We’re going to tell you how to set up your Google business profile and get more Google Reviews.

Getting more Google reviews that future customers can read when making a decision whether to do business with you or someone else is important. We know that customers will Google what they are looking for, and when you show up in those results, people will compare businesses based on how they show up visually, how many reviews they have, and the quality of those reviews. If you haven’t set up your Google Business profile yet (or it’s sitting there collecting dust), now’s the time to make it work for you. Here’s a step-by-step guide on setting it up, asking for reviews, and making it part of your long-term customer engagement strategy.

So how do you set up and get more Google reviews so customers do choose you when making this decision and you can show off your customer stories.

Step 1: Have a good brand and landing place

A good brand and brand vibe can even show through in your Google profile—and showing off your brand through your logo and images makes a massive difference in how you show up. If you haven’t already, it’s time to do some customer research to see if your brand still fits. We do that for our customers, and often we find that the brand they first built (or are still building) doesn’t represent or speak to the customers they want or have at all.

When your customers are quickly comparing you with your competitors, you want to look different from the rest of the pack, tell your story, and create a brand that sticks. It isn’t just about a brand that looks good or different—it’s about one that resonates with the right customers who will vibe with how you’ve built your business and your customer experience.

You don’t need to spend big bucks to do this, but it is no surprise that first step we take at listen + do is doing customer research. That might mean a one-on-one interview or facilitating a focus group. We show them what you’ve got—or the brand you want to build—and ask how it lands. You can keep iterating your look and vibe, typography, brand colours, and logo design until you get it right.

Small businesses don’t need to spend heaps to build a strong brand. There are some great, accessible tools out there—sure, full-blown designers might snuff at them, but when you’re a small business, you need to get the job done within your budget. And we know how to make that happen without it biting you in the butt down the track.

You’ll also need a solid landing place. Most people will have a website, but some send customers to social media pages. Big warning here—as much as the saying goes “everyone is on socials,” that’s not always true. There’s a growing movement of people trying to reduce their social media use, and you don’t want to be the business they avoid because they’re cutting back. A landing page—whether it’s a simple website, a single-page site, or even a blog—with your social links is better than relying solely on a social media profile. Make sure they have somewhere to land that feels consistent with your brand and gives them a clear way to get in touch.

Point being—before you set up your Google profile, get your brand right. Make sure that when a future customer finds you, clicks through to your Google profile, and follows any links you provide, your brand feels seamless and all your details are up to date. Little things like a phone number that doesn’t work or a website that feels off-brand will have them clicking back and contacting one of your competitors.

Step 2: Set up your Google business profile

This is the easy part as long as you have everything you need to set it up, including the branding, some branded pictures of your space, your team and what you do and information your customer will need, linking it through to a landing space that is consistent with who you are. It’s as simple as googling “How to set up a Google Business Profile.” Google will walk you through the steps, but the key is to make sure your profile is complete and accurate. Bringing in your brand logo, images, videos and business information with your landing space you will be able to set up your Google profile.

• Business name, address, and phone number

• Business hours

• High-quality photos of your space or products

• Description that reflects your brand and what you offer

• Link to your landing space

Step 3: Start with your existing customers

Once your profile is live, don’t be shy about asking for reviews—especially from your favourite customers. Start with the people you know had a good experience with you. Keep it friendly and next time a regular comes in, just ask them if they can help you out by leaving a Google review. Offer to help them if they have never done it before. If you’ve got a solid relationship with someone, a quick phone call can feel more personal than a text or email. People get hit with review requests constantly, so a bit of gentle persistence is fine.

You want your customers to write meaningful reviews, a simple “great service” won’t do much when a potential customer is reading reviews to see whether they choose you. You want reviews that tell a story—because stories build trust. When asking for a review, give your customers a bit of direction to help them shape it asking them to include who they are, why they came to you and what they needed help with, why they chose you, and what difference it made for them. For example: “I’m a 34-year-old tradie who was struggling to get approved for a loan. The team helped me secure my first home loan, and now I finally have a place of my own. It’s made a huge difference in my confidence and financial security.” That’s the kind of review that hits. It helps future customers see exactly who you help and how you help them.

If someone said they’d leave a review but forgot, a friendly follow-up is totally fine. Keep gently nudging your facourite customers and let them know how much their review matters—it helps your small business thrive and keeps you doing the good work you’re known for. Once they leave a review, take the time to give a thoughtful, personalised response. A genuine reply shows you care and are really listening—not just -and-paste replies.

Step 4: Make customer feedback part of your business strategy

Getting reviews isn’t just about looking good online—it’s about understanding your customers better. It’s a chance to reconnect and make sure you’re really meeting their needs. If you’re serious about business, you want to be serious about listening to your customers, and finding your own ways to show you care. You’ve got to be open to hearing their stories, about their experiences — even the uncomfortable stuff. And you want to have a strategy and openess in place where they can share when their experience missed the mark so you can work with them to improve their experience before they get frustrated enough to leave you a bad google review.

Reviews should feel like a natural part of doing business, not an reactive after thought. The best time to ask is right after a great customer experience. Make it easy—send a direct link to your Google review page via text or email so they don’t have to search for it. A gentle follow-up if they forget is totally fine—people are busy.

When asking for reviews you want to make it easy for your customers, this might look like mentioning it casually at the end of an appointment with a follow up and providing a direct link to review your business in your emails, texts or reciepts.

But reviews are just the starting point. To really make the most of customer feedback, you’ve got to build it into how you run your business:

• Customer interviews – Have one-on-one chats to dig deeper into their experience and what they really need.

• Customer focus groups – Bring customers together to discuss their experiences, even come up with new ideas.

• Customer feedback loops – Creating a customer experience where their feedback is always welcome

Once you start getting into the flow of collecting great reviews, start putting time into your customer experience storytelling. Think about how you can put real faces and stories behind your reviews—through customer interviews, gathering qualitative stories, quotes, and testimonials, and building case studies and deeper stories from your customers to show your impact. This is what Listen + Do is dead-set passionate about. Storytelling is a fundamental part of our approach to branding, marketing and designing customer experiences.

What to do with bad reviews

Yeah, this never feels good. If you’ve been getting bad reviews, it’s a sign you’re not engaging with your customers or listening to them. And it happens—we get so caught up in the doing of business that we forget to actually speak to our customers. Once you get a bad review, there’s pretty much no way of getting rid of it. But admitting where you went wrong, working through the conflict with your customer, and figuring out how to avoid it next time is key.

It’s no surprise we say you do that through customer research. You can’t just listen to strategic advice from professional peers—you need to build a customer-centered business. Your customers are the reason you have a business. Even when they’re not the ones directly paying you (like when you’re delivering a service on behalf of someone else), they’re still the end customer. And let’s be real—an upset customer isn’t a quiet one, and there’s no running away from that. If you’re smart, you’ll reach out to those upset customers, admit what’s in your control and what’s not, and even if you can’t fix it completely, just providing the space to listen and responding with empathy makes a huge difference. Even if it was a little while ago.

We at Listen + Do have worked with government departments and big companies dealing with unhappy team members and customers. Having a third party reach out, listen, and share what you can or can’t do makes a world of difference—and you can even learn from it. These conversations often shift from complaints to opportunities, giving you ideas and intelligence you wouldn’t get otherwise. It’s hard to manage when it’s your own business—that’s why businesses work with people like us, Listen + Do We help you engage with customers through research improve your strategy, and design future customer experiences so bad reviews don’t happen again.

And when your customers are happy, collect those celebratory customer stories and share them. The more fantastic stories you have the smaller the past negative reviews will feel. A negative review isn’t the end of the world; it’s an opportunity to show how well you handle things and make it right.

Final thoughts

Your Google profile is often the first impression potential customers will get of your business—so make it count. A strong brand, consistent online presence, and great customer reviews will help you stand out from the competition and make it easy for customers to choose you. If you’re not sure where to start, listen + do can help you figure out what’s working, what’s not, and how to become more customer-led in your business strategy and activities.