Getting more Google reviews: 7 methods that actually work
Reviews help decide whether someone walks into your place or the one next door. They weigh on your local visibility and they are often the first thing a customer sees of you. Below is what works in practice, in order of how much effort it takes.
The best chance is right after a good experience, while the customer is still with you. Not three days later by mail. Someone who leaves happy and is asked at that moment leaves a review far more often than someone who gets a reminder later.
Every extra step costs you reviews. “Look us up on Google” means: open the app, type, find the right business, scroll down to reviews, and only then write. That is five steps where people drop out. A direct link to your review form is one step.
Your review link looks like this:
https://search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid=…
You find it through your Google Business Profile under “Ask for reviews”.
A card with an NFC chip preprogrammed with your review link. The customer holds their phone against it and lands straight on your review page. No app, no typing, no searching. Works on iPhone 7 and newer and on virtually all Android phones from the last five years, so in practice just about every customer.
In hospitality this is the biggest difference. One card at the till is seen by whoever pays. A card on every table is seen by everyone, at the moment they are still sitting down and have time. For a place with twenty tables that is twenty times more chance per service. A round tag stuck to the tabletop stays put; a card sometimes walks.
A card lying there works. A staff member saying “if you were happy, tap here” works better. Agree who asks and when, so it does not depend on the mood of the day.
Including the short ones and the critical ones. It shows someone is reading, and a calm reply to a complaint often convinces more than ten five-star ratings. People who are unsure read the weaker reviews first.
Fresh reviews weigh heavier than old ones. Twenty reviews from this year say more than eighty from three years ago. A card that stays put delivers a steady stream instead of one spike after a campaign.
What not to do: filter reviews
Review gating breaches Google's policy.
Some suppliers sell an intermediate step: the customer first gives a score, and only those who give four or five stars are forwarded to Google. Those who give less end up in a private form. That is called review gating and it runs against Google's policy.
The risk is yours: reviews can be removed and your listing can suffer. Our cards link straight to your public review page. No step in between, no filter. Buying reviews is not an option either, by the way. It gets recognised and penalised.
What it delivers
More and fresher reviews help your local visibility and lower the hesitation of people who do not know you yet. For a business living off passing trade and its neighbourhood, that is often the difference between being found and not.
Realistically: do not expect a doubling in a week. Do expect a card that stays put to bring in a handful of reviews every month that would not otherwise exist.
Getting started
Free shipping from €45. Delivery in 5 to 7 working days.
Briefly, to finish
Questions that come up often about Google reviews.
There is no fixed number. What counts is having enough to be credible and having new ones arrive regularly. Twenty recent reviews weigh heavier than eighty from three years ago.
No. A discount, a free drink or a competition in exchange for a review breaches Google's policy. You may simply ask, and you may make it easy. That is exactly what a review card does.
Through your Google Business Profile, under “Ask for reviews”. The link looks like search.google.com/local/writereview?placeid= followed by your place ID. Order a card from Easync and we look that link up for you and programme it in.