CRM & sales

How to get more Google reviews (without breaking the rules)

When to ask for a Google review, review request templates for text and email, how to automate the ask, and what Google and Canadian law don't allow.

October 21, 20266 min read

To get more Google reviews, ask every customer, at the moment they feel the result, with a direct link that opens the review form, and follow up once. Most businesses don't have a bad-review problem. They have a pile of satisfied customers nobody ever asked. What you must avoid: offering anything in return for a review, asking only the happy customers, or having staff post reviews. Google forbids all three, and in Canada the Competition Bureau has warned businesses about misleading reviews too.

Here's how to set up a simple, rule-abiding system, with templates you can copy.

What Google allows and what it bans

Google's policy on user-contributed content is specific. You may ask customers to post a review that reflects a genuine experience. You may not:

Offer incentives: money, discounts, free products or services, or contest entries in exchange for a review, or for changing or removing a negative one.
Ask selectively. The classic "Happy with us? Leave a Google review. Not happy? Email us instead" funnel is what Google calls selectively soliciting positive reviews. It's not allowed.
Use reviews from people with a conflict of interest, including current or former employees. Google removes them.
Tell people what to write, such as asking them to mention a service or keyword.
Discourage or block negative reviews.
Buy reviews, directly or in kind.

Penalties range from removed reviews to restrictions on your profile. It isn't worth the risk.

What Canadian law adds

The Competition Act. In January 2024, the Competition Bureau warned that businesses could be held liable for reviews posted by their employees. Its advice: train staff to disclose their connection to the business if they post a review, and have them not post at all when disclosure isn't possible, as with a bare star rating. Anyone who writes or allows misleading reviews may be liable.

Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). If your review request goes out by email or text as part of your commercial communications, treat it as a commercial electronic message:

Consent: a purchase gives you implied consent for up to two years. An inquiry alone gives you six months.
Identification: your business name, a mailing address, and a phone number, email or website.
Unsubscribe: a working mechanism, honoured within 10 business days. The government is explicit that simply offering a "STOP" reply isn't enough; you have to respect the opt-out.

A review request sent to a recent customer, clearly identified, with an unsubscribe option, is on solid ground.

When to ask

Ask when the customer has just felt the result:

Business type	Best moment
Restaurant, salon, clinic	Within 2 hours of the visit
Contractor, renovation	On completion day, after the final walk-through
Recurring cleaning or maintenance	After the 2nd or 3rd visit, once quality is consistent
Professional services	When you deliver the work or close the file
E-commerce	A few days after delivery, not at shipping

Ask in person first if you can ("It would really help us if you left a few words on Google. I'll text you the link."), then send the link by text within the hour. In our experience, texts outperform email for this: they get read right away and the link opens on the phone in the customer's hand.

Use the direct link

Google lets you create a link or QR code that opens the review form on your profile directly. You'll find it in your Business Profile, under the option to ask for reviews. Put it everywhere:

in your text and email requests;
on invoices and receipts;
as a QR code at the counter, in the waiting room, or on a card left after a job;
in your team's email signatures.

One detail that trips people up: customers need to be signed in to a Google Account to post. They can create one with any email address, not just Gmail.

Review request templates

Keep them short and personal. Use the customer's first name and, when possible, the name of the person who did the work.

Text, right after the job

Hi Sarah, thanks for choosing Ridgeview Renovations for your bathroom. If you have two minutes, a Google review would help other families find us: [link]. Thank you! – Mike

Email, after a professional engagement

Subject: Thank you, and a small favour Hi David, Your file is now closed. Thanks for trusting us with your return this year. If you have a few minutes, a review on our Google profile would mean a lot. Just tell people how it went, good or not so good: [link] Best, Priya Shah, CPA Shah Accounting | 123 Main Street, Kitchener | 519-555-0123 Don't want these emails? [Unsubscribe]

One follow-up, three to five days later

Hi Sarah, quick reminder in case my last message got buried: [link]. No pressure, and thanks again! – Mike

French version, for bilingual customers

Bonjour Sarah, merci d'avoir choisi Rénovations Ridgeview pour votre salle de bain. Si vous avez deux minutes, un avis Google aiderait d'autres familles à nous trouver : [lien]. Merci ! – Mike

Notice "good or not so good" in the email. You're asking for an honest account, not a five-star rating. That's what Google requires, and it makes your reviews more believable. Google itself notes that a mix of positive and negative reviews often looks more trustworthy than a perfect streak.

Automate the ask

The hard part isn't the wording. It's remembering to send it after every single customer. Automation fixes that.

Trigger: an event in your software. Invoice paid, appointment marked complete, deal moved to "job done" in your pipeline.
Delay: 1 to 3 hours for on-site services, a few days for shipped products.
Message: the text template above, with the first name filled in.
Follow-up: one, only if the link wasn't clicked.
Stop rules: as soon as they click, or if they opt out.
Tracking: a simple monthly count of requests sent and reviews received.

A trap to avoid: some review tools ship with a "satisfaction filter" that only sends happy customers to Google. Turn it off. You can collect private feedback too, but every customer needs to receive the same invitation to post publicly.

Reply to reviews

Responding is part of the system. Google notes that replies are public, the reviewer is notified, and they can still edit their review afterwards.

Positive reviews: thank them with one specific detail ("Glad the deck was ready for the long weekend"). Avoid pasting the same line under every review.
Negative reviews: reply within 48 hours, calmly, without personal details. Acknowledge the issue, say what you did about it, or offer to continue by phone.
Fake or off-topic reviews: flag them to Google instead of arguing in public.

Clinics and professional offices: never confirm in a reply that the reviewer is your patient or client. Keep the response general.

The usual mistakes

Asking family, friends and staff to "help out" at launch.
Running a "leave a review to win" contest.
Blasting 300 requests to customers from five years ago: a sudden spike in reviews, and likely no valid CASL consent.
Writing the review for the customer "to save them time".
Never asking, then wondering why the competitor has 200 reviews.

Where PNE fits

In our sales automation and CRM setups, the review request is built into the pipeline: every customer who reaches "complete" gets a personal text automatically, one follow-up if needed, and your team sees the numbers on a dashboard. No filtering, and an unsubscribe that works. For the rest of your profile, see our Google Business Profile optimization checklist.