Reviews Posted Months After the Job

A review about a job finished last autumn

This week your listing gets a one-star review. It describes a job your business finished in October, and something that is not working now.

Nobody on staff remembers the customer straight away. The name on the review is not the name on the invoice, and the details are vague: it stopped working, nobody cares.

The temptation is to reply at once, either defensively or with a general apology. Both are a mistake before you know what happened.

Why reviews arrive late

• Something failed since, and the review is the first call for help.
• A bill or warranty question brought the job back to mind.
• The season changed and the work was tested for the first time.
• A platform prompted them to rate places they had visited.
• Someone else in the household wrote it, from their own account.

The first is the one to assume until the records say otherwise. A late review is often a service request written in public, by someone who did not know who else to ask.

Find the job first

Before writing anything, find the work. Search your invoices by address, by the reviewer's surname and by the month they mention.

Pull everything: the quote, the invoice, the job notes, any photographs, the sign-off sheet, the warranty terms and every call or email since.

Ask whoever did the work what they remember. A five-minute conversation often explains a review that made no sense on its own.

If no record matches, the reply can say so politely and invite the reviewer to get in touch. Suggesting the review is fake only starts an argument.

What the records tell you

The records answer three questions: what was done, whether it worked when you left, and what has happened since.

The third is usually the gap. Another trade worked on the house, a part wore out, the customer changed something, or the problem is new and unrelated.

Sometimes the records show your business got something wrong. That is worth knowing before you reply, not after.

What happened then

The reply should open with what was done at the time, briefly and without blame: the work, the month, and that it was tested and signed off, if it was.

That is not an argument. It tells other readers the job was real and handled properly, and it tells the reviewer you have looked them up.

Leave out any remark about how long they waited to post. It reads as an accusation.

A worked example

A two-person smart home installer fitted a thermostat, a door lock, two cameras and lighting controls in a townhouse in October, set them up on the owner's Wi-Fi and walked her through the app.

In February a one-star review appeared: nothing works any more, paid a fortune, installer useless.

The job sheet showed every device tested and signed for. A call to the customer explained the rest: in January her internet provider had replaced her modem, which changed the Wi-Fi network, and every device had lost its connection.

The reply said what was installed and tested in October, that a new modem can disconnect devices like these, and that the installer would reconnect everything at no charge.

The visit took forty minutes. The handover sheet now says: if you change your internet provider or modem, call us first.

What you can do now

The second half of the reply is the offer: what you can do from here, and how to reach the person who will do it.

Give a name and a direct number or email. Make the offer specific: a visit, a check, a repair under warranty, or a service call at your normal rate if the warranty has ended.

Then call or email the customer directly if you can identify them. The public reply is for everyone reading; the fix happens in private.

Blame, dates and the file

Do not blame another company by name, even when the records point that way. Describe the cause in general terms: a new modem, a later repair, a part that wore out.

Do not lead with the date the warranty ended. Even when it settles the question, opening with it reads as a reason not to help.

And keep the file out of the reply. The address, the price and anything else the customer gave you for the job stay private, as with any review.

Warranty, said plainly

Late reviews often turn on warranty. State what your warranty covers and for how long, in the reply if it is relevant and on your website in any case.

If the job is out of warranty, say what you can offer anyway. A reasonable service call, offered politely, reads well to everyone following the exchange.

Where the cause lies outside your work, such as a new modem or another trade's repair, say what you can still do rather than only what is not covered.

Handover notes that prevent the next one

Most late reviews trace back to something the customer was never told: what needs looking after, what can disconnect or wear out, and who to call.

Put it on one page at handover, with your phone number at the top. Then check in a few weeks later, before the first problem has time to turn into a review.

The counter-case

Not every late review is about something that broke. Some customers simply take months to write, and a late review of the original work deserves the same reply as a prompt one.

Some cannot be resolved. The customer may refuse a visit or want more than the work could ever have delivered. A short, factual reply is enough, and further back and forth helps nobody.

For the rest, the order holds: check the records first, then reply with what happened then and what you can do now.

The reply, in order

1. Find the job in your records.
2. Ask whoever did the work what they recall.
3. Identify what changed since you left.
4. Say what was done and when, briefly.
5. Offer something specific with a direct contact.
6. Contact the customer privately the same day.
7. Add the lesson to your handover notes.

Step three is the one that turns a complaint into a service call. Once you know what changed, the reply can offer a real fix instead of a general apology.

When the reviewer's version of events differs from your records, the approach is the one in a review that gets the facts wrong.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.