How to get more Google reviews for your business.

Why happy customers do not review, and the fix

Most customers who were pleased with you never write a review. Nobody asked, or they meant to and forgot, or the link opened your Maps listing and they could not find where to write. More reviews come from fixing those things, in this order:

• A review link that opens the review form in one tap, saved where the whole team can find it.
• An ask at the moment the customer is pleased, in person or on the phone, from the person who did the work.
• The link sent the same day by text or email, so the ask becomes a tap while the job is still fresh.
• A QR code where the job ends, for customers who like to do it there and then.

Everything else, from tap cards to review software, is a variation on these four. The rules on how you may ask are in how to ask for Google reviews without breaking the rules: every customer the same way, nothing offered in return and no pressure. This guide is about doing the asking well.

Get the review link and QR code

Google gives each Business Profile its own review link and QR code, which you copy from the profile while signed in to the account that manages it. The link opens the review form for your business, so the customer does not have to hunt for it on your listing. Do this on a computer, because Google only creates the QR code in a computer browser:

• Open your Business Profile while signed in to the account that manages it.
• Select Read reviews, then Get more reviews.
• Copy the link with the copy icon. To keep the QR code, right-click it and choose Save image as.

Then test it on an iPhone and on an Android phone, ideally ones that are not signed in to the business's Google account, and check that it opens the review form for the right business. Save the link in a shared note next to the sentence your team uses to ask.

Send the review link itself. A link to your Maps listing makes the customer search for the review button, and many give up there.

If you print the code on cards or signs that will last for years, consider a short address on your own domain, such as yourbusiness.com/review, set to forward to Google's link. If the link ever changes, you change the forward and every printed card keeps working.

Ask at the moment they say thank you

The best time to ask is straight after the customer says something nice. That moment happens in every trade, and it is easy to spot once you look for it:

• An electrician tests the new circuit, and the owner says "That's a relief, thanks."
• A physiotherapy patient at the last session of a course says the knee feels normal on the stairs again.
• A salon client turns her head in the mirror and says she loves the colour.
• A garage hands back the keys and the driver says the rattle has gone.
• An accountant's client says thanks when the year-end accounts are filed.

That is when one sentence works: "Thanks, that's good to hear. Would you say that on Google? I'll text you the link now, it takes a minute." Then send the link while they are still there, or before you drive off. A week later the customer has moved on, and the same request is easy to ignore.

Keep it to one sentence and drop it if they hesitate. If the customer is unhappy, sort the problem out first. They still get the same request afterwards as everyone else, because choosing who to ask by mood is the gating the rules forbid.

Let the person who did the work ask

Customers answer the person they dealt with. A message from "Dev, who fitted your sockets this morning" reads like a person. One from "The Team at Northside Electrical Services" reads like marketing. In a small business that means:

• Everyone who finishes jobs knows the sentence and has the link saved on their phone.
• The text or email goes out in their name, even when the office sends it.
• The owner asks too, for their own jobs and for long-standing customers who know them.
• Nobody gets a target. The rules guide explains why quotas are out, and a team chasing a number starts to push.

When a review names someone on the team, show it to them. It costs nothing and they will keep asking.

The message that follows the ask

The message after the ask does most of the work, because it puts the link under the customer's thumb. Name the job and the person, put the link straight after the request, keep it to two or three lines, and let an unhappy customer reply to you directly. Examples to adapt:

• An electrician, by text, an hour after the job: "Hi Martin, it's Dev. Thanks for today, all the new sockets are on their own circuit now. If you have a minute, a Google review would help us: [link]"
• A garage, by email with the invoice: "Thanks for bringing the Golf in, Claire. The report of what we did is attached. If you were happy with the work, a Google review helps other drivers find us: [link]. Any question about the invoice, reply here and Tom will answer."
• A dog groomer, by WhatsApp: "Biscuit was very good today. If you like the cut, a review on Google helps us a lot: [link]"
• A tutoring centre, by email at the end of term: "Thank you for trusting us with Leo's maths this year. If the lessons helped, a Google review helps other parents find us: [link]"

Leave out any discount or prize draw, which Google's policy bans, and do not tell the customer what to write. If you send a reminder, send one, a few days later.

Texts need care. In many places the rules on business texting depend on what the customer agreed to, and text message consent rules covers the US side. If you are not sure, email is the simpler channel.

Put the link where the job ends

Google suggests receipts, thank-you emails, the end of a chat conversation and a printed QR code in the shop. Think about where each customer's job finishes, and put the link or the code there:

• The final invoice or receipt email, just under the total.
• The job report a garage, pest controller or boiler engineer leaves behind.
• The card a florist, bakery or groomer puts in with the order.
• The end of a chat or messaging conversation, once the question is answered.
• The aftercare sheet a salon or tattoo studio hands over.
• A small sign by the till or the door, with the code large enough to scan from arm's length.

Skip the places where the job has not happened yet, such as the side of the van or the booking confirmation. A request before the work is done asks people to rate something they have not had yet.

For a car repair garage, the job report is the obvious place, since every driver reads it to see what they paid for.

Help customers who rarely use Google

Google needs a reviewer to be signed in to a Google Account. Plenty of customers, iPhone users especially, have never made one, and the sign-in screen is where they give up. Google says an account can be made with an email address the customer already has, so nobody needs a Gmail address. Two habits help:

• Warn them in the message: "Google will ask you to sign in or make an account. Your usual email address works."
• For customers who will not sign up, ask whether you may quote their kind words on your own website instead, with their first name. Testimonials on your website covers how to do that within the rules.

If a customer says the link does nothing, ask which phone they use. Google's help notes that older phones and old versions of the Maps app can have trouble posting reviews, and an update usually fixes it. If they posted and it never appeared, Google may still be checking it, which can take a few days. Why Google reviews disappear covers what happens next.

Tap cards and review stands: worth buying?

Sellers offer cards and table stands with a chip that opens your review link when a customer taps a phone on them, usually with a QR code printed on the back. They work, but they do the job of the free QR code, and they come with catches:

• Not every customer knows to tap, so the printed code on the back ends up doing much of the work.
• Some cards open the seller's website first, which then forwards to Google. Ask what happens to that link if you stop paying, because a card that goes dead next year is worse than none.
• Some come with software that asks for a star rating first and sends only high scores to Google. That is review gating, which Google forbids, and it puts the reviews you already have at risk.
• A tap at the counter with you watching can feel like pressure. Give customers the link to use later as well.

Our view: a printed QR code and a text with the link cover almost every business. A tap card is a pleasant extra for a busy counter, such as a café or a barber's, if it opens your own Google link directly and needs no subscription.

Make the request part of finishing the job

Asking by hand works until a busy week, and then it is the first thing to slip. The fix is to make the request part of closing a job: the message goes out when the invoice is paid or the job is marked done, for every customer, in the name of the person who did it.

Check your job or booking software first, since some already have a review request you can switch on. If yours does not, an automation can send it from the tools you already use, where their APIs allow; this is part of our automation work. The first automations to set up shows where it fits among the others.

For a cleaning company the trigger is the cleaner marking the job done on a phone. For a clinic it is the end of a course of treatment, not every visit, so regular patients are not asked every week.

Answer the reviews you get

Google's own tips list replying to reviews as a way to get more of them, since it shows customers their feedback is read. A short reply that picks up one detail of each review also tells the next reader that someone is there. The wording, including for the bad ones, is in how to reply to Google reviews.

If you would rather someone kept an eye on it, our Growth plan includes a monthly look at your Google results, reviews and enquiries, with the reviews waiting for a reply listed. The plans are on the prices page.

How many reviews you need, and how to tell it is working

There is no target number. Look at the businesses that appear above you on the map for your main service and town: how many reviews they have, and how recent the newest ones are. A profile whose latest review is a year old looks quiet, so a few new ones every month do more than a burst once a year.

Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking, next to how well the profile matches the search and how far the business is from the person searching. So reviews help, but they will not lift a business listed under the wrong category or too far from the searcher. Anyone who promises a ranking from reviews is guessing.

To see whether your asking works, note the review count on the first of each month and compare. Google does not tell you which customer wrote which review, so judge the method as a whole: if the count rose the month you started texting the link, keep texting it.

Mistakes that cost reviews

• Sending the Maps listing instead of the review link.
• Saving the requests for the end of the month and emailing everyone on one day. The request arrives long after the job, and Google's policy names unusual posting volumes as a sign of manipulation.
• Sending from a no-reply address, so customers who answer with a question or a complaint reach nobody.
• Putting a survey before the link. Every extra step loses people, and a survey that decides who sees the link is gating.
• Handing customers a tablet to review on in the shop. Let them use their own phone, in their own time.
• Printing the QR code so small that it will not scan from the counter.
• Asking staff and family to get things started. Reviews from people with a conflict of interest, such as current or former staff, break Google's policy.

Clinics, lawyers and other private work

In some trades the visit itself is private. A request from a sexual health clinic, a therapist, a fertility clinic or a divorce lawyer should stay general: a thank-you, the business name and the link, with no mention of the treatment or the matter. Many patients and clients will write something short that says little, and that is fine.

When those reviews arrive, the reply must not confirm that the person was a patient or a client. The reply guide above explains why, and our page for dental clinics covers how the rest of a clinic's messages handle the same problem.