Customers pay 22% more for shops that do this

Per BrightLocal’s 2025 consumer survey, 97% of consumers read reviews before choosing a local business, and 83% of them read yours on Google. Here is the part most owners miss: 97% of review readers also read the business’s responses, yet 63% of consumers say a business never responded to their review.

The money angle: consumers report being willing to pay around 22% more to a business with a good online reputation, and more when reviews are excellent. Your response rate is part of that reputation. A one star complaint sitting unanswered for four months tells every future customer what service after the sale looks like.

And as of this year it is not just humans reading. Google’s AI Overviews pull review signals when deciding which one or two businesses to recommend for best plumber near me. Unanswered reviews are a ranking liability now.

AI writes a decent first draft of a review response in seconds. You read it, make it sound like you, and post. The job goes from a thing you avoid for months to a 20 minute Friday habit.

Step 1: Clear the backlog. Open your Google Business Profile, sort reviews oldest unanswered first. Paste each into ChatGPT or Claude with this prompt: write a 3 sentence response to this review of my plumbing company. Thank them, address the specific detail they mentioned, no corporate speak. If negative: acknowledge, no excuses, offer to make it right offline with my direct number. 60 to 90 minutes once.

Step 2: Edit before posting, every time. If a response could have been written by any company, add the one detail only you would know: the job, the street, the tech’s name.

Step 3: Negative reviews get priority. Respond within 48 hours, take it offline. Never argue in public, future customers are the real audience.

Step 4: Set the Friday recurring reminder: 20 minutes, all new reviews answered.

Step 5: Optional automation. Review management is built into Housecall Pro, Jobber, NiceJob, and Podium. Auto posting AI replies with no human read is where generic embarrassing responses come from, keep a human on the final read.

$0 with a free AI chatbot and 20 minutes a week. Review management software runs roughly $30 to $400 a month and mostly earns its keep through review requesting, not responding. Start free.

The number is 97%. Nearly every review reader also reads your responses. You are not replying to one customer, you are on stage in front of every future one.

The estimates you sent and never chased. One shop’s inside sales team turned dead quotes into roughly $400k a month. The AI version costs almost nothing.

The Trades Brief is independent. We take no money from the tools we cover. If a link is ever a partner link, it is marked here. This issue contains none.