Your reviews are doing more than you think. Or less.

Your reviews are doing more than you think. Or less.

AI doesn't just count your stars. It reads what your customers actually wrote. And what they write directly affects whether ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity recommends your business.

Here's what I keep seeing in audits:

A business with 200 reviews and 4.7 stars gets skipped by AI. A competitor with 40 reviews and 4.5 stars gets recommended every time.

The difference? The competitor's reviews contain specific language: "they specialise in commercial fit-outs" or "best family physio clinic." AI can match those phrases to customer queries.

200 reviews that all say "great service, highly recommend" give AI nothing to work with.

Three other things I've noticed:

Recency matters more than volume. Five reviews per month beats 200 reviews from three years ago. AI interprets a gap in reviews as a signal that something changed.

Where your reviews live matters. Google is the foundation, but Perplexity pulls from Yelp. ChatGPT checks Facebook. A business on Google only looks one-dimensional.

Your reviews and website need to tell the same story. When they conflict, AI gets confused and may skip you entirely. I've seen it happen.

The businesses scoring highest on review signals in my audits aren't doing anything manipulative. They're just intentional — asking consistently, making it easy, and occasionally guiding customers toward mentioning specific services.

Reviews aren't just social proof anymore. They're AI training data. And they're one of the fastest things to improve.

DM me if you want to see how your review profile stacks up against competitors in AI recommendations.