Most local businesses do not have a review problem. They have an asking problem. Happy customers rarely leave a review unprompted, not because they do not want to but because it does not occur to them - and by the time it might, they have moved on.
So how to get more Google reviews comes down to three things: ask everyone, ask at the right moment, and make it take ten seconds. Then stay firmly inside the rules, because the rules on reviews have got a lot sharper in the UK.
Ask at the right moment
Timing matters more than wording. The best moment is when the customer has just seen the result and said something nice about it - the boiler is back on, the dog looks immaculate, the patio is finished. That is when the feeling is strongest and the request feels natural rather than salesy.
For most businesses that means one of these points:
- On the doorstep as you finish, followed by a text with the link within the hour.
- When the customer pays the final invoice - put the link on the invoice and the receipt email.
- When a customer thanks you by text or WhatsApp. Reply with thanks and the link.
- For recurring services (cleaning, grooming, gardening), after the second or third visit, once trust is established.
Make it one tap: your review link
Google lets you create a direct link and a QR code that opens the review box for your business. You will find it in your Business Profile under the option to ask for reviews. Save it somewhere you can paste it in seconds - a text shortcut on your phone is ideal.
Then put it everywhere a customer already is: the invoice template, the email signature, a small card left after the job, the "thank you" page after someone pays. The fewer steps between "I'd happily do that" and the review box, the more reviews you get.
What Google's policy forbids
Google's Maps content policy is explicit, and breaking it risks reviews being removed or the profile being restricted. At the time of writing it prohibits:
- Offering incentives - payment, discounts, free goods or services - in exchange for posting any review. That includes a "10% off your next visit" for a review, even if you do not ask for a five-star one.
- Discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews.
- Selectively soliciting positive reviews. This is "review gating": asking "how did we do?" first and only sending the Google link to people who say they were happy.
- Requiring or pressuring customers to leave reviews while on the premises.
- Asking staff to solicit reviews that mention specific content, such as a staff member by name.
- Contributions that do not reflect a genuine experience - reviews from friends, family or yourself.
What UK law now says about fake reviews
Since April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has added fake reviews to the list of commercial practices that are automatically unfair. The Competition and Markets Authority's guidance (CMA208) covers submitting or commissioning fake reviews, concealed incentivised reviews, and publishing review information in a misleading way - for example, showing only the good ones on your website and presenting that as your overall rating.
The CMA can now decide for itself that consumer law has been broken and fine a business up to 10% of its global turnover. Small businesses are not exempt. The practical upshot: never buy reviews, never write them, never swap them with another business, and if you ever do give an incentive for a review on your own site, the incentive must be clearly disclosed.
Reply to every review, including the bad ones
Google recommends replying to reviews, and it is one of the few things on your profile potential customers actually read closely. A short, specific thank-you on good reviews shows there is a human behind the business. On a bad review, a calm reply that sets out what happened and what you did about it often does more for your reputation than the review did damage.
Never argue, never share a customer's personal details, and never offer anything in the reply in exchange for the review being changed. Google's own help page notes that a mix of positive and negative feedback often feels more trustworthy, which is worth remembering the next time a three-star review stings.
Make it a system, not a mood
The businesses with hundreds of reviews are rarely the ones with the happiest customers. They are the ones that ask every single time. Put it in the job-completion routine, alongside taking payment. If a system that texts every customer a review link after each job sounds useful, our review booster bolt-on does that for £15/month - but a saved text and the discipline to send it works too.