How to Ask for a Google Review via Text to Turn Customers into Advocates

Learning how to ask for a Google review via text, email, or any other platform can feel uncomfortable. Take the wrong approach, and you risk annoying your customers, falling victim to compliance issues and harming your brand’s reputation.

However, soliciting reviews from your customers is incredibly valuable. Not only does it give you behind-the-scenes insights into what people like and dislike about your company – it gives you a valuable form of social proof you can use to convert future customers.

Google reviews, in particular, have a direct impact on purchasing behaviors. Studies show 64% of consumers read Google reviews before interacting with a business, and these reviews influence up to 90% of buying decisions. Not to mention, they can increase your SEO rankings too!

Here, we’ll show you how to ask for reviews the right way, through the channel that delivers the best results for countless companies: SMS.

Why Ask for Google Reviews for Your Business?

All customer feedback is valuable for your business. Reviews, comments, and insights gathered from text surveys help you understand your audience, their needs, goals, and pain points, so you can create better products, convert more leads, and increase retention rates.

Asking for Google reviews goes beyond simply giving your company valuable insights. It gives you an incredible marketing tool.

Google reviews appear directly on the search engine result pages when customers search for the products and solutions they need. This means you can immediately boost your chances of earning your customer’s trust from the moment they start interacting with you.

Google reviews help to improve your online reputation, and boost your visibility too. In fact, your reviews can have a direct impact on how well your business ranks for certain search terms. They’re particularly effective at boosting your visibility to local customers too.

The Benefits of Asking for Google Reviews via Text

So, why learn how to ask for a Google review via text? There are plenty of ways you can reach out to customers and ask them for feedback. Options range from email, to social media messages, and even direct customer calls. But SMS has some unique advantages.

With an automated messaging system that allows you to request reviews from customers via text, you can benefit from:

• Improved reach: There are more than 7.21 billion smartphones worldwide, so you shouldn’t have any trouble reaching your audience via text.
• Convenience: With the right SMS platform, you can send thousands of requests for reviews to customers at once. You don’t have to waste a lot of time and energy making calls or sending out emails manually.
• Better deliverability: SMS requests for reviews are less likely to be filtered by spam than email messages. This means you benefit from better deliverability.
• Enhanced engagement: Customers are more likely to view and respond to a text message than any other form of communication.
• Happier customers: Texting a customer asking them for a review is less intrusive than calling them or sending a lengthy email. You can even personalize the texts you send to make customers feel more valued and appreciated.
• Simplicity: With a link in your SMS message, you can give your customers a direct and convenient way to leave a review straight from their smartphone. This removes the friction involved in providing feedback.

How to Ask for a Google Review via Text: Best Practices

Asking for Google reviews might seem straightforward, but it’s easy to make mistakes. Send your message at the wrong time or use the wrong tone of voice, and you risk alienating your customers. Here’s how you can ensure you’re asking for reviews the right way.

1. Set Expectations in Advance

From the moment you start engaging with a customer, let them know how much you value their opinions and mention that you might ask for feedback afterwards. At this stage, you can even ask your customers how they prefer to be contacted, which makes it easier to choose between SMS vs email marketing for review requests.

Plus, if you’re upfront with customers about the fact that you want to contact them after they make a purchase, you’ll reduce your risk of texting compliance issues, because you can encourage buyers to “opt-in” to receiving messages from you in advance.

If your customers know you’re likely to ask for Google reviews straight away, they’ll likely be more responsive to your request. They may even pay closer attention to their experience, so they can provide you with more in-depth feedback.

2. Get the Timing Right

Timing is essential when you’re asking for any kind of review. Your customer can’t give you feedback until they’ve had a chance to really experience your product or service, and understand the impact it’s had on their lives.

Asking for reviews promptly after a customer makes a purchase is a good idea, as it ensures that their experience with your company will be fresh in their mind. However, don’t jump in too quickly, make sure they’ve had time to get the full experience.

If you’re running a service-based business like a restaurant, it might make sense to schedule text messages requesting reviews to reach your customer the same day. If you’re selling ecommerce products, or software, consider how long it will take for your product to reach your customer, or how long they’ll need to fully experience its benefits.

3. Personalize the Experience

When you ask for Google reviews from customers, avoid generic, automated messages. Personalizing the interaction will make customers feel valued and appreciated. Use custom fields in texting templates to add customer names to every message.

Where possible, include additional details. For instance, you could reference the product or service they purchased from you, or mention specific interactions they had with your sales or customer service team. You might even use dates to personalize the interaction, such as “Remember [item] you received on [Date], what did you think about it?”

Remember to thank every customer for their purchase too, let them know you value their purchase, whether they’ve bought something from you for the first time, or they’re a repeat customer.

4. Make Leaving a Review Simple and Appealing

When you’re asking for Google reviews, you’re asking for a customer’s valuable time. The more effort a customer will need to exert to actually leave feedback for your team, the less likely they are to do anything. With that in mind, make leaving a review easy.

Include a direct link to a Google reviews page in your custom SMS messages, and provide clear instructions within the text. Your instructions can even include tips on what your customers might want to mention in their reviews. For instance, you might say “We’d love to hear more about your experience with our support team.”

Another great way to boost your chances of actually getting more reviews, is to incentivize the feedback process. Offer customers a free upgrade or discount in exchange for their thoughts.

5. Follow Up Carefully and Show Appreciation

Even if you time your request for a review perfectly, there’s a chance your customers will miss your message, or get distracted and forget to leave feedback. Keep an eye on your customer response time within your messaging platform.

After a while, if you don’t get a response, follow up with a gentle reminder. Make sure your message is friendly and professional, and show your customers again how easy it is to leave a review with a direct link.

Be careful about how often you follow up and ask for feedback, however. Don’t spam your customers with endless requests via AI text messaging. If you don’t get a review after a few nudges, move on.

When customers do leave a review, remember to follow up again. If you receive a positive review, say thank you for your customer’s insights. If you get a negative review, thank the customer again, and consider directing the customer to your customer success team, so you can help fix the problem.

This will improve your company’s reputation with your customers, and make it more likely they’ll want to buy from you again – even if they did have a poor initial experience.

Asking for Reviews Templates to Inspire You

If you’re having a hard time figuring out how to actually write messages asking for Google reviews, don’t worry. Here are some excellent review request and customer service SMS templates you can customize to suit your brand:

Initial Review Request Templates

• Hi [Name]. Thank you for your recent purchase from [company]. If you have a moment, we’d love to hear more about your experience with our team! Click on this [link] to share your feedback, and help us improve!
• Hey [Name]! We hope [product or service] met all of your expectations. Want to let us know what you loved, or what you think we could do better? We’re keen to hear from you. [Link]
• [Name], thanks so much for your continued loyalty to [Company]. We’d love to know if there’s anything we can improve. Share your insights with us here: [Link].
• Did [Company] deliver the five-star experience you were hoping for? Let us know [Name] – we can’t wait to hear from you. [Link]
• [Name], we need your insights! How would you rate your experience with [company]? Your satisfaction means the world to us- so let us know how you feel with a review. [Link]

Follow-Up Request Templates

• Hey [Name], we know you’re busy – but if you could leave us a quick review, that would mean the world to us here at [company]. It only takes a few minutes. [Link]
• [Name], we just wanted to ask again whether you’d be willing to share your thoughts with us. If you could leave us a quick review, that’d be amazing. [Link]
• Hi [Name], we just wanted to remind you that you could get 10% off your next order if you leave us a review. Click the link to submit your thoughts and earn your reward! [Link]
• Hey [Name], our company relies on people like you! If you have a moment to leave us a review, we’d really appreciate it. [Link]
• Hi [Name], we’ve noticed you still haven’t left us a review! If you have a chance, click the link in this message and share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you. [Link].

Follow-Up Templates for After You Receive a Review

• Wow [Name]! Thank you so much for your review. We’re so happy that you loved [product / service]. We can’t wait to hear from you again.
• Thank you so much for your feedback [name]. You’re helping to make [company name] products/services better for everyone!
• Hey [Name], thanks again for leaving us a review. To show our appreciation, we wanted to share this discount code you can use on your next order! [Code]
• Hi [Name], we’re sorry to hear you didn’t have the best experience with [company]. Contact our customer service team here [link], and we’ll make it right!

Quick Tips to Follow when You Ask for a Google Review

If you’re using the templates above, and you’re still not getting the best results from your requests for reviews, here are some quick tips to keep in mind.

• Pick the right audience: Think carefully about the people you want to ask for reviews. Target the customers who you know have had a positive experience with your company in the past to boost your chances of a great review.
• Use the right tech: Use a platform like Clerk Chat to simplify the process of asking for a Google review. Our workflow SMS automation solutions make it easy to send thousands of requests to customers at once.
• Pay attention to the reviews you get: Read every review before you respond to it. If you notice a review is negative, use 2-way messages to ask your customers more questions about their issues, and get to the bottom of the problem.
• Remember compliance: Familiarize yourself with guidelines set by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and other mandates. Don’t request reviews using SMS from customers who haven’t opted-in to receiving texts from you.
• Use the right number: Using a personal phone for business texts, like requests for reviews, isn’t a good idea. Make sure you’re using the same consistent business number for all SMS-based interactions with customers.
• Keep the message short and simple: Avoid sending complex, lengthy texts. This can harm your SMS deliverability rates and reduce your chances of earning reviews.

How to Ask for Google Reviews via Text with Clerk Chat

Using the right platform to send texts to customers asking for a Google review is the best way to streamline and improve the process. Clerk Chat is more than just a tool for enhancing lead generation via SMS or building comprehensive text marketing campaigns.

With Clerk Chat, you can also easily ask for feedback from your audience. You can use B2C and B2B SMS marketing and customer service text templates to create messages to send to everyone in your contact list, and schedule them to reach your customer at the perfect time.

With Clerk Chat, you’ll get a holistic insight into the engagement rates of your review requests, with in-depth analytics, so you can optimize your strategy over time.

Plus, you’ll be able to monitor SMS opt-out rates and other details to ensure you don’t fall victim to compliance issues. You can even use Clerk Chat’s two-way texting features to follow up with customers after a negative review, and find ways to improve their experience.

Start unlocking the benefits of Google reviews for your business. Access your free demo of Clerk Chat today.