Nearly everybody would leave one. Almost nobody is asked.
This is the part every business knows it should do and almost none of them has a method for.
Make it one tap before you ask anybody
Your profile has a short link made for exactly this. Find it, save it, and put it wherever you already talk to customers: the message signature, the invoice, a small card by the till.
Asking somebody to search for you, find the right listing and scroll to the button loses most people. The link removes four steps.
Timing beats wording
The window is short and it is obvious when you are in it: the job is finished, the thing works, and the person is visibly relieved or delighted. That is when to ask.
A message a fortnight later reaches somebody who has moved on and is now being interrupted by a favour.
What to actually say
Short, specific and honest about why you want it. Something close to: we are a small shop and reviews are how people here find us, would you mind leaving one, it takes a minute.
Naming what you did helps them write it. People freeze at a blank box and unfreeze when reminded what happened.
What you are not allowed to do
You cannot pay for them, discount for them, or run a prize draw for them. You also cannot ask only the customers you expect to be happy, which is called gating and is against the rules.
These are not technicalities. Reviews bought or filtered get removed in batches, and losing twenty at once looks far worse than never having them.
A bad one is not a disaster
A profile of nothing but five stars reads as arranged. One honest complaint sitting among good ones makes the good ones believable.
Answer it briefly, without arguing, and say what changed. Everybody reading it afterwards is deciding whether you are the kind of business that handles a problem well.
Questions worth asking
How many do I need?
Enough to look like a going concern, which is fewer than people fear. Getting from none to a handful changes more than any later stretch, and recency counts, so a slow steady habit beats a burst.
Can I ask friends and family?
Only if they were genuinely customers. A review from somebody who never bought anything is a fake one, and reviewers with no other activity from the same town are exactly the pattern that gets noticed.
Somebody left a review that is not true. What now?
You can report it, and sometimes it goes. Assume it will not, and answer it publicly and calmly with the facts. A measured reply under an unfair review persuades more people than its removal would.
Should I reply to the good ones too?
Briefly, yes. It shows somebody is present, and it costs a sentence. Avoid pasting the same thank you under every one; it reads as automated and undoes the point.
Do reviews help anything besides the map?
They help the decision, which is the part that pays. Somebody comparing two shops is usually reading reviews rather than websites, and they also feed what assistants say about you when somebody asks.
If you cannot find your review link, send us the business name and we will find it and send it back. Get a free audit.
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