How to automate review requests, step by step

To automate review requests you need three things: a trigger, a link, and a message. The trigger is the moment a job finishes or an appointment ends. The link goes straight to your Google review box so it is one tap. The message is two short sentences in your own words. Set it up once in your booking or CRM tool, test it on yourself, then leave it running.

Before you start

This page is the setup. If you want the reasoning, the rules, and what not to do, read review request automation first. The short version is that reviews decide who gets called, asking is awkward, and automating the asking is the cheapest marketing most local businesses are not doing.

Step one: get your direct review link

Open your Google Business Profile, find the option to ask for reviews, and copy the short link it gives you. That link opens the review box straight away with the stars ready. This matters more than anything else on this page. If someone has to search for your business first, most people give up, and your reply rate roughly halves.

Save that link somewhere you can find it. You will paste it into every message and probably onto a card in your van or at your reception desk too.

Step two: pick the trigger

The trigger is the event that starts the message. Pick the one that already happens reliably in your business, because a trigger nobody remembers to press is not automation.

• Appointment marked as attended or completed, which suits salons, clinics, and anyone with a diary
• Job moved to complete in your pipeline, which suits trades and installers
• Invoice marked as paid, which is a good trigger because it always gets done
• A set number of days after the appointment date, which is the simplest fallback if nothing else is reliable

Step three: choose the delay

Timing decides whether this works. Send it while the good feeling is still fresh, but not while the customer is still in the car park. For an appointment or treatment, the same evening or the next morning is ideal. For a finished job, the day after works better, once they have had a proper look at it. For anything that takes weeks, send it at handover rather than at the final invoice.

Step four: write the message

• Use their first name and mention what you did, so it does not read as a mass message
• Include exactly one link, so there is nothing to choose between
• Say it helps a small business, because that is true and it works
• Do not attach a discount, a prize, or an entry into a draw. Offering anything in exchange breaks Google's rules and can get reviews removed
• Do not ask people how happy they are first and only send the link to the happy ones. Filtering like that is against the guidelines

Step five: add one nudge, and only one

Set a second message three or four days later for anyone who has not left a review, and make it shorter than the first: "No worries if you have not had a chance, the link is here if you get a minute." Then stop. Two asks is polite. Four is nagging, and nagging costs you the goodwill you just earned.

Step six: test it on yourself

• Add yourself as a customer and run the trigger, so you receive the real message on your own phone
• Tap the link and check it opens the review box for the right business, not a search page
• Check your name merges correctly, because "Hi FIRSTNAME" is the classic embarrassment
• Check the timing arrives when you expected, in your own time zone
• Send one to a friendly regular customer before you switch it on for everyone

Step seven: decide who handles the replies

Automation sends the ask. A human still deals with what comes back. Agree who replies to reviews and how quickly, because a thoughtful public reply to a critical review does more for future customers than the review itself does harm. Reply calmly, thank them, and offer to sort it out offline.

What you need to run it

Any tool that can send a text or email when something happens will do this. What you want is the trigger and the message living next to your customer list, so nobody has to remember. Booking systems often cover the appointment version. If you also want the enquiry replies, reminders, and quote chasing in the same place, that is the wider follow-up system, and it is what we use GoHighLevel for. The same pattern works for trades, clinics, and salons.