Google review management for a shop
A shop lives on its local reputation. Asterias follows your Google reviews live, writes an answer that picks up what the customer actually mentioned (a product found on the shelf, the assistant’s advice, an exchange accepted without argument), and leaves every decision below four stars to you.
Why it’s different for a shop
A shop gets more reviews than most trades about things it did not do: a manufacturer’s fault, a delivery carrier, a return period the customer has misread. The whole difficulty is answering a complaint that is not yours without sounding like you are passing the buck.
The four recurring complaints
A refused return or exchange
The first cause, and almost always a misunderstanding about the rule. The reply states the rule in full: what falls under the statutory guarantee, what is a goodwill gesture from the shop, and within what period. It never says "that is our policy" without saying what the policy is, which is the phrasing that produces the second review.
A faulty product
The temptation is to send the customer to the manufacturer. That is legally shaky and commercially disastrous: the statutory guarantee of conformity is enforced against the seller, and the customer often knows that better than you expect. The reply takes the matter on and gives the next step at the shop.
Advice, and availability on the shelf
Nobody to ask, a product listed in stock and absent. The reply gives what is checkable, the real online stock state if the shop publishes one, and offers to have an item put aside by phone. Acknowledge without explaining staffing.
Delivery, when it is subcontracted
Late, damaged, a missed slot. The carrier is not the shop, but to the customer it is the same thing. The reply does not name the carrier to get off the hook: it says what the shop does in that case, and does it.
Two replies, in full
Item broke after three weeks. They send me to the manufacturer. I paid them, not the manufacturer.
Hello, and you are right. A product that fails after three weeks falls under the statutory guarantee of conformity, and that is enforced against the seller, which is us: you should not have to take it up with the manufacturer yourself. Come into the shop with your receipt, or write to [address] with the reference, and we will handle it end to end. We are going over this with the team, because the answer you were given was not the right one.
It concedes the substance instead of negotiating, which also happens to be the legally correct position. What the next reader remembers is the last sentence: the shop corrected something.
Good range and fair prices. Shame there is often nobody on the shop floor to ask, you have to go and find someone at the till.
Thank you for this, it is useful. Having to go and find someone at the till to ask a question is not how we want it to go. From this month one person is on the floor continuously from 2pm to 7pm, which is when the remark came up most. In the meantime, [phone] lets you have an item put aside without making the trip twice. Thank you for taking the time.
It treats the downside of a positive review as a real subject, with a dated change and an immediate workaround. That is what separates a reply from a thank you.
When the reviews arrive
December and January come as a pair: the festive volume, then the wave of returns and exchanges in January, which is the hardest month of the year for a shop’s rating.
Sales concentrate reviews about queues and about the return conditions on sale items, which are poorly known and therefore badly received.
September brings stock shortages on seasonal items, and with them the reviews about availability advertised online.
Every rating, its own treatment
4 and 5 stars
Answered automatically
A personal thank-you that picks up what the customer liked, published after a natural delay. Nothing for you to do.
3 stars
You approve
Asterias drafts an answer that acknowledges the problem and gives a reason to come back. It lands on WhatsApp or Telegram: one button to publish, one to rewrite.
1 and 2 stars
Nothing without you
Never published automatically by default. You get the review and a suggested reply. Send it, rewrite it, or let it go.
Common questions
A review is about a manufacturer’s fault. Can you say so?
You can explain it, but never to get off the hook. The statutory guarantee of conformity is enforced against the seller: sending the customer to the manufacturer is legally shaky and commercially worse than the review. The reply takes the matter on.
How do you answer a review about a refused return?
By stating the exact rule rather than "that is our policy". Distinguishing the statutory guarantee, which is binding, from a goodwill gesture, which is not owed, informs everyone and prevents the next review on the same subject.
The carrier is at fault. Should you name them?
No. The customer bought from the shop, not from the carrier, and naming a third party to shift blame reads as a dodge. The reply says what the shop does in that case, and does it.
Does a busy shop have to answer everything?
Yes, and that is exactly the case where doing it by hand becomes impossible. Asterias publishes the positive ones on its own and only passes on what needs a decision: a disputed return, a faulty product, a complaint about how someone was treated.
Try it on your own reviews
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