How to respond to Google reviews?

The mechanics take a minute. Owners and managers on a verified Business Profile can reply to any review. Google checks each reply against its content policy before publishing it, which usually takes up to 10 minutes but can take up to 30 days. Once approved, the reply appears under the review in your business name, not your personal name, and the reviewer gets a notification. You can edit or delete a reply later from the same reviews screen.

Write for the people reading later as much as for the person who left the review. Someone choosing between three electricians will scroll through your reviews and replies, and the replies tell them how you treat people once the job is done. Plain and warm beats polished.

For good reviews, thank the person by first name, mention something specific about the job and keep it to two or three sentences. For critical reviews, wait until you are calm, acknowledge what went wrong if anything did, correct factual errors without arguing, and give a phone number or email for sorting it out. If the person was never a customer, say so politely and report the review at the same time.

A few things to avoid. Do not include a customer's personal details, such as their address or what they paid, because Google's policy bars personal information. Do not offer anything in return for a changed or removed review, which Google treats as rating manipulation. And do not paste the same reply under every review: in BrightLocal's 2026 survey of US consumers, half said generic or templated replies made them less likely to use a business.

The habit matters more than any single reply. Ten minutes once or twice a week keeps every review answered within a few days. If that keeps slipping, it is one of the jobs SEO Pages can take off your hands as part of review management.