Build your reviews before your busy season, not during it

Every business has a season. Christmas for retail and gifts, summer for pools and landscaping, tax time for accountants, school holidays for family venues, wedding season for event vendors. It is when the most new customers search for you, and it is almost always the worst time to start collecting reviews.

Why the peak is too late

During the rush, staff have no spare attention, queues are long, and asking falls off first. Meanwhile the customers deciding between you and a competitor are reading your listing right now. What they see is whatever you built in the months before.

The quiet months are the opportunity

Slower periods are when staff have time to talk to customers, when the ask feels natural, and when a new habit can bed in. A review routine started in a quiet month becomes muscle memory by the time the rush arrives, so it survives the pressure instead of being the first thing dropped.

A simple plan

1. Three months out: tidy the listing. Categories, hours, description, current photos.
2. Two months out: put tap points in place and agree the one moment in service where everyone asks. See getting your team to ask.
3. One month out: post an update about your seasonal hours or offers, and reply to every recent review.
4. During the season: leave the stands to do the work. Do not add a new process in the middle of the rush.

Recency counts

People trust recent reviews more than old ones, because they describe the business as it is now. A burst of reviews in the months before your season means someone searching at the peak sees fresh, relevant feedback at the top of your listing. See your review count matters more than your star rating.

Seasonal hours

If your hours change for the season or the holidays, update them on your listing before they change. A customer who drives over on a public holiday and finds you closed will say so.

Keep it clean at the peak

The busy season is when the temptation to run a quick review promotion is strongest. A free gift for a review is an incentive, and Google bans it. See asking for reviews without breaking the rules.