Reviews courseModule 5 of 7: MonitoringLesson 5.2
Response Rate, Recency and Recurring Themes
Three monthly numbers and one habit. Response rate is the share of your reviews with a reply from you. Recency is how recent your reviews are, not just how many you have. Recurring themes are the same specific issue coming up more than once when you read your reviews as a set.
By Morgan King, founder of Reyse Facts checked October 2026 Jump to Your turn
Why it matters
A high star rating feels like the job's done, while replies quietly lapse, reviews dry up and the same complaint keeps coming back.
The evidence
Evidence: Study
Surveys (YouGov, GB; BrightLocal, US) for recency mattering. Expert opinion (Whitespark) for ranking. The targets, formula and tagging method are our recommended practice.
Do this first
Count your last 20 reviews: how many have a reply, how many came in the last three months, and what repeats.
01What it is
A teacher who reads one pupil’s homework at a time can’t see that half the class got the same sum wrong. Reading the whole pile together shows the pattern, and then the teacher can fix the lesson.
Think of it like
A monthly check of a car. Oil, tyres and lights seldom show anything dramatic, but it stops a small fault becoming a breakdown on the motorway.
See it happen
Your last 20 reviews. Reply to them, then ask new clients, and watch which number moves.
Reply rate, last 20
11 of 20 (55%)
Newest review
6 weeks ago
Readers notice when nothing's new.
Newest first. Red dashed: no reply. Dark: replied.
Tap a review with no reply to answer it, or clear them all.
02Why it matters
To the people searching
Most owners think they're more on top of replies than they are. A business with 200 reviews from three years ago and nothing since reads as coasting on old goodwill, however strong the old rating. In YouGov's 2025 survey, 49% of British adults said recency matters; in BrightLocal's 2026 US survey, 74% only cared about reviews from the last three months. And by the time a complaint is public, it may already have happened more than once in private.
buyers
Notice unanswered reviews, old profiles and themes about viewings and communication.
tenants
Look for repeated complaints about deposits, repairs and move-in.
sellers
Look for communication, honest valuations and how problems were handled.
landlords
Look for rent collection, repairs and clear fees.
To Google, the platforms and AI
Evidence: StudyGoogle doesn't publish a recency rule. In Whitespark's 2026 expert survey, recency ranked 11th and a steady flow of reviews rather than bursts 14th, while replying ranked 122nd, so treat response rate as a process-health number customers can see, not a ranking lever. A sudden burst of reviews can also look like manipulation, which is another reason a steady flow is safer than a one-day drive. Trustpilot weights newer reviews more heavily, and AI tools may summarise your recurring themes, so what customers repeat tends to be what's repeated back.
An agent example
Castlegate Homes counted its last 20 Google reviews: 11 had a reply (55%), and the newest was six weeks old. It cleared the backlog oldest first, then found the request email had stopped going to lettings move-ins after a CRM change. Reading the 20 reviews together showed three landlords mentioning slow repair updates, so the branch added a weekly update email for open repairs.
03Your turn
Check yours, then fix it
- 1Count your last 20 Google reviews and how many have a reply. Divide by 20 and multiply by 100.
- 2Repeat for each other platform in your tracker.
- 1Note the date of your newest review.
- 2Count how many arrived in the last three months, separately from your all-time total.
- 1Reread your last 15 to 20 reviews together.
- 2Note anything mentioned more than once, even in passing: a delay, a communication gap, a named member of staff.
Here are 20 reviews of an estate agency with all names, addresses, property details and staff names removed. Group them into recurring themes by audience (seller, landlord, tenant, buyer), say which are positive and which negative, and quote the exact words for each theme. Don't invent anything that isn't in the text.
- 1Target: a reply to every review, most within hours and none waiting longer than 24 to 48 hours. Our practice, not a rule.
- 2Clear any backlog first, then make replying a fixed step in your weekly routine (lesson 4.1).
- 1Say a branch completes 30 transactions a month, asks everyone, and 1 in 10 reviews: about 3 a month. (The 1 in 10 is invented for the sum; measure your own over three months.)
- 2If your newest review is over a month old and you complete several deals a month, it's usually a request problem, not bad luck (lessons 2.1 and 2.2).
- 3Fix the request process, never with a one-day burst.
- 4Track the last three months as your health number: the all-time total only ever goes up.
- 1Tag each review with the audience, positive, mixed or negative, and one or two themes.
- 2Starter themes. Sellers: communication, valuation accuracy, marketing and viewings, fees, sales progress. Landlords: repairs, rent collection, fees, communication. Tenants: deposits, repairs, communication, move-in and move-out. Buyers: viewings, honesty, updates.
- 3A pattern means at least two reviews with the same specific issue, not one loud review.
- 1The review is the symptom; the pattern is the problem. Give each pattern an owner and a process change, such as a weekly repair update or a call after an offer is accepted.
- 2Reply publicly with the facts of what changed, without personal details.
- 3Reflect real fixes on your website, such as a clearer process page (SEO 6.3).
- 1Rating and count on each platform, with the change since last month.
- 2Response rate and the slowest reply. Reviews in the last three months against completions.
- 3The top three themes with example quotes (names removed). Two actions, with owners and dates. Anything flagged, reported or escalated.
Then: Count these at a set time each month, about 15 minutes, with a named owner and deputy. Read themes in more depth each quarter.
04Keep it up
Monthly: response rate, recency and themes together. A deeper read of themes each quarter.
Go deeperWhere UK complaints cluster
Complaint data hints at where to look. The Property Ombudsman's 2024 figures made lettings the most complained-about sector, with repairs, deposits and poor complaint handling as themes. The Property Redress Scheme's 2025 report named holding deposits as the leading lettings complaint and commission disputes in sales. And a 2017 government survey found sellers least satisfied with being kept informed. None of these analyse review text, but they suggest where your themes may be.
Sources
- 1.How UK shoppers check if an online store is legit before purchasing · YouGov, 2025
- 2.Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 · BrightLocal, 2026
- 3.Local Search Ranking Factors 2026 · Whitespark, 2026
- 4.Codes of practice · The Property Ombudsman
Facts checked October 2026, and re-checked every quarter. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
That's lesson 5.2
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