Ask customers for reviews

Most happy customers would leave a review if someone asked. Your site can ask for you: after an appointment, when you mark a lead Won, or when you mark an order Done, the customer gets one short email from your business with a button to your review page. You choose whether each one goes out on its own or only when you click Ask for a review.

A business with no website takes its own reviews

If your business has no website, you don't need a review link to start. The button in the email opens your own review page, where the customer picks 1 to 5 stars, adds their name and writes a few words. The same form is on your booking page, and you can paste it onto your own website from Embed (Customer reviews).

Each review waits in Reviews, under Reviews from your customers, until you've read it. Click Show on my page to publish it, Hide to take it down again, or Delete. You get an email when one arrives. Hide spam and anything that isn't about your business, but show the honest ones, including the critical ones: a page with only five-star reviews can mislead people, and it's what the FTC's rule on filtered reviews is about. Everyone gets the same form, whatever their rating.

Google is optional. If you also collect reviews on Google, paste your Google review link into Business info. The email then has a second, quieter line, "Prefer Google? Review us there instead.", and so does your review page. It isn't part of the form you paste onto your own website. Without a link, nobody is sent to Google. The QR code on the Reviews screen opens your own review page.

Each customer can write one review for each request. The rest of this page, from here, applies to both kinds of business.

Before you start: your review link (a website)

A site's requests send people to your Leave-a-review link, so it has to be set and published first.

In your Google Business Profile, choose Ask for reviews and copy the link it gives you.
In the editor, click Business info in the left menu, and paste it into Leave-a-review link under Social links.
Click Publish.

Click Reviews in the left menu: Your review link shows the link requests will use, or tells you it's missing. The link can go to Google, Facebook, Yelp or anywhere else you collect reviews. See Reviews.

Choose when to ask

In Reviews, under When to ask, each kind of request is Automatic or Button only:

After an appointment: the morning after a booking ends. Never after a no-show or a cancellation, and not for event sign-ups.
When you mark a lead Won: the next morning, when you set a message's stage to Won in your Inbox.
When you mark an order Done: the next morning, when you mark an order Done in Store.

Automatic requests go out at 10am on your business's clock the next morning. They're listed under Requests as Scheduled until then, and Don't send stops one. If the appointment is canceled, the lead is no longer Won or the order is refunded before then, it doesn't go.

Button only is how every site starts: nothing goes out until you click Ask for a review yourself.

Ask one customer

Open a message in Inbox, a booking in Bookings or an order in Store, and click Ask for a review. The email goes right away, whichever setting you chose. If it can't go, you're told why: they were asked in the last 90 days, they asked not to be, there's no email address, or (for a site) your review link isn't published yet.

The email

The email in Reviews shows the request in the preview on the right, in English and Spanish. Customers who booked or wrote to you on your Spanish pages get it in Spanish.

It comes from your business's name, and replies come to you. It thanks them, asks for a review in a sentence, and has one Leave a review button. Every customer gets the same email.

There's no star rating or "Were you happy?" question first, on purpose. Asking only happy customers for reviews (called review gating) is against Google's rules, and the FTC's 2024 rule on fake and misleading reviews bans it too. A business caught doing it can lose its reviews or be fined. Asking everyone keeps your reviews honest, and honest reviews are the ones people trust.

Reminders and limits

One reminder. If they haven't clicked after 5 days, they get one short reminder. Never more.
Never the same person twice in 90 days, however many times they book or order.
A stop link. Every request ends with Don't send me review requests. Anyone who uses it never gets another request from you. It doesn't take them off your email list.

See how it's going

Under Requests, each one shows who it went to, what it was for and where it stands: Scheduled, Sent, Reminded or Clicked. At the top, Asked and Clicked count the last 30 days. Your monthly report says the same for last month, like "Asked 8 customers for a review; 3 clicked through."

Clicked means they opened your review page. For a site, whether they wrote a review is up to them, and Google doesn't tell us: you'll see new reviews on your Google Business Profile. A business with no website sees the reviews themselves, under Reviews from your customers.

What it costs

Review requests come with the Business plan or the Review requests add-on ($3 a month). Without either, you can set them up, but none are sent. See The Business plan.

Still stuck?