Getting customer reviews is the number one thing small businesses can do to attract more customers. After 16 years in digital marketing and working with hundreds of businesses, I can tell you that most business owners completely underestimate how powerful reviews are. They’re not just nice to have—they’re the primary factor people use when choosing between businesses, and they’re one of the most important ranking signals for Google.
Here’s what you need to know: if an agency tells you they can get reviews for you, run. Getting fake reviews is one of the fastest ways to get your business listing suspended. The good news? You can do this yourself, and when you understand the real value of reviews, you’ll see why it’s worth the effort.
Why Customer Reviews Are Worth Their Weight in Gold
Each review is worth real money to your business. As a rule of thumb, take the profit you get from one customer and assume every review is worth about that much. If you get 100 reviews and your competitor gets zero, you’ll end up netting an additional 100 customers that your competitor won’t get.
Research shows that nearly 8 out of 10 consumers go straight to a company’s website after seeing positive reviews, and customers typically read around 10 reviews before trusting a business. One case study found that a single 5-star review for a self-storage business translated into five additional rentals—thousands of dollars in revenue from just one review.
Once you put that dollar amount on reviews, you can see why it’s worth putting effort and even some expense into getting more of them.
Ask Every Single Customer (Yes, Every Single One)
The most important action you can take is simple: ask every customer for a review.
Many businesses avoid this because they’re afraid customers will leave negative reviews. Here’s the truth—customers who want to leave you a negative review will do it whether you ask or not. The people who forget to leave reviews are the ones who would have given you positive ones.
When you start asking more customers, you just get more positive reviews. Research actually shows that having a mix of reviews builds trust—if a profile has only 5-star ratings, about 30% of consumers suspect the reviews might be fake. A few honest criticisms prove authenticity.
Follow Up With Simple Reminders
People forget. They genuinely want to leave you a positive review, but life gets in the way. That’s why you need a follow-up system.
Send a quick text or email within 24-48 hours while the positive experience is still fresh in their mind. Keep it simple: “Thank you for choosing us! If you have a moment, please review us on Google. Your feedback helps us improve.”
Texts often have higher open rates than emails, so consider using SMS for your reminders. If someone doesn’t respond to the first message, a gentle follow-up a few days later can help capture reviews that might otherwise slip away.
Make Reviewing as Easy as Possible
Don’t make customers hunt for your review form. Google provides tools that create a direct link and QR code straight to your review page.
In your Google Business Profile dashboard, click “Get more reviews” to copy a direct review link. This link bypasses Google Maps and opens the review form directly, making it much more likely customers will leave feedback.
Here’s how to use these tools:
- Share the direct link in thank-you emails, text messages, on your website, or print it on receipts
- Create QR codes from that link and print them on business cards, receipts, or signage—customers can scan and immediately start writing a review
- Time your requests within 1-2 days after the positive experience
Incentivize Your Team (The Smart Way)
Remember, each review is worth big money. My favorite strategy comes from Alex Hormozi and it’s brilliant in its simplicity.
Tell your staff they’ll get a bonus—$20, $50, whatever makes sense for your business—for every review they get with their name mentioned. Then, instead of having staff ask for reviews directly, you or a manager approach satisfied customers and say: “If you leave us a review on Google and mention [staff member’s name], they get a $20 bonus.”
Customers are much more likely to follow through because they feel like they’re helping the person who just helped them. This approach:
- Legally incentivizes employees rather than customers
- Creates genuine motivation for staff to provide excellent service
- Makes customers feel good about leaving reviews
- Avoids any policy violations with Google
What NOT to Do: Avoid These Costly Mistakes
Never pay for reviews or hire a “review agency.” Google’s rules strictly forbid fake engagement, and if they detect this, they can delete all your reviews or suspend your business listing entirely. In one case, a doctor had to remove all fake reviews and pay a $100,000 penalty.
Stick to genuine customers and genuine reviews. They build long-term trust, while fake reviews can destroy your listing’s credibility and even your business.
Additional Strategies That Work
Optimize Your Google Business Profile: Spend a few hours optimizing your complete business profile. Add photos, update your hours, fill out all sections, and keep your information current. A well-optimized profile ranks better and converts more visitors to customers.
Respond to All Reviews: When customers see that you respond to reviews—both positive and negative—it shows you care about customer experience. This encourages more people to leave reviews and builds trust with potential customers.
Train Your Team: Make sure everyone on your team understands the value of reviews and feels comfortable asking for them. The more natural this becomes part of your customer service process, the more reviews you’ll get.
The Bottom Line
Getting more customer reviews isn’t complicated, but it requires consistency. Ask every satisfied customer, follow up with reminders, make it easy with direct links and QR codes, and consider incentivizing your team.
Most importantly, understand that this is something you have to do yourself. Any agency that promises to get reviews for you is setting you up for problems with Google. But when you do it right, reviews become a powerful engine for business growth that your competitors can’t match.
If you need help with other aspects of digital marketing—like AI optimization, Google Ads, or website development—while you focus on building your review system, contact TJ Digital. We’ll handle the technical marketing while you build the authentic customer relationships that generate genuine reviews.