How to get more Google reviews
Most advice on this skips the part that matters and quietly recommends things that get your reviews deleted. Here is what works for an Indian business, what is allowed, and where people actually lose the review they had already earned.
Ask everybody, not the ones you think will be kind
Choosing who to ask based on how you expect them to rate you is review gating, and Google treats it as fake engagement. Ask every customer the same way. Your rating will be a little lower and entirely real, and the volume more than makes up for it.
Ask while they are still there
The best moment is when the experience is fresh and the customer is still in the room. A card on the table beats an email the next morning, because the next morning they are somewhere else thinking about something else.
Remove the blank page
Most people who intend to review you never finish. They tap through, meet an empty box, and cannot think what to say. Giving them a rating, a few taps for what stood out and a sentence in their own language turns intention into a posted review.
Let them write in their own language
A customer who speaks Bengali at home will not write a paragraph of English about your biryani. Reviews in Indian languages are also more convincing to the next Indian customer reading them.
Reply to every review, especially the bad ones
Replies are visible to everyone who reads the review afterwards. A calm reply to a two-star review does more for the next customer's decision than three five-star reviews with no response.
Make it somebody's job
Review collection dies when it depends on whoever remembers. Either it is on the table where nobody has to remember, or it is automated after a visit.
Allowed, and not allowed
This is the part worth being careful about. Reviews collected the wrong way do not just get removed — a pattern of them can restrict the whole Business Profile.
Allowed
- • Ask every customer, in person, on a card, or by message
- • Put a review QR code on the table, the counter or the bill
- • Send one WhatsApp request after a visit, with consent
- • Reply to every review, including the unhappy ones
- • Remind a customer once if they said they would and did not
Prohibited
- • Offering a discount, free item or entry to a draw for a review
- • Asking only the customers you expect to be happy (review gating)
- • Writing reviews yourself, or asking staff and family to
- • Buying reviews, or paying an agency that supplies them
- • Asking a customer to change or delete a review they left
Where the reviews are actually lost
It is worth saying plainly, because it changes what you should spend effort on. The customer who was happy, was asked, and tapped the link is the one you lose — at the empty text box, thirty seconds later. Every extra reminder you send is competing with that moment instead of fixing it.
Fix the moment: a star rating, a few taps for what stood out, one sentence in whatever language they think in, and the review is written for them to edit and post.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get more Google reviews for my business?
Ask every customer, ask while the visit is fresh, and make the writing part easy. Most businesses lose reviews at the last step rather than the first: the customer is willing, taps through, meets an empty box and gives up.
Can I offer a discount for a Google review?
No. Google prohibits offering money, discounts, free products or any other benefit in exchange for a review, and it applies whether you print it on a card or a staff member says it at the table. Reviews collected that way can be removed and the profile can be restricted.
Is it against the rules to only ask happy customers?
Yes. Selectively asking customers you expect to leave a good review — often called review gating — is prohibited. Ask everyone the same way, and use the negative reviews as the thing you reply to fastest.
How many Google reviews does a small business need?
There is no threshold that switches something on. What people actually notice is recency and how you respond: a business with forty reviews from this year and a reply on each reads better than one with two hundred from three years ago and silence.
How long does it take to see results?
Reviews accumulate at the rate you ask. A restaurant putting a card on every table typically sees the first ones within days; the change in how the listing looks takes a few weeks of steady asking rather than one campaign.
Ask everyone. Make it easy. Reply to all of it.
Sunaam does the asking, helps the customer write, drafts your reply in their language, and never publishes anything without your tap.
Next: the complete guide to Google reviews and which review tool to use.