Review Response Guide
Purpose: How Summit responds to public reviews on Google and other platforms. Every review gets a response: positive within 3 business days, negative within 1 business day. Jenna writes or approves all responses. Negative reviews also get flagged to Rosa the same day so the operational side runs in parallel with the public reply, per Complaint Escalation SOP.
Ground rules for all responses
- Respond as Summit, sign with a first name ("Jenna at Summit" or "Dave, Owner" on serious ones).
- Never argue, never get defensive, never litigate details in public.
- Never share job details, addresses, prices paid, or anything from the customer's file. Even confirming someone is a customer can be sensitive; when in doubt, respond generically.
- Never offer discounts or compensation in a public reply. That conversation happens privately and needs Tara or Dave if it exceeds 5%.
- No copy-paste responses. Same structure is fine; identical wording twice in a row is not.
- Voice per Brand Voice Guide: plain, warm, unbothered.
Positive reviews
Structure: thank them, reflect one specific thing they mentioned, mention the crew or team member if the reviewer did, keep the door open.
Example (5 stars, roof replacement):
Thank you for taking the time to write this. Glad the crew left the yard the way they found it; the magnet sweep is a point of pride around here. Enjoy the new roof, and you know where to find us if you ever need anything else. — Jenna at Summit
Example (5 stars, emergency tarping):
Really glad we could get there quickly and get things stabilized for you. Storm nights are stressful, and calm is what the emergency line is for. Thanks for trusting us with the permanent repair too. — Jenna at Summit
Negative reviews
Structure: acknowledge, take it seriously without public fault-finding, move it to a direct channel, follow through.
- Acknowledge fast. Within 1 business day, even if the facts aren't gathered yet.
- No public autopsy. Do not explain what "actually happened," do not blame weather, suppliers, or the customer.
- Route to a person. Name who they should contact and how. Rosa handles intake; Pete or Dave joins if it's a workmanship or escalation issue.
- Close the loop. If the issue resolves and the reviewer updates their review on their own, great. We never ask for a review to be changed or removed as a condition of fixing something.
Example (unhappy with scheduling delays):
I'm sorry the scheduling on your project didn't go the way it should have. That's frustrating, and I'd like us to understand exactly what happened on our side. Please call the office and ask for Rosa, or reply to your project email thread, and we'll pick this up directly. — Jenna at Summit
Example (workmanship complaint):
Thank you for flagging this, and I'm sorry you're dealing with it. We want to see the issue firsthand rather than guess at it here. Please contact the office and ask for Pete, our production manager; he'll arrange a visit and we'll make it right where the work falls short of our standard. — Dave, Owner
Example (suspected mistaken identity or not a customer we can verify):
I'm sorry to read this, but I can't match it to a Summit project. If we did work at your property, please contact the office so we can look into it properly; if this was meant for another company, we'd appreciate a second look at the review. Either way, happy to talk. — Jenna at Summit
When to escalate before responding
- Threats of legal action, insurance disputes, or injury claims: Dave responds or approves the response. The agent and Jenna do not freelance these.
- Anything mentioning a specific employee negatively: Pete or Marcus is looped in first.
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