How to ask for Google reviews without breaking the rules

Ask every customer, right after the job, with a direct link from your Google Business Profile, and attach nothing to the ask. That is how to ask for Google reviews and stay inside the rules. Two rulebooks apply. Google’s policy bans rewards and bans asking only the happy customers. If you ask by text, consent law covers the message itself.

This post is not legal advice. It quotes the rules so you can see where the lines are, and your attorney or your texting provider can answer for your state.

Get your review link first

Google gives every verified profile a short link and a QR code that open the review box directly. Its help page has the steps:

1. Go to your Business Profile.
2. Select Read reviews, then Get more reviews.
3. Select Copy for the link. For the QR code, right-click it and choose Save image as. Google notes the QR download works on a computer browser, not on a phone.

Google’s own suggestions for where to put it: on receipts, in thank-you emails, at the end of a chat, and as a printed QR code in the shop. Add your invoice footer and the contact page of your website to that list.

What Google prohibits when you ask

Asking is allowed. Google’s tips page says so in plain words: “Remind customers to leave reviews.” The limits are in the Maps content policy, and four lines of it matter to an owner.

The second row is the one to check your software against. A tool that sends a “How did we do?” survey, forwards the five-star answers to Google and routes everyone else to a private feedback form is selectively soliciting positive reviews. The industry calls it review gating. If your review tool has that setting, turn it off.

What happens if you break Google’s policy

Google publishes the restrictions it may apply to a Business Profile for fake engagement:

• The profile “will not be able to receive new reviews or ratings” for a set period.
• Existing reviews or ratings “will be unpublished” for a set period.
• The profile “will display a warning to let consumers know that fake reviews were removed.”

Google does not say how long the periods run. It says it emails the owner before applying a restriction and that the owner can appeal. A warning banner on your profile costs more than the reviews were ever worth.

What the FTC rule adds

Google’s policy is a platform rule. The FTC’s Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials is federal law, in effect since October 21, 2024. The FTC says the rule allows it to seek civil penalties against knowing violators. Three parts reach a small business:

• No incentive tied to sentiment. The rule prohibits compensation or other incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, positive or negative.
• Insiders must disclose. Reviews by company insiders are prohibited when they fail to clearly and conspicuously disclose the connection. The FTC’s guidance names employees and relatives.
• No suppression by threat. A business may not use groundless legal threats, physical threats or intimidation to prevent or remove a negative review.

One honest gap: the rule does not expressly ban asking only happy customers. The FTC’s own guidance says that practice could still violate the FTC Act. Google’s policy bans it either way, so the answer for an owner does not change.

Does a review request by text need consent?

This is the half most guides skip. Of the two vendor guides read for this post, one gives texting law a single clause and the other does not mention it.

The federal rule is 47 CFR §64.1200. A text counts as a call under it. A message that “includes or introduces an advertisement or constitutes telemarketing”, sent with an automatic telephone dialing system, needs the “prior express written consent of the called party.” The rule defines telemarketing as a call or message “for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of” goods or services.

The rule does not mention review requests. Whether “please review us” is marketing is an argument you do not want to have after the fact, and there is a second gatekeeper regardless: the carriers. The CTIA guidelines that US carriers apply to business texting describe informational messages as those where a customer “gives their phone number” and “asks to be contacted in the future”, and say the customer “needs to agree to receive texts for a specific informational purpose.”

States add their own layer. Florida is a clear example. Section 501.059 counts a text message as a telephonic sales call when it is sent to solicit a sale, requires prior express written consent for such calls made with an automated system, and lets a consumer recover “actual damages or $500, whichever is greater”, up to three times that for a willful violation. For texts, the statute has the consumer reply STOP and gives the sender 15 days to cease.

In practice:

• Collect consent when you take the number. One line on the booking form or work order: “I agree to receive texts from [Business] about my appointment and a follow-up request for feedback.” Keep the record.
• Name the purpose. Consent to appointment reminders is not obviously consent to anything else. Say “feedback request” in the line.
• Honor STOP. The federal rule says a person can revoke consent by any reasonable method and that you must honor it within a reasonable time, not more than ten business days. Do it the same day.
• Mind the clock. The federal rule bars telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time. A review request at 7 p.m. is fine. One at 10:30 p.m. after a late emergency call is not worth it.
• A reply is different. If the customer texts you first and you answer, CTIA’s table says no additional permission is expected. A thank-you reply with the link, in a conversation they started, is the lowest-risk text there is.

Scripts that stay inside both rulebooks

Each of these goes to every customer, attaches no reward, and does not ask for a particular rating.

Notice what the email does with an unhappy customer. It invites them to reply so you can fix it, and it still gives them the same link as everyone else. That is the legal version of what review gating tries to do.

When to ask, and how often

• Ask when the work is done and the result is visible. The drain runs, the car starts, the haircut is in the mirror.
• One request and one reminder. A second message a few days later is reasonable. A third is pressure, and on text it is how you earn a STOP and a complaint.
• Reply to what comes in. Google’s guidance on replies is short: be professional, keep it brief, respond promptly to negative reviews and address the specific concern. Google also says a mix of positive and negative feedback “often feels more trustworthy”, which is a good thing to remember when the first three-star arrives.

A checklist before you send anything

• The review link and QR code are saved, and the link is on the invoice and completion email.
• Nothing is offered in return, to anyone, for any review.
• Every customer gets the ask, not the ones you expect to be kind.
• No survey sits between the customer and the Google link.
• Staff and family do not review the business.
• Your booking form collects consent to text, and names feedback requests.
• Texts go out between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time and include an opt-out.
• Someone replies to every review within a few days.

If reviews are in hand and you still do not appear where you expect, the cause is usually elsewhere. Start with why a business does not show up on Google Maps, then why your ranking changes by location.