How to get more Google reviews: the complete guide for local businesses

Why do Google reviews matter so much for a local business?

Google reviews drive two decisions at once: whether Google shows you in the local pack of three, and whether the customer then clicks you instead of the shop next door. Rating, count and freshness together form the clearest buying signal a passer-by ever sees.

Someone looking for a plumber, a hairdresser or a garage rarely opens a website any more. They type a search into Google or Maps, see three businesses with a star rating and choose from that list. The selection takes seconds, and the stars do the heavy lifting.

Google names three factors for local ranking: relevance, distance and prominence. Reviews belong to that third factor. They are also the only part you can influence directly without moving premises or changing what you sell.

• Rating: the average shown next to your name.
• Count: how many people stand behind that average.
• Freshness: whether the latest review is from last week or from 2023.
• Replies: whether you respond, and how.

How many reviews do you need to compete?

Ignore absolute numbers and look at the five businesses ranked above you in your own town. Matching the review count of the third one in that list puts you in the running. In many Flemish municipalities that threshold sits lower than owners expect.

Search your own service plus your town in Google Maps, then write down the rating and review count of the first five results. That short list is your real target. In a village such as Schelle or Reet the leader may sit at thirty reviews. In central Antwerp the leaders have hundreds.

Then set a pace. Two reviews a week stays manageable for most businesses, and that adds up to more than a hundred a year. The full calculation is in the article on how many reviews you need.

When is the best moment to ask?

Ask while the experience is still fresh, usually within 24 hours of the service or delivery. Pick an hour when the customer has their phone in hand as well: early evening performs better in practice than the middle of a working day.

The moment decides more than the wording. Someone walking out with a fresh haircut is willing. The same person is thinking about something else three days later.

1. 1Finish the visit or the job properly, payment included.
2. 2Wait until the customer has left, so nobody feels watched.
3. 3Send your request the same day or the next morning.
4. 4If it stays quiet, send exactly one reminder after two days.
5. 5Then stop. A third message costs you goodwill.

Which channel should you use?

WhatsApp and SMS are nearly always opened, so they deliver the highest number of reviews per request sent. Email scales better across a large customer list. A QR code at the counter catches the customers you never reach digitally.

Combining is fine. Most businesses run well on WhatsApp or SMS as the fixed channel with a QR code at the till as a safety net. The article on WhatsApp versus SMS explains which of the two wins in which setting.

How do you write a request that works?

Stay under forty words, use the customer name, refer to what you actually did, say how long it takes and include one link. Every extra sentence, every extra choice and every extra link costs you responses.

Hi Kevin, glad the brakes are sorted. Would you help us out with a short Google review? It takes about twenty seconds: [link]. Thanks in advance, Tom from Garage Peeters.

• One link, and it opens the Google review window straight away.
• No attachment, no logo, no newsletter styling.
• Your own name at the bottom, because people answer people.
• Avoid "if you were happy", which reads as a condition.

Complete messages for salons, garages, contractors and hospitality are in the article on asking customers for reviews, each in Dutch, French and English.

What does the law allow?

You may ask every customer for an honest review. You may not buy reviews, reward them with a discount or a gift, or systematically screen unhappy customers out of the request. That last practice conflicts with Google policy and with European consumer rules.

Since the Omnibus Directive was transposed, a trader who displays reviews has to be able to explain how they verify that those reviews come from real customers. Inventing reviews or having them written is an unfair commercial practice with real fines attached.

What stays allowed: asking everyone the same question, and giving unhappy customers an easy route to you before they go to Google. The line between that and forbidden gating is explained in the article on collecting reviews within the rules.

How do you keep this going on a busy week?

Attach the request to something you already do, such as raising the invoice or closing the till. Anything tied to an existing habit keeps running. Anything that depends on remembering disappears within a fortnight.

1. 1Pick one fixed trigger: at payment, at invoicing or at closing time.
2. 2Give one person ownership of the follow-up, even if everyone asks.
3. 3Keep a customer list with a status, so nobody gets asked twice.
4. 4Check your rating, your count and your Maps position once a month.

ReviewsPro was built for exactly this: your customers in one list, one tap to ask over WhatsApp or SMS, a single automatic reminder, and a QR code for the counter. Unhappy customers reach you first.