Skip to main content
All CollectionsSettingsBusiness ToolsClient Portal
How to Use Spectora Reviews to Get Feedback and Grow Your Business
How to Use Spectora Reviews to Get Feedback and Grow Your Business

Use our in-platform reviews to better understand how you're doing and to rise in rankings on our directory pages and in Google!

Jess Flake avatar
Written by Jess Flake
Updated this week

Gathering feedback and reviews is essential for any business looking to improve its services and expand its client base. Spectora offers a robust review feature that allows you to easily collect client feedback and use it to enhance your business's reputation and reach. In this article, you'll see how to effectively use Spectora Reviews to get valuable feedback and grow your business

Why Use Spectora Reviews?

You might be wondering... Why would you want to worry about another place to get reviews? Several reasons:

  • We'll use these reviews to help determine ranking order on our Find a Home Inspector pages and the Inspector Near Me page. These often rank in the first couple of pages on Google and are used to get more direct leads from potential home buyers and real estate agents.

  • Spectora Reviews' average star rating will display on your Google results listing for your Spectora Profile, which often ranks on page 1 when your company name is searched. Show everyone you're a quality inspector!
    ​

  • Getting reviews directly in our report is much easier and will result in more reviews faster than sending links or getting off-site reviews.
    ​

  • If you're a multi-inspector company, Spectora Reviews allows you to get feedback on your inspectors for evaluation.

How Spectora Reviews Work from the Client/Agent Perspective

There are three places Spectora Reviews can be made. One (the client view) is always present once you enable Spectora Reviews. The other two are optional: in the report and in automated emails/text messages.
​

Client Portal

Once you enable Reviews, the Client View (aka "Client Portal") will show a new box when visited by a client or agent:
​
​

Once the user clicks on a star, the box expands to allow for an additional comment:

🔴 Please note this box only shows up when the user is coming from a placeholder link in one of your emails or text messages. As a logged-in inspector, you will not see this.

In the Report

You can optionally enable Reviews to be embedded in your reports. We highly recommend this approach, as it will likely result in the most reviews. More reviews are good because a less-than-stellar review won't affect your average as much.

If you enable reviews in the report, a popup shows up when a client or agent views the report:
​
​


Again, when they click a star it will expand to add an optional comment:

The dropdown box at the bottom allows the user to choose from the client(s) or the client's agent. The hope is that only clients and agents will leave reviews, just in case a link gets forwarded to others. Because we don't have client/agent logins we can't know for certain, but at least this is a deterrent to a random person leaving you a review should they be forwarded an email/text.
​

In Emails/Texts

Lastly, you can add review functionality in your automation emails or text messages (both in Automation and Actions).

The {{REVIEW_STARS}} placeholder will put star images directly in your email, offering minimal friction for a user to leave you a review.

The {{REVIEW_LINK}} placeholder provides a button link for a user to leave you a review. The {{REVIEW_TEXT_LINK}} does the same for text messages with a shortened URL.

Here's how they might look in an email:


When they click either a star or the link it launches a stand-alone review widget:
​
​


If using the stars, the rating they clicked will be pre-populated.

Using Spectora Reviews

In this section, you'll see how to enable and disable Spectora reviews, as well as where to see reviews clients and agents have left you.

Enabling Spectora Reviews

To get started with using Spectora Reviews, first pop into Settings->Spectora Reviews and check the box "Enable Spectora Reviews".

  1. Click "Settings"

  2. Click "Review Options"

  3. Click "Enable Spectora Reviews"

  4. Click "Display review popup in reports" if you would like the client/agent to be prompted to review when viewing the report

  5. Click "Display 'Leave a Review' as a task in the Client Portal" if you would like the review prompt to be a task

  6. Check the "send email notifications" box and enter your email in the line to the right if you'd like to receive a notification when someone leaves you a review
    ​

    ​

Disabling Spectora Reviews

Here's how to disable Spectora Reviews:

  1. Click "Settings"

  2. Click "Review Options"

  3. Uncheck "Enable Spectora Reviews"

Keep in mind that if you disable Spectora Reviews, we still display the old reviews you received when Spectora Reviews were enabled.
​

Where to See Your Reviews

  1. Click "Settings"

  2. Click "Review"

  3. You'll see when the review was left, the rating, who it was left by, and any feedback shared

  4. Your reviews will also show on your Spectora Public Profile

Here's how reviews will display on your profile in our Find a Home Inspector pages and the Inspector Near Me page (with more weight being placed on reviews as we accumulate more):


​

Frequently Asked Questions

  • How does the review process work as far as Spectora reviews and Google reviews? Do they have to leave 2 separate reviews?

    • Spectora & Google reviews are separate from each other and you would want to decide which one would work best for your needs.

    • We offer Spectora Reviews for any inspector who does not have a Google Profile and wishes to keep all services in-house.

    • But, if you use Google for company reviews, then you can disable Spectora Reviews and have clients use the Google Review link instead.
      ​

  • Why am I not able to see the reviews left for me?

    • If you're an inspector who is part of a company, you may not have the permission enabled to see reviews. You will need to reach out to your company admin/owner in order to have this permission enabled.
      ​

  • Can I have my Spectora Reviews displayed on my Google Reviews page?

    • Unfortunately not. Google is very particular about review integrations so we can't transfer or merge Spectora Reviews to Google, or vice versa. Instead, Spectora reviews will appear as social proof below the Google Reviews on your Google My Business page, labeled as "reviews from around the web."
      ​

  • Is there a way for my Spectora Reviews to be sent over to my website automatically?

    • There is currently no feature that automatically sends Spectora reviews to your website.

    • If your website is hosted with Spectora, you can request an edit to include your reviews by submitting an edit request to the Spectora web team! Click here to submit an edit request to our Web Team.

    • If your website is not hosted with Spectora, you can take screenshots of your reviews and insert them into your website, or you can provide a direct link to your Spectora Profile where visitors can view the reviews

If you have any questions or feedback, write into our chat bubble or email support@spectora.com!

Related Articles
How to Integrate with QuickBooks
How to Use the Get a Quote Widget
List of Placeholders and Where to Use Them
Centralized Business Reports
Common Contact Tags
Did this answer your question?