How to get more Google reviews

To get more Google reviews, ask every customer yourself, one at a time, when the job is finished and they are pleased, and send them a link that opens the review box in one tap. Never offer anything in return, never pick out only the happy customers to ask, and reply to every review you get. That is the method we use for our own Google reviews (4.9 stars from 52 at the time of writing), and the rest of this article shows how to set it up.

Google reviews do two jobs. They influence whether you appear in the local map results, and they decide whether the person looking picks you or the business above you. For a lot of small businesses they are the best value marketing there is, and they cost nothing but a habit.

How to get more Google reviews: the method we use

1. Get a short link that opens the review box. Ours is barecreative.co.uk/review. It points at the review link Google gives you, so one tap opens the box with the stars ready.
2. Ask one person at a time, at a happy moment. The job is done, they have said thank you, and you send the link by text that day.
3. Ask everyone, not just the ones you think will be kind. Picking out happy customers to ask is against Google's rules.
4. Never offer anything for a review. No discount, no prize draw, no free coffee.
5. Reply to every review, good or bad, within a few days.

Businesses with plenty of recent reviews are rarely doing anything clever. They ask every customer, at the same point, in the same way, with a link that takes one tap. Here is each step in more detail.

Ask at the moment of relief

Timing decides everything. The best moment is when the customer is most pleased, and that is usually earlier than people think.

• For a trade, when the job is finished and the mess is cleared, before you leave.
• For a professional service, when the outcome lands: the case settled, the accounts filed, the offer accepted.
• For a shop or venue, on the way out, or a few hours later by text.
• For anything delivered, a couple of days after arrival, once they have used it.

Two weeks later that feeling has faded and you are competing with everything else in their inbox. Ask on the day.

Make it one tap

Every extra step loses people. "Search for us on Google and leave a review" is five steps, and most customers will not finish them.

Google provides a direct review link, and a QR code, for your Business Profile. Find them under the option to ask for reviews, and the link opens the review box straight away on whatever device the customer is using. Google's own tips to get more reviews point to the same thing.

Put the link on your own domain

Google's link is a long string of letters nobody can remember or read out over the phone. So we set up a short address on our own website, barecreative.co.uk/review, that redirects to it. It looks like ours, it fits on a business card, and you can say it out loud at the end of a call. If you ever change your Business Profile, you update the redirect once and every card and invoice still works. Whoever looks after your website can set one up in a few minutes.

Save the link in your phone and put it everywhere:

• In a text message template you can send in ten seconds.
• At the bottom of your invoice and your job completion email.
• As a QR code on a card you hand over, on the counter, or on the van.
• In your email signature.

In our experience a text works better than an email for this, because the link opens on the same phone the person is holding and the review takes a minute or two.

Ask one person at a time, like a human

Keep it short, personal and low pressure:

"Hi Sarah, glad the kitchen is finally finished. If you have got a minute, a quick Google review makes a real difference to a small business like ours. Here is the link, it takes about a minute. Thanks either way."

That message names them, says why it matters, and gives them permission to say no. Nobody minds being asked once by a person they liked working with. One reminder a week later is fine. After that, leave it.

Send requests one at a time as jobs finish, rather than saving them up and emailing your whole customer list in one go. A steady trickle reads as a real business. A sudden burst of reviews in one week can look odd, to Google and to the next customer reading them.

Do not tell them what to write

It is tempting to suggest people mention a particular service or your town. Don't. Google's review policy says businesses should not ask for specific content to be included, or pressure people to leave a review while they are on the premises. Ask, send the link, and let them say it in their own words. If you ask right after a specific job, people tend to mention that job anyway, and an honest review in plain words convinces the next customer far more than one that sounds prompted.

What you must not do

These all come from Google's rules on reviews. Breaking them can get reviews removed or the listing restricted.

• Never offer an incentive. No discounts, prize draws, free coffees or vouchers in exchange for a review. Google treats any incentive as fake engagement, whether or not you ask for a positive review.
• Never ask only the happy ones. Going through your customer list, picking the people you know were pleased and sending them all a request is selective soliciting, which Google prohibits. So is asking how satisfied someone is first and only sending the link to the ones who say "very". Ask everyone at the same point in the job.
• Never write, buy or swap them. Fake reviews are detectable, and the Competition and Markets Authority has powers to act against businesses that use them.
• Never ask staff or family to post. Same account patterns, same devices, same locations. It is obvious, and it puts your genuine reviews at risk.

Ask everyone, take the reviews you get, and accept that some will be middling. A perfect five with fifty reviews is less believable than a strong average with a couple of fours.

Reply to every one

Replying is fast, it signals an active business, and the reply is read by everyone who reads the review afterwards.

Google's own advice is to keep replies short, polite and professional. For a positive review, two sentences: thank them, mention the specific job, and leave it there. Avoid copying and pasting the same line under twenty reviews, because it is visible and it looks automated.

For a negative review, the formula is short and unemotional: thank them, acknowledge the specific issue without arguing about details, say what you have done about it, and offer to continue offline. Never share private details, and never imply they are lying, even when you believe they are. A calm reply under a harsh review reassures the next reader more than the review worries them. If one clearly breaks the rules, report it, then reply anyway while you wait.

Build it into how the business runs

The businesses that keep this going have made it somebody's job at a fixed point in the process. Practical versions:

• The review link is the last line of the job completion template, so the request goes out with the final message.
• Whoever raises the invoice sends the review text the same day.
• A weekly reminder to send requests to that week's completed customers.

Steady is the goal. Ten reviews a month, every month, beats forty in one week followed by a year of silence. Recency counts for both the ranking and the reader, and a business whose last review is eighteen months old looks like one that has stopped.

Then use them everywhere

Once you have them, put them to work: on the relevant service page rather than bunched on a testimonials page nobody visits, beside the enquiry form where hesitation happens, and as social posts in your own brand design. Mark them up with review structured data where it genuinely applies, so the words are machine readable. Consistent praise across your site and your listing also helps when an AI assistant is asked to recommend someone local, because it draws on the same public information.

Common questions

How many Google reviews do I need?

Enough to look established next to your competitors, so look at what the businesses in your local map results have and aim past it. More useful than any target number is a steady flow, because both Google and customers weight recent reviews more heavily.

Can I ask customers to remove a bad review?

You can ask, politely, after you have genuinely resolved the problem, and some people will. Do not pressure anyone, and never make removal a condition of a refund or resolution.

Are reviews on other platforms worth chasing?

Google first, because it feeds the map results. After that, whichever platform your industry actually uses. Spreading yourself across six platforms usually leaves you looking thin on all of them.

Want this running on its own?

Getting reviews works best when it is wired into your website, your enquiry process and your social content rather than living in someone's memory. See how we join those up in marketing, or talk to us about setting it up.

Related services: SEO, Small business websites, Dental websites.