Finding your brand voice for review replies
A short workbook to get from 'we're friendly and professional' to a voice specific enough that an AI — or a new team member — can copy it.
Most brand voice documents fail the same test: 'friendly, professional, warm' describes 90% of local businesses, so it describes none. This workbook produces a voice specific enough to be copied.
The six questions
- Which competitor sounds most different from you, and how? (One sentence each.)
- What is a word you'd never use in a reply? Why?
- First-name or full-name sign-off?
- When you disagree with a customer, do you say so or move it offline?
- How long is your ideal reply — one sentence, three, or five?
- What is one phrase your loyal customers say back to you?
The paragraph
Stitch the answers into a single paragraph. That paragraph is the input for every AI reply-draft tool and the onboarding note for every new team member.
The test
Show three of your recent replies (with no logo, no name) to a customer who's been in three or more times. Ask which is yours. If they can't tell, the voice needs more specificity — usually a specific vocabulary and a specific sign-off.
About the author
The HappyReplies Team
Editorial team
We build HappyReplies and reply to Google reviews for local businesses every day. Everything on this page comes from what we've seen work — and what we've seen backfire — across cafes, salons, clinics, and studios.
Want to talk to us directly? Get in touch.