PIPELINEGuide
Checklist: preparing for review management
What you should clarify before requesting quotes for review management. The more of this is clear upfront, the more reliable the quotes will be.
Before deciding on review management, a quick assessment is worthwhile: which workflow costs the most time, who will maintain the system later, and whether the necessary content even exists. The complete checklist is further down.
01 — Checklist
Clarify before the first quote
- What should improve? In one sentence, no jargon.
- How will you know? One number that should change.
- Who decides? One person, not a committee.
- What budget is available? A range is enough — it makes quotes comparable instead of arbitrary.
- By when? And what the deadline depends on.
- Which systems are involved? And who has access to them.
- What do you already have? Content, data, preliminary work — this reduces the cost.
02 — Participation
What we need from you
- A contact person who can make decisions — not just forward them.
- Access to the affected systems, in time and not on launch day.
- Real examples from daily business — the messier, the more useful for testing.
- Two to four hours for coordination, distributed over the project duration.
- An answer to the question of what success means. Without it, nothing can be assessed afterward.
03 — Questions
Questions you should ask
- What happens if the project becomes more expensive than estimated — who bears that?
- Who owns data, access, and, if developed, the source code?
- What does operation cost in the second and third year?
- What does the documentation we receive at the end look like?
- How would you measure whether the project was successful?
- Is there a case in which you would advise us against this?
04 — Questions
Frequently asked questions
How many reviews do we need?
More important than the number is regularity. A business with 40 reviews, five of them from recent months, appears livelier than one with 200 that are all three years old.
What to do about an unjustified review?
Respond professionally and, if there's a policy violation, report it. Don't: justify, argue, or publicly disclose details of the case — the latter can become tricky under data protection law.
What if a customer deletes the review later?
That's decided exclusively by the person who left the review — you can ask, but you can't force it. A professional, public response is often more effective than attempting to achieve deletion.
What does a bad review really cost us?
Less than its absence. A business with no negative reviews at all appears implausible to many people; what matters is the professional response to it, not its absence.
Is it allowed to actively ask for reviews?
Yes, as long as you ask all customers equally and offer no consideration in return. What's not allowed is selectively asking only satisfied customers or compensating for reviews. The workflow we build asks everyone.
How is that different from a simple review link in the signature?
A link alone is rarely clicked because no one is actively reminded. The automatic prompt at the right time makes the actual difference in response rate.
Does this also work for multiple locations at once?
Yes, each location gets its own workflow and its own profile. The evaluation can still be consolidated in one place so you can compare locations.
05 — Next
Related pages
- Review management — Overview
- Review management — Alternatives
- Review management — Small businesses
- Review management — Economic viability
- Review management — Common mistakes
- Review management — Duration
- Review management — How it works
- Review management — Where to start
- Google Business Profile
- Local SEO
- Customer support automation
- All guides
Review management by region
Next step
We'll look at your starting position.
Tell us what's eating up time today. That becomes an assessment with effort and benefit — and only then an offer.