How to get more Google reviews.
Ask every satisfied customer, immediately after the work, with a link that opens the review form in one tap. Almost everything else is detail, and most businesses simply never ask.
Timing beats wording
The window is short. A customer who was pleased on the day is far more likely to write something than the same customer a week later, when the feeling has faded and the message feels like an interruption.
Ask while you are still there, or the same evening. Nothing about the phrasing matters as much as this.
Remove every step you can
A link that opens the review box directly converts far better than asking someone to search for your business. Every extra step loses people, and searching for you is several steps.
Sending it by text works better than email for most trades, because it is opened.
What not to do
These break Google's policies and can cost you the reviews you already have.
- • Offering a discount, a prize or anything else in exchange for a review.
- • Asking only customers you expect to be positive, filtered by a survey first.
- • Writing reviews yourself, or asking staff and family to.
- • Setting up a kiosk where many reviews come from one address in one session.
About the bad ones
Reply to them, briefly and without arguing. Most readers are not judging the complaint, they are judging how you answered it, and a calm reply does more good than the review did harm.
A page of nothing but five stars reads as suspicious. A few mixed reviews with sensible replies reads as a real business.
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