Reviews are the closest thing a local business has to compound interest. They affect whether you show up, and they affect whether someone picks you once you do. So the pressure to get more of them is real — which is exactly why there’s a whole industry selling shortcuts that can get your listing suspended.
Here’s what works, and what to stay away from.
Just ask. It’s the whole strategy.
Most customers who would happily leave a review simply never think of it. The single biggest lever is asking, in person, at the moment the work is done and they’re visibly pleased. “If you’ve got a second, a Google review really helps us” converts better than any clever system.
Make the second step effortless. A short link, a QR code on the counter, or a text sent while they’re still in the parking lot. Every extra tap between the intention and the review loses people.
Ask everyone, not just the happy ones
This is the rule that catches people out. Filtering — asking only the customers you expect to say something nice, or screening people first and only sending the review link to the ones who rate you highly — is review gating. It’s against Google’s policies, and in the US the FTC has been explicit about deceptive review practices.
Ask everyone who bought from you. If that prospect makes you nervous, that’s worth knowing on its own.
Never offer anything for a review
No discounts, no free coffee, no entry into a draw, not even for “an honest review.” Incentivised reviews violate platform policy and run into FTC rules on disclosure. The risk isn’t a slap on the wrist — it’s your listing, with all its reviews attached to it.
Never buy or write them
It should go without saying, but the offers are relentless and they look cheap and easy. Fake reviews are detectable, they get removed in batches, and the account they’re attached to can be suspended. Your reviews cannot be exported or moved — they live on the profile. Risking that asset to inflate a number is a genuinely bad trade.
Reply to every one of them
Replies are read by the next customer far more than by the person who wrote the review. A short, specific, human reply to a four-star review does more work than a dozen generic “Thanks!” replies.
For a negative review: thank them, take it offline with a real contact, and don’t argue the facts in public. The audience is everyone reading it later, not the person you’re replying to.
One platform-specific note worth knowing: on Yelp, responses are expected to come from the owner, and Yelp does not permit soliciting reviews at all. Google is the one to focus your asking on.
Keep it steady rather than spiky
Twenty reviews appearing in one week after two silent years looks exactly like what it usually is. A handful every month, continuously, is both more believable and more useful — recency carries weight, and a review from last month says more than a five-star average earned in 2021.
The short version
- Ask in person, right after the work, every single customer.
- Make the link one tap away.
- Never filter, never incentivise, never buy.
- Reply to all of them, for the benefit of the next reader.
- Aim for a steady trickle, not a burst.
None of this requires hiring anyone. If you’d rather it just happened every month without you remembering, that’s part of what we handle on the profile — with every reply approved by you before it posts.