# Brand voice for review replies — a one-page workbook

> Define your voice in six answers. Copy-paste the result into HappyReplies for on-brand replies from day one.

_Published 2026-02-05 · Updated 2026-06-10 · 10 min · By The HappyReplies Team_

Source: https://happyreplies.com/resources/brand-voice-for-review-replies

Brand voice is one of those phrases that gets talked about mostly by people who don't have to write in it every week. This is the version we actually use with HappyReplies customers — six questions, one paragraph out the other end, ready to paste into the Brand Voice field.

## The six questions

### 1. Who do you sound like?

Not your target customer — the person on your team who writes the best replies today. Name them. 'I want to sound like Rita on a Monday morning.' Voice is a person, not an adjective.

### 2. What three words describe how you talk to a regular?

Warm / dry / plainspoken. Playful / precise / never sarcastic. Formal / kind / never gushing. Write yours down; you'll use them as a filter later.

### 3. What word or phrase do you never use?

This one matters more than the ones you do use. 'Unfortunately.' 'We appreciate your feedback.' 'Reaching out.' 'At the end of the day.' Every business has three of these. Write them down.

### 4. What do you call the reviewer?

First name if they gave one. 'Hi there' if not. Never 'Dear Valued Customer'. Never 'Hi Guest'. If your business genuinely uses 'you lovely lot' or 'friends', that's a voice signal — write it down.

### 5. What do you sign off with?

'Rita, owner.' '— The team at Ours'. 'x'. Consistency here is what makes a reply feel like it came from a person even when it's under 200 characters.

### 6. What is one thing your best reply always does that most people's don't?

For our founder Sarah, it's naming one detail the reviewer will remember but hasn't mentioned. For one of our cafe customers, it's ending with a specific pastry we know they liked. This is the one that stops replies feeling generic.

## Turning the six answers into one paragraph

Take your answers and glue them together in this shape:

> We're a [business]. Our replies sound like [named person] — [three words]. We always address the reviewer by [first name / hi there] and sign off [signature]. We never use [banned phrases]. Our best replies always [distinctive habit].

That paragraph is what you paste into the Brand Voice field in HappyReplies. It's the closest thing to a style guide we've found that people actually update once a quarter.

## A worked example

> We're a family-run cafe in Bristol. Our replies sound like Rita on a Monday morning — warm, dry, never gushing. We address people by first name where we can, and 'hi there' otherwise, and sign off '— the crew at Cornerside x'. We never say 'unfortunately' or 'we appreciate your feedback'. Our best replies always name a specific pastry, drink, or table by the window that the reviewer will remember.

## Re-tuning every quarter

Voice drifts. Every three months, read the last twenty replies out loud. If any of them sound like they could belong to a chain restaurant, delete the offending phrases and add them to your 'never use' list.