How to Get Google Reviews

Are reviews important? Any company that has stronger reviews than its competitors is bound to receive a sales boost. For these businesses, growth begins with establishing a good reputation that leads to an increase in footfall.

Key takeaways

• Set up and verify your Google Business Profile so customers can find and review you.
• Share your review link and QR code on receipts, emails, your website and in-store.
• Ask every happy customer, but never offer incentives for reviews.
• Reply to every review, good or bad, quickly and politely.
• Use feedback to improve your product and customer service.

So how do you get your business on to Google reviews? How can you encourage your customers to leave you a 5* rating? Here are some answers to these important questions.

How to set up your Google Business Profile

Google is by far the most dominant review platform. Its reviews appear when looking at businesses on Google Search and Maps, telling customers which business of every type is the most well-liked and which is the closest.

If you’re wondering how to get Google reviews, the first thing you’ll need to do is register with Google Business Profile. After verifying your account and inputting information about your business such as the address, opening hours and contact information, your business will appear on Google Maps.  

In registering, you’ll need to agree to Google’s terms of service. These terms state that in your hunt for positive reviews, you cannot pay or incentivize customers to review them. You can only ask for them, so be sure to follow their rules.

Once on Google Business Profile, customers will be able to review you on their platform. But there are other benefits to being on Google Business Profile. Google provides users with a marketing kit including posters, stickers and social media posts with links to your reviews page. You can print these and place them in windows and on counters as well as printing or sharing your best reviews. This is all free and designed to help you get more reviews.

How to ask customers for Google reviews

You’re on Google Business Profile and you can see your beautiful business on Maps. Now you need to find out how to get customer reviews on Google and have a strong, high rating. The most basic step you can take is to make it as easy as possible for anyone to leave a review. This means doing as much of the work for the customer as you can.

Google’s marketing materials provide readymade resources with the links a customer needs to reach your reviewing page. If you don’t want to use those, or you use other platforms as well as Google and want to share this information, you can create your own materials and ensure they have links on them.

Make leaving a review as easy as possible for the customer, as they may not want to pause their day to review your business while they are out and about. If they can take a card or know where to go to place a review later in the day, it increases the chance they will place the review.

The email receipt is another useful way of making this process easier for the customer. Epos Now’s email receipt functionality can send the review link directly to the customer's email when a purchase is made so they can place a review the next time they stop to check their email in the comfort of their own home. This way they do not need to find the website as you’ve done it for them.

How to create your Google review link and QR code

Your review link takes customers straight to the box where they choose a star rating and write their review, so they don’t have to search for your business first. Google also creates a QR code for the same link, which you can print for your counter, window or receipts (which is especially easy on POS platforms like Epos Now, which offer receipts with the QR codes printed right on them).

1. Open your Business Profile on a computer. Sign in to the Google account you use to manage your business, then search for your business name on Google to bring up your profile. These options are only available in a desktop browser, not on your phone.
2. Select “Read reviews”. This opens the reviews panel for your business.
3. Select “Get more reviews”. A window appears with your review link and a QR code.
4. Copy your link. Select “Copy” and paste it somewhere safe, such as a note or document your team can access and share with customers.
5. Save your QR code. Right-click the QR code and choose “Save image as” to download it. You don’t need a separate QR code generator. Epos Now users can also drop the QR code link into their receipt page in the designated space, and customers will be able to scan the QR codes and leave reviews the moment they get their receipt.
6. Test both before you share them. Open the link in a private browser window and scan the QR code with your phone. Each should open the review box, not just your business listing. If you print the QR code, test the printed version too, as small or low-quality prints can be hard to scan.
7. Share it everywhere customers will see it. Add the link to your email receipts, website, social media bios and email signature, and put the QR code on table cards, posters, packaging and printed receipts.

Google sometimes changes the names of these buttons, so if anything looks different, follow the closest matching option on your profile.

Website review requests

Many businesses are now turning to the email receipt instead of the paper equivalent, but even if the customer prefers the paper version you can print the link on the receipt or direct them to your website.

If your business has a website, you’ll be able to create a Google reviews widget or a CTA (call to action)^[1]. A widget is a pop-up box that will allow visitors to see your rating on Google and quickly place a review if desired. A call to action is a statement designed to encourage or persuade someone into action. Either of these on your website will help in the pursuit of reviews.

This can be done on social media as well. Sharing links or putting them in your bio is easily done. Placing the links in as many places as possible makes your review page hard to miss so exploit every avenue you have available to get the word out.

How to use marketing campaigns to get more reviews

With email receipts, newsletters, contests, and gated online content, there are a number of ways you may obtain customer emails to use when marketing your business. You can ask each customer if they would like marketing emails and you can email the review link out to those that said yes.

Especially if you’re an older business just starting out on review platforms, you may be asking yourself how to get positive reviews online. But you have likely already built up a lot of good relationships with customers that would be happy to give you a boost. Marketing emails and social media campaigns are not to be sneered at and can produce good results.

The phrasing of these requests is crucial as it may influence the feelings the customer experiences as they write the review. Asking for anything they liked about their experience and any thoughts they have is a balanced way of asking for feedback.

Suggesting they mention a staff member they spoke to is recommended as people will often become attached to a business through your staff members and any pleasant conversations they have on-site.

Keep your message short and include any other news about the business so there are other points of interest and ensure you personalise each message. Or if you’re not a fan of these emails yourself, simply place the Google review link in your email signature and every happy customer you contact will have a chance to review you.

How to get more Google reviews

Once the reviews start flooding in you’ll want to keep it that way. You’ll soon find yourself jumping on to Google to see if any more have come in and how they’re influencing your star rating.

This isn’t such a bad habit. When thinking about how to get reviews for your business you should consider the responses you give to those reviews. Respond to all in quick time whether they gave good or bad reviews. Good reviews should be given a warm thank you message to show your gratitude that someone visited, had a lovely time, and took a moment to make this public.

Negative reviews deserve just as much attention. Reply publicly, thank the customer for their feedback and offer a sincere apology for what went wrong. Keep it calm and professional, and avoid arguing over the details in public. Then invite them to get in touch directly, by phone or email, so you can understand what happened and put it right offline. A thoughtful public reply shows everyone reading that you take feedback seriously and care about your customers’ experience. Bear in mind that Google’s policies don’t allow you to offer anything in return for changing or removing a review, so focus on resolving the problem rather than on the review itself.

How to respond to Google reviews

Every reply is public, so write for future customers as well as the reviewer. Keep it short, personal and polite, and reply within a day or two where you can. Here are some examples for different kinds of reviews:

Example reply to a 5-star review

Thanks so much, Sarah! We’re thrilled you enjoyed the Sunday roast, and we’ll pass your kind words on to Tom, our chef. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Include:

• The reviewer’s name and a specific detail they mentioned
• A thank you to any staff member they named
• A friendly invitation to come back

Avoid:

• Copy-and-paste replies that read the same on every review
• Keyword stuffing or sales pitches

Example reply to a 3-star review

Thanks for your feedback, James. We’re glad you enjoyed the food, and sorry the wait was longer than it should have been on Saturday. We’re looking at our weekend staffing so this doesn’t happen again, and we hope you’ll give us another try.

Include:

• Thanks for the positives they mentioned
• A clear acknowledgement of what fell short
• What you’re doing to improve, showing you're taking the feedback on board

Avoid:

• Making excuses or brushing off the criticism
• Asking them to raise their rating

Example reply to a 1-star review

Hi Emma, we’re really sorry to hear about your experience. This isn’t the standard we aim for. We’d like to understand what happened and put it right, so please contact our manager, Priya, on 01234 567890 or at hello@yourbusiness.co.uk.

Include:

• A sincere apology, without blaming the customer
• An invitation to continue the conversation offline
• A named contact and direct way to reach them

Avoid:

• Arguing, getting defensive or disputing details in public
• Sharing personal details about the customer or their booking
• Offering a discount, freebie or anything else in return for changing or removing the review. This is against Google Review policy

Charm with your customer service

You may think it goes without saying, but when it comes to reviews your product is more important than anything else. This is what’s being reviewed. If you receive poor responses, read the messages and see what it is that customers aren’t enjoying about your service. 

If staff members' names are mentioned this is something you can quickly put right. Working on your team’s customer service skills can help create bonds between business and customer. People will come back to speak again with staff members they feel a connection to.

Customers are especially likely to revisit and review when they feel business responds to their needs and they have a voice, so if you listen to their feedback and shape your business around what they like you’ll soon find both product and staff get golden reviews.