how to ask, so they’ll leave you those reviews you need.
Pick a platform.
You don’t need reviews on every review platform. You need them where your customers are looking. Choose one primary platform, and focus there.
Popular review websites include:
Google — ideal for businesses with a local presence
Facebook — works across most industries
Amazon — for retail brands and publishers
Angi — for contractors and other home service providers
G2 — for software companies
TripAdvisor — for travel and hospitality
Text Request connects directly to Google and Facebook to make your review strategy seamless.
Use texting.
Text messages boast up to a 98% open rate, making it the highest-engagement channel to send review requests. 70% of consumers across all demographics say texting is the fastest way to reach them because it meets them exactly where they are—on their phones.
When you text a review request with a direct link to your review page, people are more likely to see them and act on them compared to traditional channels—like email or printed advertisements.
Create templates.
Create standard text message templates your whole team can use, so outreach stays consistent across the board. That way, employees aren’t left improvising their own messages.
You can browse our SMS Review Request Templates for a starting point.
Enable your team.
Your team needs to understand why reviews matter, be familiar with the review request process, and what they’ll get for earning more reviews for your business.
Text Request’s Reviews leaderboard shows how many reviews each employee has earned in a given period, and how that compares to the rest. You and the whole team can see it, so you can track progress and even run internal competitions.
There are plenty of ideas to explore, but it’s most important for your team to move as a unit. Make it easy and enjoyable for them to gather reviews, and your whole business will thrive.
Bake it into your communications and operations.
Review generation works smoothly when it’s naturally part of your workflow. It shouldn’t be something that happens when someone remembers to do it.
Make sure you and your team know:
Why reviews matter
When to ask for reviews
How to ask for reviews and what to say
Your primary metric to track
What they’ll get in return
Use templates, automated workflows, sticky note checklists, or whatever it takes to incorporate review requests into your day-to-day communications and operations.
Encourage private feedback.
Not every experience is a 5-star one, and that’s okay.
For customers you’re unsure about, you can encourage private feedback. This way, issues are voiced, but you get the chance to handle them internally instead of it going public.
You can use our Reviews feature to take advantage of this. You may even send a request for only private to customers who you aren’t sure had good experiences.
3. Respond to every review.
Earning more 5-star customer reviews is helpful for Google search results, winning new business, and being considered a top provider. But it’s also crucial that you respond to these reviews.
Why?
Because consumers vetting your reviews are also looking to see how good you are to work with. Your responsiveness, and how you handle both positive and negative feedback, are indicators of that.
Best practices for requesting reviews include:
Responding quickly
Thanking people for taking the time to leave a review
Apologizing for any negative experiences
Compensating customers for any bad experiences
Gently correcting any misinformation
Taking time to respond speaks volumes to the consumers who are considering using you—plus contributes to a positive online reputation.
Use Review Management for Best Results
“Review Management” entails intentionally requesting, responding to, and tracking online reviews across one or more platforms. It’s what separates businesses that grow through reviews from those that just hope for them.
Text Request’s Reviews feature connects your Google and Facebook business pages to your account, so your team can text customers for reviews, and manage everything in one place.
Check out our Reviews feature, get a demo of it, or talk to us about it. It may not feel necessary when you first start asking for reviews, but it will quickly become a core piece of your success.
FAQ
1. How can I increase online reviews for my business?
All it takes is simply asking for them. Customers won’t leave reviews unless they’re prompted. Text messaging is one of the best ways because it gets seen and acted on faster than email. The key is making it a consistent process your whole team follows, not just an occasional task.
2. How do I ask for online reviews via text?
It’s best to keep it short and direct. Something like: “Hi [Name], it was great working with you. Would you mind leaving us a quick Google review? [link] Thank you!” works perfectly. Send it within 24-48 hours of the interaction while the experience is still fresh on your customers minds.
3. How many 5-star reviews does it take to cancel out a 1-star review?
It takes roughly 5 positive reviews to offset 1 negative review in terms of consumer perception. The bigger concern is your overall rating. Most consumers won’t consider a business below a 4.0-star average.
4. Should I respond to negative reviews?
Yes, always. How you handle criticism matters just as much to customers as the negative review itself. Apologize, make it right, and keep it professional — even if the review isn’t fair. A thoughtful response to a bad review can actually build trust than a streak of perfect ones.
5. Can I ask customers to change or remove a bad review?
You can, but do it carefully. Reach out to the customer privately, apologize for the experience, and try to resolve the issue first. If you’re able to resolve the issue, ask if they’d be willing to update their review, but never pressure them. Google and Yelp prohibit incentivizing gaining reviews and changing reviews, so keep it genuine.
