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Review acquisition and response

Reviews influence both ranking and click-through, but velocity and recency matter more than a lifetime total. A steady trickle from real customers outperforms a campaign that produces forty reviews in a fortnight and then nothing. This skill builds acquisition into the service process and standardizes the response.

CATEGORY
Local SEO
FORMAT
review-acquisition-and-response.md
STEPS
6
PRICE
Free - no account
WHEN TO REACH FOR THIS

Use when review volume is stagnant, ratings are dropping, or reviews arrive in bursts that look unnatural against a long quiet period.

The skill file

review-acquisition-and-response.md 
---
name: review-acquisition-and-response
description: Use when review volume is stagnant, ratings are dropping, or reviews arrive in bursts that look unnatural against a long quiet period.
---

# Review acquisition and response

Reviews influence both ranking and click-through, but velocity and recency matter more than a lifetime total. A steady trickle from real customers outperforms a campaign that produces forty reviews in a fortnight and then nothing. This skill builds acquisition into the service process and standardizes the response.

## What you need first

- Current review count, average rating and monthly velocity per platform
- The customer touchpoints where a request could realistically be made
- Competitor review counts and velocity for the same map pack

## Method

1. Benchmark against the map pack competitors, not against an absolute target - the number that matters is whether your velocity is above theirs.
2. Attach the request to a specific moment in the service flow where the customer is demonstrably satisfied, and ask in person or by a message from a real person rather than an automated blast.
3. Send a direct review link and never filter or gate requests by asking about satisfaction first, which breaches platform policy and gets reviews removed.
4. Respond to every review within 72 hours, and in negative responses lead with the specific fact rather than the apology template - a generic apology reads as automated to the next reader.
5. Never dispute the customer version publicly or reference private account details in a reply, which converts one bad review into a visible pattern.
6. Track velocity monthly and watch for removals, since platforms strip bursts and reviews left from the business premises IP or from newly created accounts.

## What this produces

A documented request point in the service flow, a response standard with time targets, and a monthly velocity figure tracked against competitors.

## Where this goes wrong

- Running a one-off campaign that spikes velocity and then stops, which both looks manipulative and decays fast
- Gating requests so only happy customers get the link, which is against policy and detectable
- Replying to five-star reviews with the same sentence, which makes the negative replies look scripted too

---

From the QuQi skill library - https://www.quqi.io/skills/review-acquisition-and-response
Free to download · no account, no email

What you need first

  • Current review count, average rating and monthly velocity per platform
  • The customer touchpoints where a request could realistically be made
  • Competitor review counts and velocity for the same map pack

Method

  1. 01 Benchmark against the map pack competitors, not against an absolute target - the number that matters is whether your velocity is above theirs.
  2. 02 Attach the request to a specific moment in the service flow where the customer is demonstrably satisfied, and ask in person or by a message from a real person rather than an automated blast.
  3. 03 Send a direct review link and never filter or gate requests by asking about satisfaction first, which breaches platform policy and gets reviews removed.
  4. 04 Respond to every review within 72 hours, and in negative responses lead with the specific fact rather than the apology template - a generic apology reads as automated to the next reader.
  5. 05 Never dispute the customer version publicly or reference private account details in a reply, which converts one bad review into a visible pattern.
  6. 06 Track velocity monthly and watch for removals, since platforms strip bursts and reviews left from the business premises IP or from newly created accounts.

What this produces

A documented request point in the service flow, a response standard with time targets, and a monthly velocity figure tracked against competitors.

Where this goes wrong

  • Running a one-off campaign that spikes velocity and then stops, which both looks manipulative and decays fast
  • Gating requests so only happy customers get the link, which is against policy and detectable
  • Replying to five-star reviews with the same sentence, which makes the negative replies look scripted too

Use this skill in your own AI

The download is a plain markdown file with the name and trigger in its frontmatter. Where an assistant supports skills it can load itself, that frontmatter is what it reads to decide this one applies.

Claude Code Save it as ~/.claude/skills/review-acquisition-and-response/SKILL.md and Claude loads it on its own when what you are doing matches the trigger line. Put it in .claude/skills inside a project instead if the whole team should have it.
Claude Upload the file in the skills section of your settings. Once it is there it applies itself in any conversation where the trigger fits, so you do not have to remember it exists.
ChatGPT There is no skills format to install into, so paste the file contents into a Project instruction or a Custom GPT instead. It then applies to every chat in that project rather than only the one you paste it into.
Anything else Paste the markdown into the chat before your question. It works in any assistant, it just has to be pasted again each time.

Questions about this skill

When is building requests into the service flow better than running a campaign?

When you need reviews to keep arriving. A campaign produces forty reviews in a fortnight, platforms strip part of the burst as unnatural, and velocity returns to zero. A request attached to a moment where the customer is demonstrably satisfied produces a steady trickle instead, which is what the velocity and recency signals reward.

What do I need in hand before starting?

Current count, rating and monthly velocity per platform, the same figures for the map pack competitors, and an honest map of the touchpoints where a request is realistic. The competitor numbers set the target. An absolute goal of a hundred reviews means nothing when the pack leaders add eight a month and you add two.

What do I end up with, and which part of it gets used?

A named request point in the service flow, a response standard with a 72-hour target, and a monthly velocity figure tracked against competitors. Velocity is the reporting number. Lifetime totals only ever rise, so they never show a problem, whereas two months below the pack tells you the request point has quietly stopped being used.

What ruins this most often?

Gating: asking how satisfied someone is and sending the link only to the happy ones. It breaches platform policy, it is detectable, and the reviews are removed along with the goodwill. The everyday version is replying to every five-star review with the same sentence, which makes the carefully written negative replies read as scripted too.

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