Ask every customer for a review, and reply to every review

Review sites have rules for businesses, and breaking them can get reviews taken down or your listing marked. This prompt has Claude find each site's current rules on its own pages.

The plain version, for Google and most other sites:

• Ask every customer, the same way, whether you think they're happy or not.
• Offer nothing in return for a review. No incentive of any kind: no discount, no gift, no prize draw.
• Never write fake reviews, buy them or swap them with another business. Never have staff, friends or family post them for you.

Yelp is different. It asks businesses not to ask anyone for reviews, and its software may hide reviews that look requested. Don't send your Yelp link. Ask on Google, or another site whose rules allow it, and let Yelp reviews come on their own.

1. Open the Claude app or claude.ai and start a new chat.
2. Copy the prompt below.

Search the web for the current rules businesses must follow on these review sites. For each site, answer in plain words: may a business ask customers for reviews, may it offer anything in return, and may it ask only the customers it thinks are happy? Quote the site's own policy or help page and link to it. If you can only find other people's summaries, say so. My review sites: [the sites your customers use, like Google]

3. Paste it into the chat. Replace the part in square brackets with your review sites, like Google and Facebook or Google and Houzz.
4. Send it.
5. Click at least one of Claude's links and check the quote is really there.

prompt What you type to Claude. A good one says what you want, how to work and what never to do. All words×incentive Something offered in return, like a discount, a gift or a prize draw. Review sites don't allow one for a review. All words×Claude app Claude on your phone or computer, where you chat with it by typing. claude.ai is the same thing in a web browser. All words×

A close-out message goes out when the work is done: after a roofer's final walk-through, when a customer picks up a framed print, after a bookkeeper files the return, or when a dog goes home from the groomer. It thanks them and asks for an honest review in the same breath.

AI drafts and sorts; a person approves anything with a price, a date or your name on it. Your close-out has your name on it, so you read it before it goes.

1. Copy the prompt below.

Write a short close-out message I send when a job or an order is finished. Thank them, mention the work with FILL IN for one detail, tell them who to contact if anything isn't right, and ask for an honest review with FILL IN for the link. It has to work the same for every customer, whatever they thought. Offer nothing in return for the review. Keep it under 80 words. Give me an email version and a text-message version. I'll check and send every one myself.

2. Paste it into the same chat and send it.
3. Read it out loud, and change any word you wouldn't say.

AI Short for artificial intelligence. Here it means a program like Claude that reads what you write and writes back in plain words. All words×

A link that opens straight to your review page saves the customer hunting for it. These steps are for Google. If you ask on another site whose rules allow it, look for the same kind of link in your account there.

1. Go to business.google.com on a computer and sign in with the Google account that manages your business.
2. Click Read reviews, then Get more reviews.
3. Click Copy.
4. Paste the link in place of the FILL IN in your close-out message.
5. Send the message to yourself and tap the link on your phone, to check it opens your review page.

account A sign-in with a company, like a domain, email or hosting. Whoever owns the account controls what's in it. All words×

People reading your reviews also read your replies. A short, real thank-you shows someone's there. This prompt drafts one for you to read and post.

1. Open the review site and copy a good review you haven't replied to.
2. Copy the prompt below.

Draft a reply to this review for me to post. Thank them in a way that fits what they said, and mention one detail from their review. Keep it under 60 words and sound like me, not a company. Don't add any offer, price, date or customer detail that isn't in the review. I'll read it and post it myself. The review: [paste the review]

3. Paste it into the same chat. Replace the part in square brackets with the review.
4. Send it.
5. Read the reply, change what doesn't sound like you, and post it yourself.

A three-star review with a fair point is worth a calm answer. Future customers read it to see how you handle a problem. This prompt drafts a reply that owns what's fair without arguing.

1. Copy a mixed review you haven't replied to.
2. Copy the prompt below.

Draft a reply to this review for me to post. It isn't all good. Thank them, agree in one sentence with what's fair, and say what I've done or will do about it, with FILL IN for that. Invite them to contact me directly, with FILL IN for how. Don't argue about details, and don't repeat anything private about them or the job. Keep it under 80 words. I'll read it and post it myself. The review: [paste the review]

3. Paste it into the same chat. Replace the part in square brackets with the review.
4. Send it.
5. Fill in what you'll do and how to reach you, read it again, and post it yourself.

This prompt puts your close-out message and the two reply prompts on one page with the rules at the top, so they're ready next time.

1. Copy the prompt below.

Put these on one page I can save: my close-out message in both versions, and the two review-reply prompts I used, each with a blank in square brackets at the end for the review. At the top, write these rules: Ask every customer the same way. Offer nothing in return for a review. Never write, buy or swap a review. A person reads every reply before it's posted.

2. Paste it into the same chat and send it.
3. Copy the page into a note or a document called Reviews kit.

Some booking, job and point-of-sale software can send a review request when a job closes. If yours can, paste your close-out message in there, and check it goes to every customer, not only the ones marked happy. If it asks customers to rate you first and sends only the high scores to Google, turn that part off.