Ask every customer, soon after a good visit or delivery, with one short message and your direct review link. Send it by email, text or a printed card. Never pay, discount or reward people for reviews, and never ask only the customers you expect to be happy: Google's policy forbids both.
| Channel | Best moment | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| In person | At the counter, when the customer thanks you | Hand over a card or show a QR code so they can do it later |
| Same day or the day after the job | One link, no attachments, a plain subject line | |
| Text message | Right after an appointment or delivery | Only to people who agreed to get texts from you |
| Printed card | In the bag, box or invoice folder | Print the QR code large enough to scan from a phone |
Updated
Most happy customers never think to leave a review, and the reason is usually friction, not unwillingness. A request that arrives at the right time, names them, and opens the review box in one tap does most of the work. Build yours below, then read the request rules Google enforces, because breaking them can get reviews removed.
Business name, Customer first name (optional), Your review link. Channel: Email, Text message, Printed card.
Subject: A quick favor from Harbor Bike Repair
Hi there,
Thank you for choosing Harbor Bike Repair. If you have a minute, would you share how it went in a Google review? Honest feedback helps other people decide and helps us improve.
https://your-review-link
Thanks again, the Harbor Bike Repair team
Send the same message to every customer. Do not add a discount, gift or prize for reviewing.
| Practice | Allowed? |
|---|---|
| Asking every customer by email, text or card | Yes |
| Sharing a Google review link or QR code | Yes |
| A discount, freebie or prize for leaving a review | No |
| Asking only customers who rated you highly | No |
| Review quotas for staff, or asking reviews to name an employee | No |
| Reviews from employees or family | No |
Paste this into an email or a thank-you page. Replace the link with your own review link.
Inline styles survive most email programs. The link opens in a new tab, which modern browsers treat as noopener.
<a href="https://your-review-link" target="_blank"
style="display:inline-block;padding:12px 20px;border-radius:999px;
background:#1a73e8;color:#fff;font:600 16px/1 Arial,sans-serif;
text-decoration:none">
Leave us a Google review
</a>The best moment is just after the customer felt the result: the meal ended, the leak stopped, the parcel arrived. A request sent a week later competes with everything else in their inbox and memory.
For businesses with long jobs, ask at the handover, not at the first invoice. For shops, a card in the bag reaches people when they unpack at home.
Three request practices cause most trouble: paying or rewarding people for reviews, filtering customers so only satisfied ones are asked, and pushing staff to hit review targets or mention names. All three appear in Google's Maps user-generated content policy.
Reviews that break the policy are exactly the kind Google removes when they are reported, so a shortcut can cost you the reviews it bought. Asking everyone, plainly, is both the allowed method and the one that produces reviews people trust.
No. Google's help page for business owners says offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for posting, changing or removing reviews counts as fake and misleading content and is strictly prohibited. That includes prize draws tied to leaving a review.
No. Google's Maps content policy says merchants must not discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers. A survey that sends only high scores to Google and low scores to a private form is the common example of this.
Google's help page says customers can leave a review by visiting a Google link or scanning a QR code that you share. You can get the link from your Business Profile, or paste your business details into our review link generator.
Yes, staff can ask. Google's policy lists merchants telling staff to collect a certain number of reviews, or reviews with specific content such as naming an employee, as not allowed. Ask politely and leave the wording to the customer.
They should not. Google's policy treats content based on a conflict of interest, including current or former employment, as against its rules, and reviews must be based on a real experience at the location.
Related: Google review link generator, QR code generator, How to respond to negative reviews, Google Business Profile optimization, How to get your business on Google.
Start for free or see all free tools. We.Inc is free to start, with no card needed. AI building is on paid plans from $20 a month.
We.Inc is an AI-powered website builder you can resell under your own brand. Launch a branded client dashboard, bill on Stripe Connect, and deliver AI-generated websites in minutes. White-label plans start at $99 a month for 25 client sites, with a 7-day free trial and no per-site fees.