The following line in your post stood out to me: “Maybe the customer was happy enough to come back but not so happy that they are willing to risk their reputation on your behalf…” That gave me food for thought. It had not occurred to me that someone might be happy enough to come back but not happy enough. I’ve always assumed that if someone comes back, you must be 5 stars in their mind. Though now that I think about it, I would certainly go back to a restaurant I give 4 stars to. Perhaps it depends on how much you spend at a business though. I’d go back to a 4-star restaurant because it doesn’t cost that much, and I go to restaurants fairly frequently. If I was going to invest a substantial amount, though, I think I would stick with 5-stars.

You also mentioned lack of time. On a few occasions, I’ve had a client leave a review months after I asked for it (with follow-up). I’m always surprised when it happens, because when it takes so long, I usually imagine the person didn’t truly want to write a review, even though they had agreed to do it.

And finally, I’d hazard another reason. I get the impression that some people simply aren’t comfortable writing. Maybe they don’t know what to say. Maybe they don’t think they’re good writers. And as a result they do nothing. Years ago, when I would ask for reviews, I would actually give people ideas of questions to answer in their review, or I would ask them to write about certain aspects of the work we did for them. For some reason – I don’t know why – I stopped doing that. Maybe it’s time to go back to that.

Thanks again for thinking about my question!