How to Respond to Google Reviews, Good and Bad

People read the replies as closely as the reviews. A calm, specific answer to a bad review often does more for the next customer than ten five-star ones, because it shows how you behave when something goes wrong. Here is how to reply, what Google itself recommends, and examples to adapt.

How to reply

Your business must be verified on Google before you can reply (how to create a Google Business Profile). Then, as Google's help page describes it (https://support.google.com/business/answer/3474050):

Go to your Business Profile and select Read reviews.
Next to the review, select Reply, write your answer and select Reply again.

What happens next: Google checks the reply against its content policies, usually within 10 minutes and sometimes up to 30 days. Once approved it is public under the review, shown as the business, not your personal name. The reviewer is notified, and can still change their review after reading it. You can edit or delete your reply later.

What Google says makes a good reply

Google's tips (https://support.google.com/business/answer/3474122), in short:

Professional and polite, and within Google's content policies, like reviews.
Short and simple: people stop reading long replies before the point.
Not the same "thank you" to everyone: reply where you can add something useful.
Conversational, not promotional: no deals or offers in replies.
For negative reviews: protect privacy and never attack the reviewer; if it is complicated, ask them to call or email you to sort it out privately.

Replying to a good review

Thank them, mention the actual job, and keep it to two or three sentences. A detail shows a real person read it.

An example to adapt: "Thanks, Maria. Glad the new water heater is keeping up with a full house. If anything changes with it, call us and we'll come back out."

Replying to a negative review

Wait until you are calm, then:

Thank them for taking the time, even if it stings.
Acknowledge what went wrong from their side, without arguing the details in public.
Say what you did or will do about it, in one sentence.
Take it offline: give a name and a number or email.

An example to adapt: "We're sorry the crew arrived two hours late, and that nobody called to tell you. That's not how we want to work, and we've changed how we confirm arrival times. Please call me at the office so I can make this right. Dave"

Never share a customer's private details, the price they paid, or your side of a dispute line by line. Readers judge your tone, not who was right.

A review that is not real

If a review breaks Google's policies, for example it is fake, off-topic or from someone who was never a customer, you can flag it for Google to check (the same help page explains how). Replying calmly in the meantime is still the right move. Never pressure or threaten anyone to remove a review: the Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews bans suppressing reviews with threats or intimidation (https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/consumer-reviews-testimonials-rule-questions-answers).

Getting more reviews to reply to

The best answer to one bad review is a steady flow of honest ones. Ask every customer after every job, with your own review link or QR code: a Google review QR code, and how to get more reviews.

If you would rather someone else did it, our Local presence plan replies to every new review, good or bad; a bad one gets a calm, factual draft that you see before it goes out. It also sends a review request after each job and keeps your profile current, for USD 199 a month, including your website's monthly plan.

Ask us about your profile.

Written with AI help. Sources: Google's help pages and the FTC page linked above, checked 2026-11-02.