how to ask for google reviews template

Published by Madloba Consult Published Updated

A review request that works is four lines: name the person, thank them, say that a review on Google helps other people choose, and give the link. What it must never contain is a number of stars, a condition, a reward or the name of a member of staff, because Google's policy forbids all four.

Answered on this page

Checked against Google's help on 6 September 2026. From our practice, 6 September 2026

The word template is doing a lot of work in this search. Owners want wording they can hand to the front desk without worrying that it breaks something. So this article gives plain wording for the three places the ask actually happens, the rules that decide what may be in it, and where the link inside it comes from.

One honest note before the wording. From our practice there is no single template that suits every trade, and the requests we write are made for each client and are not published. What is below is plain and generic on purpose: it stays inside Google’s rules, and you will improve it by making it sound like your own front desk.

how to ask for google reviews template

Four lines, in this order: who you are speaking to, thanks for the visit, why a review is useful to other people, and the link. Three versions, for the three moments when somebody will actually do it.

At the counter, printed on a small card beside the till, next to the QR code:

Was it good? Was it not? Tell the next person on Google. Scan the code and write what you think.

By message, the same day as the visit:

Hello [first name], thank you for coming in today. If you have a minute, a review on Google helps other people decide whether we are right for them: [review link]. Whatever you write, we read it.

By email, after the work is finished:

Subject: Thank you for coming in

Hello [first name],

Thank you for choosing us today. Reviews on Google are how most people decide where to go, so if you have a minute, here is where to leave one: [review link].

Thank you either way, [name of a real person at the business]

Look at what is absent. No stars are mentioned. Nothing is offered. No one is asked to write a particular sentence or to name the person who served them. There is no “if you were happy” in front of the link. Those four absences are not style, they are Google’s content policy, which allows merchants to “Solicit or encourage the posting of content that does represent a genuine experience, without offering incentives” and rules out incentives, discouraging negative reviews, selectively asking the pleased ones, pressing customers while they are on the premises, and telling staff to collect a set number of reviews or reviews with particular content in them.

From our practice the channel follows the trade rather than the other way round. A QR code on the counter works best where people stand at a counter. Messages work almost everywhere. A letter suits some trades and is dead in others. What matters more than the channel is the moment: on the spot, while the person is still there and the result is in their hands, beats anything that has to compete with the rest of somebody’s day.

how to ask for google reviews email template

Same four lines, with a subject line and a signature, and one rule of its own: send it after the visit, not during it.

That rule is Google’s. The policy tells merchants not to require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while they are on the premises, so a card left on the counter is fine and a member of staff standing over somebody’s shoulder while they type is not. The email is the polite version of the same ask, arriving when the person has the result in hand and a free minute.

Keep the email short enough to read on a lock screen. A subject that says thank you, a first name, one sentence about why reviews matter to a small business, the link on its own line, and a name at the bottom that belongs to a real person. Anything longer reads as marketing, and marketing gets archived.

Two things to decide before you send. First, one email per customer: a second reminder is a nudge, a third is pressure. Second, where the reply goes, because somebody will answer the email instead of writing a review, and that answer is worth more to you than the review would have been.

It is also worth knowing what the customer is walking into, so you can say it when they ask. Google’s Maps help page says “All reviews are public and anyone can find what you add” and “You’re unable to add an anonymous review.” Some people will decline for exactly that reason. Let them, and thank them anyway.

Where the link in the template comes from

Every version above has [review link] in it, and this is where you get it.

Sign in to the Google Account that manages the profile. Google’s page on finding your profile is blunt about that condition: “To find your profile, you must sign in to the Google Account associated with it.” Then search Google for your business name or for “my business”, or open the Google Maps app and tap “Business” at the bottom right.

Then, in the words of Google’s page on the review link and QR code: “Go to your Business Profile”, “Select Read Reviews and then Get more reviews”. A panel opens with the link and a code. “To copy the review link, select Copy”. For the code: “Right-click the QR code”, then “Select Save image as…”. One limitation to plan around: “Currently, reviews QR codes can only be generated on a computer browser, not on mobile devices”, so make the card on a computer once and print it.

Google’s own suggestions for where the link goes are on the same page: “Include it on your receipts”, “Include it in thank you emails”, “Add it at the end of a chat interaction”, “Print and display the QR code in your store”. The same page adds “You can also send review requests through email, WhatsApp message, or Facebook post.”, and Google’s tips page says you can ask customers “to visit a Google link or scan a QR code”

Pick the one channel every customer already passes through and put the link there before you build anything clever. The appointment reminder for a clinic, the bill folder for a restaurant, the message that says the car is ready for a garage, the closing email for a law office. One channel that runs by itself beats five that depend on somebody remembering.

What the template must never say

Five sentences will get a profile into trouble, and all five appear in owners’ drafts.

“Leave us five stars.” That is an attempt to influence the rating, which the policy places outside what merchants may do.

“Leave a review and get a free coffee.” Google’s tips page names this one directly: “Offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for customers to post reviews, change reviews, or remove negative reviews is considered fake & misleading content and is strictly prohibited.”

“If you were happy with us, leave a review.” That is selective soliciting, which merchants may not do. Ask everybody or nobody.

“Please mention [name] in your review.” Merchants may not request that specific content be included, including content that identifies a member of staff.

“Everyone on the team needs ten reviews this month.” Staff quotas are named in the same list.

What sits at the end of that road is on Google’s page about profile restrictions: a profile can be blocked from receiving new reviews for a set period, have its existing reviews unpublished for a set period, and display “a warning to let consumers know that fake reviews were removed”. The reviews you collected honestly go dark with the rest.

The other half of asking is answering. Google’s page on replying to reviews says “Before you can reply to reviews, you must verify your business”, and that “The person who wrote the review is notified when you reply.” A customer who was asked, wrote, and got a real answer is the one who tells the next person to do the same.

Common mistakes we see

From our practice, the same handful spoils an otherwise good request.

Asking only when somebody remembers. The reviews then arrive in bursts with months of silence between them, because a habit that depends on memory is dropped in the first busy week.

Planning the optimistic number. A target set after a good day is quietly abandoned within a month, and the one that lasts is the smaller figure nobody has to think about.

Letting the customer take the card and think about it. The strongest moment is while the person is still there, and “later” is where requests go to die.

Asking for the stars instead of earning them. Begging for a five and earning a five are different things: the fives come for the service and the level of it, easy to find, looked after on arrival, asked whether they want tea or coffee before a long appointment. Those small things are what people write about, and no wording invents them.

Sending a request a model wrote and nobody read. The tell is the flattery, “world-class”, “the widest range”, and the reader has seen it a hundred times. A model can draft; a person has to finish it, or write it themselves, which is usually warmer.

how to edit google business profile description

Open the profile, select “Edit profile”, select “Edit” next to “Description”, write the text and select “Save”. That is Google’s own route on its page about the business description, which describes the field as the place that “helps potential customers learn more about your business, such as what you do and what makes your business unique”. In the Google Maps app the equivalent is “Business” at the bottom right, then “Edit profile”, then “Save” after your changes.

Two limits decide what you can put there. The field is “limited to 750 characters”, and Google’s guidelines for representing your business say the description may not “Display links. No links of any type are allowed”, may not “Focus on special promotions, prices, and offer sales”, and may not “Display low-quality, irrelevant, or distracting content”. So the answer to the question owners ask next is no: the review link cannot live in the description. It lives on the receipt, in the email and on the card.

Changes are not instant and they are not automatic. Google’s page on editing your profile says “We review your changes before we update them live on your profile”, and the description page gives the wait: “Changes to your profile usually take about 10 minutes to show up. In some cases, it can take up to 30 days.” The same page offers a suggested description written for you and tells you to “review it for accuracy and update as needed”, which is worth doing slowly.

From our practice this is where the profile is usually thin. The description is written for this business and this reader, or it is not worth writing: the version lifted from the website’s front page reads like marketing because it was marketing, and the version a model produced on its own flatters the owner and says nothing. We fill in a brief before writing a word, and we send the brief back if it comes in filled in a hurry, because everything left out of it is paid for later, one change at a time.

How to check this yourself

  1. Sign in, open your profile and select “Read Reviews” and then “Get more reviews”. You will see the link and the QR code. If you cannot reach that screen, you are not signed in to the account that manages the profile, and that is the first thing to fix.
  2. Send yourself the request from your own system, then open it on a phone. Tap the link. You should land on the review box for your business in one tap. If it takes two, the customer will not make the second one.
  3. Read your request out loud and look for four words: stars, happy, free, and any colleague’s name. If one of them is there, rewrite the line.
  4. Open “Read reviews” and look at the dates of the last ten. Spread out means the channel is running by itself. Clustered means somebody remembered, twice.
  5. Read your description as a stranger who has never heard of you. If it could belong to any business in your trade, it is not doing the job, and no template will make up for it.

If you would rather have somebody send the requests every week, watch what arrives and answer it for you, that is what monthly review management is. This article is part of the Reviews guide.

Questions

how to ask for google reviews template

Keep it to four lines: the person’s name, a thank you, one sentence saying a review helps other people choose, and the review link. Do not mention stars, do not attach a discount and do not ask for a staff member to be named, because Google’s policy treats incentives as prohibited and forbids requests for specific content. One sentence and a working link outperform a paragraph.

how to ask for google reviews email template

Subject: thank you for coming in. Body: the person’s first name, a thank you for the visit, one line saying that a review on Google helps other people decide, the review link on its own line, and a name at the bottom. Nothing about stars, nothing conditional. Send it after the visit rather than standing over the customer while they type, because Google’s policy says merchants should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises.

how to edit google business profile description

Open your Business Profile while signed in to the Google Account associated with it, select “Edit profile”, click “Edit” next to “Description”, write the text and select “Save”. Google reviews changes before they go live and says they usually take about 10 minutes to show up, and in some cases up to 30 days. The published limit for the field is 750 characters.

how to update google business profile description

The same route as writing it the first time: “Edit profile”, then “Edit” next to “Description”, then “Save”. In the Google Maps app it is “Business” at the bottom right, then “Edit profile”, then “Save”. Update it when what the business does changes, not when you have thought of a nicer adjective. Google’s guidelines say the description may not display links of any type, so your review link cannot live there.

Can I put my review link in my Google description

No. Google’s guidelines for representing your business say the description must not display links, and that no links of any type are allowed. They also rule out marketing taglines and a focus on special promotions and prices. The review link belongs on receipts, in thank you emails, at the end of a chat and on a QR code card at the counter, which are the places Google itself suggests.

Can I ask only the customers who seemed happy

No. Google’s policy for merchants rules out discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews and selectively soliciting positive ones, and asking everyone is also the safer commercial choice, because a profile with only praise on it reads as arranged. Send the same request to everybody who used the service, and answer whatever comes back.

What if the customer says they will do it later

Most of them never do, and that is not dishonesty, it is the day moving on. From our practice the strongest moment is on the spot, while the person is still there and the result is in their hands, so the request works best at the desk or in the room rather than in a message sent two days later. Keep the later channel anyway for the people who prefer it.

Sources

  1. how to get the review link and the QR code with the button names, the note that the code is generated on a computer browser only, and Google's suggestions for where to put the link, checked 6 September 2026
  2. tips to get more reviews: remind customers with a link or a QR code, reply to reviews, value all reviews, and the sentence that incentives are strictly prohibited, checked 6 September 2026
  3. the genuine experience sentence, what merchants may not do (incentives, discouraging negatives, selective soliciting, pressure on the premises, staff quotas and specific content) and what they may do, checked 6 September 2026
  4. what a profile loses if the review rules are broken: new reviews blocked, existing reviews unpublished, a warning shown to consumers, email notice and appeal, checked 6 September 2026
  5. the customer's side: reviews are public, cannot be anonymous, and can be edited or deleted by their author at any time, checked 6 September 2026
  6. replying to reviews: verification first, the button names, how long a reply takes to be checked, and the reviewer being notified, checked 6 September 2026
  7. finding your profile: you must be signed in to the Google Account associated with it, and how to open it on Search and in the Maps app, checked 6 September 2026
  8. the business description: what it is for, the steps and button names to add or edit it, the suggested description feature, and how long changes take to show up, checked 6 September 2026
  9. editing the profile on Search and in the Maps app, and the sentence about changes being reviewed before they go live, checked 6 September 2026
  10. what the description field is for and what it may not contain: no links, no promotions or prices, no low-quality or irrelevant content, and the consequences of breaking the guidelines, checked 6 September 2026
  11. the published limit for the business description field, 750 characters, checked 6 September 2026

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