Reviews do two jobs at once. They influence where a business appears in local results, and they are the first thing a prospective customer reads when comparing options. A business with eighty recent reviews almost always beats one with nine, regardless of which is better at the actual work.
The gap between the two is rarely about quality. It is about process: whether customers are asked, when, and how easy it is for them to do it.
What works, and what breaks the rules
| Allowed? | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| Asking every customer, with a direct link | Yes | The single biggest driver of review volume |
| Asking only customers you expect to be happy | No | Review gating breaches Google's policy |
| Offering a discount or entry into a draw | No | Breaches Google's policy and UK consumer law |
| Replying to every review | Yes — strongly recommended | Signals activity and reassures readers |
| Writing reviews for customers to post | No | Fake reviews are unlawful in the UK |
Timing is most of it
A customer asked at the moment of greatest satisfaction writes a review; the same customer asked three weeks later usually does not. That moment differs by business — for a tradesperson it is when the job is finished and tidied, for a clinic it is when the patient feels better, for a solicitor it is when the matter completes. Building the ask into that point in your process is the core of the work.
Make it effortless
Every extra step loses people. A direct link that opens the review form straight away converts far better than asking someone to find you on Google. QR codes at the point of sale, a link in the completion email, a short text message — the mechanism matters less than removing friction from it.
Recency matters as much as the total
A business with a high rating and no reviews for eight months looks worse than one with a slightly lower rating and reviews from last week. A steady flow of reviews is more valuable than a burst followed by silence, which is why this works best as a process built into how you operate rather than a one-off campaign.
More detail on the mechanics is in our review acquisition playbook.