What Google allows
Google's help page says you can remind customers to leave reviews by sharing a Google link or a QR code that customers visit or scan. Customers need to be signed in to a Google Account to post, and they can make one with an email address that is not Gmail.
The content policy goes further: a business may ask for content that represents a genuine experience, as long as it offers no incentive and does not try to influence the rating or what the review says.
What Google bans
- Incentives. Free or discounted goods or services in exchange for a review are prohibited, including incentives to change a review or to remove a negative one.
- Selective asking. You may not selectively solicit positive reviews or discourage negative ones. Asking only the customers you think are happy is review gating.
- Pressure. You may not require or pressure customers to review while they are in your shop.
- Targets. You may not ask staff to meet a review quota or to mention a particular staff member in a review.
Google also notes that a mix of positive and negative reviews often looks more trustworthy to people deciding where to go. A profile with only perfect reviews is not what Google is asking you to build.
How to ask, step by step (our advice)
- Get your review link and QR code from your Business Profile and print the QR code on the bill, the table card or the counter.
- Ask everyone, the same way, at the same moment, for example when you hand over the bill. Do not choose who to ask.
- Use neutral words: "If you have a minute, we would value your honest review on Google." Do not suggest what to write.
- Do not say "five stars" or offer anything for it, and do not ask people to review before they have left.
- Reply to every review you get, good or bad. Our guide on replying to a negative review has ready replies in Hindi and English.
If someone else is asking for reviews for you
An agency or a software tool that promises a fixed number of five-star reviews, or that only sends the review link to customers who rated you highly in a private form, breaks the policy above. Ask exactly how the customers are chosen. If the answer is "only the happy ones", walk away. Fake or incentivised reviews can be removed, and Google can take action against the profile.
Print your review QR code and ask every customer the same way this week.
How this post was made: an AI drafted it from the official pages listed under Sources, every figure was checked against those pages, and the Reveaxa team approved it before it was published. Our own advice is marked as such. If a source changes, we update the post and its date.
Reveaxa guide reference: RVX-B-ask-for-google-reviews-the-allowed-way