How to collect Google reviews for your business

You’ve probably seen Google reviews for businesses you search for online. Reviews like these are a crucial part of getting your business in front of new customers and helping them feel like yours is one they can trust.

As recently as 2024, 87% of customers reported using online reviews to make a purchase decision – and 73% of them only read reviews that a month old or less. So not only is it important to collect reviews, it’s important to keep collecting reviews.

Additionally, there are several benefits to collecting reviews that might not be immediately apparent:

Easy comparison

When you’re scrolling through a list of possible service providers, a large difference in the star ratings helps customers easily figure out which is the more trusted business. After all, you’re more likely to choose a business that has 4.8 stars than one with 3.2.

Improved visibility in search rankings

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an entire field of study dedicated to ensuring your website appears at the top of search results. There’s a great deal you can do to help your website climb the ranks, but positive Google reviews are an easy win: it shows Google and other search engines that your business is active and trusted by your customers.

Having a bank of quality, recent reviews also helps your business stand out in Google Maps – which is one of the most common ways that people search for and compare local businesses.

Tips for collecting Google reviews

Okay, so we know Google reviews are important. How do you actually go about collecting them as part of your business as usual? This is where you’ll have to take off your soft-tissue therapist hat and put on your salesperson hat (which is probably one of those ugly little trilbies).

The short answer is: you have to ask for them. You have to be explicit, and you have to make it easy for your clients.

If you’re not used to it, you’ll probably feel a bit silly to begin with. Most of us are more comfortable discussing range of movement and overuse syndromes, so this is really where you need to tear off the Band-Aid and just do it.

The good news is that most people know that Google reviews exist and know they help businesses, so flat-out asking for a review won’t surprise or offend anybody.

There are also some specific tricks you can use to increase the likelihood of getting more reviews.

Claim your business page and set up your profile

If you haven’t done it, then you absolutely should set up your Google Business page. This is easier than creating a Facebook business page and is much more useful for being found online.

This will be where your reviews are collected, where your address is shown, and where you update your business hours. There are also a bunch of other tools you can experiment with, plus you can link the page to similar services offered by Bing and Yahoo.

Flag the request at the beginning of the treatment process

As part of your client intake process, you’re probably going to be explaining the treatment process, how long it takes, and your fee schedule. This is the perfect opportunity to let clients know that you’ll ask them for a review at the end of the process.

Not only will this help set the expectation early, it also encourages your clients to be more mindful of their experiences during their treatments.

Ask at the end of the transaction

The treatments are completed, your client is happy and you’re both at the front counter to settle their account. Once the payment has gone through, now’s the time to explicitly ask them to give you a review.

It sounds a bit mercenary, but it’s much harder to say ‘no’ to an actual person who’s standing in front of you – this is the same reason chuggers still exist inside shopping centres and why places like Officeworks ask if you want to round up your transaction to the nearest dollar as a donation to their charity.

Simply let them know that reviews really help other clients to find your business and that you’d appreciate their honest feedback. For bonus points, keep a QR code link to your Google Business page on a little sign near your front desk. This makes it that much easier for people to find your business and leave a review – whatever you can do to make it easier for the client will work in your favour.

If you’ve never done it before, you can use a service like QR Code Monkey to create a QR code for free. Remember, the shorter the link, the simpler the QR code and the easier it will be to scan. If needed, you can turn long links into short ones using a service like Tiny URL.

Ask in your email follow-ups

If you send out digital receipts or automated follow-up emails, these are the perfect places to ask for reviews. Simply include the link to your Google Business page (which should be the same link you have on the QR code at your front desk) at the top of the receipt or in the body of your email.

Including the link at the top of your receipts is important. People tend to pay the most attention to two things on documents like receipts: the total transaction amount and then the top of the page, with less and less attention paid as their eye scans downwards. Keep the important part at the top (along with business information like your business name and ABN) to increase the chances of it being read and actioned. Think of it like the digital equivalent of the first step in these recommendations: flag your request at the beginning of the process.

Remember to keep it short and snappy: “Are you happy with your treatment? We’d love it if you left us a review!”

A few extra thoughts

Should you ask clients for multiple reviews?

Client will routinely come in multiple times. This could be part of a regular checkup, for unexpected flare-ups, or when new dysfunctions present themselves. Should you ask them to review you multiple times?

Sure! More accurately, you can ask them to update earlier reviews they’ve left. Remember that it’s not just reviews, but recent reviews that help the most, so asking clients to update old reviews is worth it. Just use your discretion around the timing: you don’t want to be asking them to update reviews every other week.

Should you offer rewards for reviews?

Absolutely not. Making reviews contingent on a reward, even if it’s a random draw, weakens the authenticity of all your reviews. You’re better to get honest reviews even if they’re a bit more of a mixed bag.

There are other ways to show appreciation to your clients, such as referral programs or opt-in competitions. Just don’t dilute the integrity of your business reviews.

Should you ask clients to discuss their health or treatments in reviews?

Allied health is tricky. People’s health is an inherently personal experience, so it’s absolutely understandable if they don’t want to discuss their problems in a public forum. However, reviews that are too generic can come across as being less trustworthy and aren’t as convincing; someone with a nerve entrapment syndrome is going to give more credence to a review that discusses nerve pain than one that’s just “I feel better now”.

This comes down to what your clients are comfortable sharing. Some may be okay with sharing the details of their dysfunctions and how you helped. Sports performance therapy is especially good in this arena: it’s often less about fixing a problem and more helping them reach the next level.

Other clients may only want to leave no text and just a star review. That’s fine too! Ultimately something is better than nothing.

If clients need a prompt, you can always ask them to review other aspects of your business: how easy was it to physically find the business? How was your demeanour as a treatment professional? Were your prices clear and reasonable? What was the experience like inside your clinic? There are lots of other things clients can discuss without having to share the intimate details of their bodily functions.

Can you delete bad reviews?

Yes and no. Honest but bad reviews can actually be an opportunity for you to improve your business and look good. The vast majority of customers who have a bad experience don’t share it publicly, they go home and grumble about it to their friends and family.

If they leave a poor review, you can engage with it publicly and try to help fix the problem – and be seen to be trying to fix the problem. Like with SEO, managing poor customer experiences is a field unto itself, but in short you want to reply quickly, acknowledge the poor experience, and offer a channel (like a phone number or email address) where the customer can have their grievance addressed. This shows that you’re listening, but also allows you to move the discussion into a more private setting where you can control the conversation more easily.

For reviews that are left in bad faith, or are simply untrue (like if you have an unscrupulous competitor who leaves bad reviews on your page), you can ask Google to remove them.