Commission and market reviews for a potter

A commission is a trust decision. Someone who has not stood in your courtyard will open the review page before they send a deposit. They read whether anyone like them left a sentence — a set of plates, a market mug, a repair — and whether you replied when it was not five stars.

BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer survey is a US panel, not a Saturday market in Dieulefit — we say so. What it keeps showing, year after year, is that people still read reviews before they choose a local business, and they notice whether the business answers. That is enough. We do not borrow a percentage to make the paragraph look finished.

Screenshot pending: reviews

Run pnpm screens with the app's local stack up to capture it. Review replies drafted in Artifluence for a pottery studio.

Two kinds of review, one listing

Market buyers write about the stall, the price of a cup, whether you wrapped it, whether they found you again the next month. Commission clients write about the brief, the wait for the kiln, whether the glaze matched, whether you said when it would slip. Google does not split them. A stranger sees one star rating and a stack of sentences.

A 2-star from someone who wanted a factory finish on a wood-fired pot is not a crisis if you answer the facts. A bad review is not a crisis. Filtering it, or asking only the people who commissioned a table, is. Google’s rating-manipulation rules are explicit: you do not choose who is allowed to speak. A QR only on the invoice for the big jobs, and nothing for the market, is a filter with a nicer name.

User-generated content rules also cut the other way. You do not post a review as if you were the customer. You do not offer a free cup for five stars. You do not write the sentence and ask them to paste it.

How to ask without cheating

After the piece is collected, or after the market if you have a way to reach them that is not a shout from the stall, the same invitation for everyone who has a finished sale — not a tablet that sorts smiles. A link on the packing slip, a QR on the card in the box, a sentence in the follow-up: “If you want to leave how it went, here.” Google’s own tips are that modest. The longer piece is asking without cheating.

Do not discount a commission for a public rating. Do not send the link only when the glaze behaved. A studio’s reputation is personal. A gift shop can hide behind a street. You cannot.

If they bought at a fair and you will not see them again, the card in the bag is enough. If they never leave a review, that is allowed. Chasing is how it starts to look like pressure.

After the kiln, not at the stall

Ask when the job is finished, not when they are still deciding whether the glaze is what they wanted. A commission is finished when they have collected it, or when you have shipped it, not when the clay is still leather-hard. A market sale is finished when they have the bag — the card goes in then, not a shout across the aisle while the next person is holding a jug.

Do not put a tablet on the stall that only unlocks if they tap five stars. Google’s user-generated content rules and the rating-manipulation page are the same idea from two doors: you do not write the review, you do not pay for the star, you do not hide the people who would have written two. A bowl that arrived chipped is allowed to say so.

If a gallery sold the piece, the review still belongs on your listing only if they dealt with you. A review of the gallery is not yours to request. A review you write under another name is not a review.

What the reply has to do

Thank the specific thing: the wait for the firing, the chip they mentioned, the colour they chose. If they are wrong on a date or a price, correct the date or the price. If they wanted porcelain and you fire stoneware, say so once, calmly, and offer to continue by message. Sign your name. Not “The atelier team” if the atelier is you.

A market review that says “expensive for a mug” is not a debate about hourly rates in public. A commission review that says the lid does not fit is a fact. Fix the lid if you still can, say so on the review, and do the rest off the page.

Artifluence drafts that reply in your voice. You approve it. Marc Delaunay’s mornings are the potters page, not a case study we invented for this article.

We have not published a median time-to-reply for studios on this site. When we can, the month and the N will sit here.

Sources

1. Tips to get more reviews (accessed 7 September 2026)
2. Rating manipulation (accessed 7 September 2026)
3. Prohibited & restricted content (Maps user-generated content) (accessed 7 September 2026)
4. Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 (BrightLocal) (accessed 7 September 2026)

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