If you want to know how to get more Google reviews, the short answer is to ask every customer, by text, within a few hours of the job or visit, with a direct link that opens the review form. Ask everyone the same way, offer nothing in exchange, and send one polite follow-up to people who don't respond.
A text request works because it reaches people on the phone where they're already signed into Google, while the visit is still fresh. The rest of this post covers the details: timing, building the review link, the two Google rules most businesses break, templates you can copy, and a worked example of the automation and what it costs.
Why a review request text outperforms email
Email review requests aren't useless, but they compete with promotions, receipts and newsletters, and many sit unopened for days. A text shows up as a notification on the lock screen. For opted-in customers, texts are generally read within minutes. That's a widely repeated industry observation, not a figure we measured.
Three practical reasons favor SMS for this job:
- The phone is already signed into Google. Most Android phones and many iPhones (through the Google app or Chrome) are logged into a Google account. When the customer taps the link, the star rating form opens without a login step. On a desktop, a login prompt is where many reviews die.
- The request arrives while the memory is fresh. A text sent two hours after a furnace repair lands while the customer still remembers the tech's name. An email read three days later competes with three days of other things.
- Replies come back to you. If someone answers "the tech was great but the invoice was wrong," that reply reaches your inbox and you can fix it. That's a service win, and it's fine as long as you still give everyone the review link (more on that below).
The tradeoff: texting requires consent and, in the US, carrier registration. Email has fewer hoops. If you don't have phone consent for a customer, email them instead.
When to send a review request
Timing matters more than wording. Rough guidelines by business type:
| Business type | When to send | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Home services (plumbing, HVAC, cleaning) | 1 to 3 hours after the job is marked complete | The customer has seen the result and the tech just left |
| Clinics, dental, salons, spas | Same day, after checkout | The visit is fresh and the customer is usually still on their phone |
| Restaurants and food | Next day, late morning | Same-evening requests feel pushy |
| Auto repair | After pickup, once the car has been driven | They've confirmed the fix worked |
| Ecommerce | 2 to 5 days after delivery | They need time to use the product |
Two rules apply across the board. Don't send at 10 PM, and don't send before the work is actually done. Ready holds texts outside permitted local hours based on the recipient's area, so a job closed out at 9:30 PM doesn't trigger a late-night text. A Ready automation or drip campaign text waits and goes out the next morning. A text your own code sends through the API at 9:30 PM gets 409 QUIET_HOURS_BLOCK instead, and nothing is sent or charged, so resend it at next_allowed_at. For more on send windows by industry, see our guide to the best time to send SMS texts.
Send one follow-up, not five. A reasonable pattern is the first request, then one reminder about three days later to people who haven't left a review or replied. After that, stop.
How to build your Google review link
You want a link that drops the customer straight onto the star rating form, not onto your profile page where they have to hunt for the button.
Option 1: the share link from your Business Profile
- Sign into the Google account that manages your Business Profile.
- Search your business name on Google, or open the Business Profile manager.
- Click Ask for reviews (sometimes labeled "Get more reviews").
- Copy the short link. It usually looks like
g.page/r/XXXXXXXXXX/review.
This is the easiest option and the link is short, which helps keep your text to one segment.
Option 2: build it from your Place ID
If you manage many businesses or generate links in code, look up the business's Place ID with Google's Place ID Finder and use:
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=YOUR_PLACE_ID
It's longer, so check your character count.
Don't wrap it in a generic link shortener
Public shorteners like bit.ly are associated with spam, and carriers filter texts that contain them, even on an approved campaign. Google's own short link is fine. If you want a branded link, use a domain you own. Our post on why approved campaigns still get filtered covers this content-level blocking in more detail.
What Google's policy says about incentives and review gating
Google's review policy prohibits two things that a lot of review request scripts do.
No incentives. You can't offer discounts, gift cards, entries into a drawing or anything else in exchange for a review. That includes "leave us 5 stars and get 10% off your next visit," and it also includes incentives for any review, positive or negative. Google can remove reviews it identifies as incentivized. The FTC also treats undisclosed paid or incentivized reviews as deceptive.
No review gating. Gating means asking "How would you rate us, 1 to 5?" and sending only the 4s and 5s to Google while routing everyone else to a private feedback form. Google's policy forbids selectively soliciting positive reviews. Many review tools used to build this in by default.
What you can do:
- Ask every customer, with the same message and the same link.
- Invite unhappy customers to reply so you can fix things, as long as they still get the review link.
- Respond publicly to negative reviews, calmly and specifically.
That last point is how to increase your Google rating honestly. Ratings rise when the review volume reflects your typical customer, not just the occasional furious one. Most businesses with a lopsided rating have a volume problem: unhappy people review on their own, and happy people need to be asked.
Review request text templates
Each template below is written in plain GSM-7 characters with no emoji and comes in at 160 characters or fewer with a short Google link. Swap in your own names.
1. Home services, same day
Hi Dana, thanks for having Rivera Plumbing out today. How did Marco do? A quick Google review helps us a lot: g.page/r/XXXXXX/review Reply STOP to opt out
2. Clinic or salon, after checkout
Thanks for visiting Oak Street Dental today, Sam. If you have a minute, we'd appreciate a Google review: g.page/r/XXXXXX/review Reply STOP to opt out
3. Restaurant, next day
Hi Priya, thanks for dining with Lumen last night. Would you share how it went on Google? g.page/r/XXXXXX/review Reply STOP to opt out
4. Invites a reply without gating
Hi Chris, your repair is complete. Questions? Just reply here. Happy with the work? A Google review helps: g.page/r/XXXXXX/review Reply STOP to opt out
5. The one follow-up
Hi Dana, Rivera Plumbing here. No pressure, but if you have 30 seconds for a Google review, it means a lot: g.page/r/XXXXXX/review
Keep emoji out of these. One emoji switches the whole message to unicode and drops the limit to 70 characters per segment (67 per part once it splits), so a 140-character text with a single emoji goes from 1 segment to 3. If you want help drafting variants that stay under the limit, Ready's AI message writer can write them and run a spam-filter check before you save the template. Our post on the AI text message generator shows how.
Worked example: automating review requests with Ready
Here's how a home services business could set this up. The numbers are assumptions for illustration.
Assumptions: 200 completed jobs a month, all with phone consent captured at booking. Every customer gets request #1. About half get the follow-up. About 40 reply.
The setup
- Registration first. US business texting needs A2P 10DLC registration, which Ready handles in-app. There's no setup fee. You pay $25 at submit for the first month, then $25/mo for registration + $2 per number each month. Most approvals take 2 to 7 days. Pick a use case that matches what you actually send. Our use-case picking guide explains why that choice affects throttling.
- The drip campaign. Save templates 1 and 5. Build a two-step drip campaign: the request goes out when the contact is enrolled, and the follow-up goes out three days later. Remove anyone who leaves a review or replies.
- The trigger. If you run on GoHighLevel, Ready installs natively and your GHL workflow ("job complete" enrolls the contact) sends through Ready. Replies sync back to the GHL conversation. If you have your own job software, call the API when a job closes:
POST https://api.tryready.com/v1/messages
X-API-Key: <key>
Idempotency-Key: 3f6c2a9e-1b7d-4c55-9a0e-8d2f4b6e1a77
Content-Type: application/json
{"to": "+12125550199", "body": "Hi Dana, thanks for having Rivera Plumbing out today. How did Marco do? A quick Google review helps us a lot: g.page/r/XXXXXX/review Reply STOP to opt out", "consent_attested": true}The Idempotency-Key means a retried request never texts the customer twice. Full request details are at docs.tryready.com/api/messages.
The math
Every template is 1 segment. Standard is $0.0075/segment plus a $0.0045 carrier fee, and inbound replies are billed the same way.
- Request #1: 200 texts
- Follow-up: 100 texts
- Replies: 40 texts
- Total: 340 segments, which is 340 × $0.0075 = $2.55, plus 340 × $0.0045 in carrier fees
That all-in figure excludes the compliance surcharge. Scrubbing and landline validation are each $0.003 extra per segment when switched on, and both are off by default. Add the monthly registration fees on top.
Ready isn't the lowest per-segment option. Raw carrier APIs like Twilio, and GoHighLevel's own LC Phone, cost less per message. What you get with Ready is registration handled in-app, STOP handling that suppresses opted-out contacts across every campaign, quiet-hours holds, and a shared inbox for replies. If you already have all of that working elsewhere, staying put is a reasonable choice.
The practical takeaway
More Google reviews comes down to process, not clever copy. Text every customer, a few hours after the work, with a direct review link and no incentive attached. Send one follow-up, then stop. Reply to the bad reviews and fix what the replies tell you. Do that consistently for a quarter and your review count, and usually your rating, will show it.
If you want to try it, sign up and send a few requests by hand before you register. The first 20 one-to-one texts are free (a card on file is required). Then build the drip campaign once your registration is approved.
FAQ
Is it legal to text customers asking for a Google review? Yes, if they've agreed to receive texts from you. Capture that consent at booking or checkout, include opt-out language, and register your number for A2P 10DLC. Compliance is ultimately the sender's responsibility. Ready's STOP handling and quiet-hours holds reduce risk, but they don't replace consent.
Can I offer a discount for leaving a review? No. Google prohibits incentives for reviews, whether the review is positive or negative. You can thank customers who review, but you can't reward them for it.
What is review gating, and why is it banned? Review gating means screening customers by satisfaction and sending only happy ones to Google. Google forbids selectively soliciting positive reviews. Send the same request and link to everyone.
How many times should I send a review request text? Twice at most: the initial request and one follow-up a few days later. More than that annoys customers and drives opt-outs.
How do I increase my Google rating if I already have bad reviews? Raise your review volume by asking every customer, and respond to each negative review publicly and specifically. A steady stream of reviews from typical customers pulls the average toward your real service level over time.