How do I ask customers for Google reviews?

Where do I get my review link?

From Google. Google lets you make a link, and a QR code, that take a customer to the place to leave your business a review, and its own tips for owners suggest asking customers to visit the link or scan the code.¹ Google's help explains how to make them.

Once you have the link, keep it where you can reach it in a second: in a note on your phone, in a saved reply, in your email signature and on your invoice template. The QR code does the same job for people standing in front of you, who scan it with their phone's camera.

Then check it. Open the link on your own phone and make sure it lands on the review form for your business, not another one with a similar name, and scan the printed code before you put it up.

When should I ask?

Soon after the job is done, while it is fresh in the customer's mind: when you hand back the keys, send the invoice or say goodbye at the door. A request that arrives weeks later is easy to put aside and forget.

Choose one moment and ask everybody at that moment, rather than deciding job by job. That keeps the habit simple, and it keeps you inside Google's rules, which do not let a business pick out the customers it expects to leave a good review.² A regular customer needs asking once, not after every visit.

If something went wrong on a job, put it right first, then ask in the same way as always. A review that says you sorted a problem out tells the next customer something useful too.

How do I make it easy?

Make it one tap, or one scan, wherever the customer already is:

• in a message: a text, a WhatsApp message or an email, with one short line asking for a review
• on paper: your invoice, your receipt or the card you leave behind
• on a poster with the QR code, where customers pay or wait, so they can scan it when it suits them
• in your email signature, where every reply carries it

An example message, to copy and change: “Thanks for choosing us today. If you have a minute, a Google review helps other people decide: [your review link].” Ask once, and do not chase a customer who does not reply.

Do not suggest what to write, or ask people to mention a member of staff by name: Google's policy rules that out too.² If you would like a poster, our Review QR poster makes one. Paste your Google review link and print a poster your customers can scan.

A poster asks without pressing anybody. Google's policy says a business should not require or pressure customers to leave a rating or write a review while they are on its premises.² So let people review in their own time, on their own phone, rather than handing them a tablet at the till.

What are the rules?

Google's rules apply wherever your profile shows. Its policy for Google Maps says every contribution should reflect a genuine experience, and it does not let a business:²

• offer anything for a review, such as payment, a discount, goods or services, or offer it for changing or removing a bad review, which Google's tips call strictly prohibited^1,2
• discourage or forbid bad reviews, or ask for good reviews from selected customers
• pressure customers to review it while they are on its premises, or ask for particular words in a review
• ask its staff to collect a set number of reviews, or reviews that say particular things or name a member of staff
• post reviews from people with a conflict of interest, such as current or past staff, family or competitors, or post content about a competitor to harm its name

What counts as an incentive? Anything a customer gets in return for a review: money off, a gift, a discount on the next job, an entry into a prize draw. Thanking somebody for a review they have left is fine; rewarding them for leaving it is not.

The law adds rules of its own, for example in the UK and the US. In the UK, fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews are banned under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and since 6 April 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority can fine a business up to 10% of its global turnover for breaking consumer law.³ In the US, the Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, 16 CFR 465, bans fake reviews, with civil penalties for knowing breaches.⁴

Wherever you trade, the safe course is the same, and it is our advice too: ask everybody the same way, whatever you expect them to say; offer nothing; and never write a review of your own business, or ask anybody close to it to.

Should I reply to reviews?

You do not have to, but a reply shows the next customer that somebody is listening. If you reply, reply to the critical reviews as politely as the kind ones: thank the person, say what you did or will do about it, and offer to carry on the conversation privately.

Reply within a few days where you can, and if a review stings, wait an hour before you answer it. Keep it short, never argue in public, and never put a customer's details in a reply. Google's tips add that a reply is no place for deals or promotions, since the people reviewing you are already customers.¹

How does Blinx show my reviews?

On a Blinx page, connect your Google listing in the editor, and the page shows your Google star rating, your review count and the first three reviews Google shows, in Google's order, on every plan, each with a link to see it on Google Maps. They refresh by themselves each week on a page that pays for Pro or has a card saved; on any other page they stay as they were when the listing was connected.

Blinx never writes, edits or replies to reviews, collects none of its own, and does not ask your customers for them: that part is yours, and the steps above are how to do it.