Getting Client Reviews That Actually Persuade Someone

"Very professional and helpful, highly recommended." Five stars, and it persuades nobody, because it is what every review says and it describes nothing that happened.

A useful review has a problem, an action, and a result.

Ask at the right moment

Within a week of possession or registry. The relief is still present and the details are still specific.

Do not ask before the deal closes — it puts the client in an awkward position. Do not ask three months later, when the memory has compressed into "it went fine".

Ask for a story, not a rating

Do not say "could you leave a review?" You will get one sentence.

Ask three questions instead:

1. "What were you worried about before we started?"
2. "What was the hardest part, and what did I do about it?"
3. "Would you tell a friend to use me, and what would you say?"

Then offer to write it up for them to approve. Most clients are grateful — writing is work, and they want to help but do not want a homework assignment.

What a good review reads like

"We'd been looking for four months and two agents had shown us places way over our budget. Priya asked what we actually earned before showing us anything, then showed us six flats in three weeks. She told us not to buy the one we liked most because of a water issue in the building. We bought the third one. She was right about the water."

That is persuasive because it contains a specific act against the agent's own short-term interest.

Where to put them

• Google Business Profile — highest value, because it reaches people actively searching
• Your property page or website, next to the relevant properties
• An Instagram highlight called Reviews
• In your enquiry replies, occasionally, as a screenshot when relevant

Video, when you can get it

Thirty seconds on a phone, at the handover, is worth more than a page of text — because it is visibly a real person. Ask on the day, when everyone is happy and already there. Ask permission to use it, explicitly.

Do not fabricate anything

Do not write reviews yourself, do not use a friend's name, and do not post star ratings or review counts you cannot substantiate. Beyond being dishonest, fake reviews are a violation of every major platform's terms and can get a business profile removed. In several jurisdictions they also fall foul of consumer protection rules.

If you have three real reviews, use three. Three real ones outperform twenty invented ones, because real ones contain details invented ones never do.

The number that matters

Not the star average. Whether a review mentions something specific you did. One review with a real story does more work than ten that say "professional".