Asking for reviews

A process, not a campaign

Bay Area AEO describes the review side of its citations and reviews service as a review process that gets customers describing what the business does best. The word process matters. A burst of requests after a slow month produces a spike of short reviews and then silence. A steady routine, built into how the business finishes each job or visit, produces a stream of specific, recent reviews that keeps the language in AI answers current.

Know each platform's rules first

The platforms differ, and the differences matter.

Review gating, where a business first asks customers whether they were satisfied and sends only the happy ones to the review site, breaks Google's policies. Ask everyone the same way.

Timing

Ask when the customer has just experienced the part of the service the business most wants described. For a restaurant, that is at the end of a good meal or the next morning. For a plumber, right after the leak is fixed and the customer sees the clean work area. For a dentist, after the appointment that resolved the problem, not after a routine cleaning. For a remodeler, at the final walkthrough, when the kitchen is finished and the homeowner is delighted. For a recurring service such as house cleaning, after several visits, so the review can speak to consistency over time, which Bay Area AEO's house cleaning page names as the theme that matters.

Channel

The best channel is the one the customer already uses with the business. A text message works well for service businesses that already text appointment reminders. An email works for professional services. A small card with a QR code works for restaurants and shops. A tablet at the counter rarely works well, and reviews posted from the business's own premises or devices can be filtered as suspicious. Whatever the channel, the link should go straight to the review form, so the customer needs one tap.

Wording that invites specifics

The request should be short and personal, specific about the visit, while leaving the words to the customer. Compare two versions:

The specific version reminds the customer what the job was and where, without suggesting what to say about it. It does not ask for five stars, which is both against the spirit of the platforms' rules and unnecessary. Customers who had a good experience and are reminded of the details tend to write about the details.

A gentle prompt about what readers find useful is also fair: “Other customers find it helpful when reviews mention the service you had and what stood out.” That is guidance about usefulness, not a script.

Who asks

A request from the person who did the work lands better than one from a generic company address. The technician who fixed the leak, the stylist who cut the hair, the attorney who handled the matter: if they ask, or if the message comes in their name, the customer is more likely to respond, and more likely to mention them by name, which is the staff-name theme Bay Area AEO's dentist page points to.

Train staff to ask in person at the natural moment, then follow up with the link. Keep it relaxed. A customer who feels pressured writes a short review or none.

Spreading reviews across platforms

Different assistants read different platforms, so a business benefits from reviews in more than one place. Google matters for AI Overviews and Gemini. The trade platform matters for professional and health questions. Yelp matters for Apple Maps and many web-searching assistants, but Yelp asks businesses not to solicit reviews, so the Yelp share grows from customers who find the page themselves. A reasonable approach is to direct most requests to Google, some to the main trade platform, and mention on the website and in-store materials where else the business can be reviewed.

How often

Ask every customer once, after the right moment, and do not chase. A single reminder a few days later is acceptable if the first message went unanswered; more than that becomes a nuisance. The steady flow comes from asking everyone, consistently, every week, over months.

Privacy-sensitive trades

Medical, mental health and legal practices need extra care. Asking is generally fine, but the request should not reveal anything sensitive if seen by someone else, and the practice must not confirm that a reviewer is a patient or client when replying. Therapists in particular should think about whether asking for reviews suits their clients at all; Bay Area AEO's therapist page notes that published expertise, such as articles, talks and interviews, is what AI uses in place of testimonials in that field.

A simple routine

Making it easy in person

For walk-in businesses, physical reminders help: a small card with the receipt, a sign by the register with a QR code, a line on the menu. Keep them modest and identical for every customer. The card can carry the same gentle line about usefulness as the message (“Reviews that mention what you ordered help other diners”) and should point to Google or the trade platform, never to Yelp, given Yelp's rules. A boba shop or a dessert shop with a line out the door has dozens of happy customers a day; a card in the bag reaches them at the right moment without anyone having to ask.

When a customer says no

Some customers do not write reviews, and that is fine. Thank them and move on. A customer who had a mixed experience and is asked anyway may write about the problem, which is useful information and a chance to reply well (see chapter 33). Asking everyone, without filtering, keeps the record honest, and an honest record is the one assistants and customers trust.

Reviews for each location

A business with several locations should send each customer to the review form for the location they visited. Reviews that land on the wrong branch confuse the record: a Walnut Creek patient's review about parking on the Concord profile tells an assistant something false about both. Keep a separate review link for each location in the master record and make sure staff use the right one.

Business customers

For businesses that serve other businesses (IT providers, staffing agencies, commercial contractors, caterers for offices), the reviewer is a manager writing on behalf of a company. Bay Area AEO's staffing page notes the value of two-sided reviews, from client companies and from candidates, gathered fairly. Ask the person who managed the relationship, after a milestone such as a completed project or a successful placement, and name the project in the request so the review can name it too.

Tracking it

Track the number of requests sent, reviews received, and the share of reviews that mention a specific service, person or place. If requests go out but few reviews come back, look at the timing and the wording. If reviews come back but are short and general, look at whether the request reminds customers of what the visit involved.

Related chapters31. Review language · 33. Responding to reviews · 9. Google Business Profile · 12. Yelp and booking platforms