Review generation that follows the rules

Why most businesses have fewer reviews than they deserve

It's rarely because customers are unhappy. It's because nobody asked, or the ask came three weeks later, or it was a long email with a link buried in paragraph four. A short message the same day, with one link straight to your review page, works far better than any of that.

What we set up

• A trigger. When a job is marked complete, an appointment ends or an order is delivered, a request goes out. We connect to your job, booking or point-of-sale software where it allows, or work from a regular customer export if it doesn't.
• A short message. Text, email or both. Your name, a thank-you, one link. One reminder a few days later if they haven't left a review, then we stop.
• The right destination. Usually Google, since that's where most local searches start. If Facebook or an industry site matters more to you, we can rotate destinations, but we never route people based on how happy they seem.
• In-person options. QR cards for the counter, the invoice or the truck, for customers you see face to face.

What we won't do, and why

Some review tools ask "How would you rate us?" first and only send 4- and 5-star answers to Google. That's called review gating, and Google's policy says businesses must not "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". The FTC also warns against it in its guidance on soliciting and paying for online reviews. Everyone gets the same request.

We also don't offer discounts, raffle entries or gifts for reviews, don't ask staff or relatives to post, and don't tell customers what to write. Yelp is stricter still and asks businesses not to ask for reviews at all, so we don't send requests to Yelp.

Questions