A good review request message is short, comes from a person the client knows, names the work that just finished, and ends with one link. Send it by text or email soon after the client's best moment, follow up once about a week later with different wording, then stop. Send it to every eligible client, with no reward attached. This guide gives you working wording for SMS and email, the timing and follow-up rules practitioners settle on, the consent points for each channel, and how to build the sequence on the levelpartner.ai platform.
The view this guide takes
Most review requests fail on effort, not on goodwill. Clients who were happy fully intend to leave a review and then forget, and staff who mean to ask get busy. People who run review programmes describe the fix in the same words: make the ask "fast and easy", and say it at the point where the client is still engaged.
So the message has one job: get a busy person from reading to typing in under a minute. Every extra sentence, every second link and every request to "rate us on several sites" makes that less likely.
What every request needs
- A sender the client recognises. The adviser, the project lead or the negotiator, not "Notifications".
- The finished thing, named. "Your completion", "the new site going live", "the final workshop".
- One question. "Would you mind leaving a short review?" works better than a paragraph about why reviews matter.
- One link, straight to the review form, at the end of the message.
- An easy way out. For SMS, the opt-out wording your number requires. For email, a working unsubscribe or a reply route.
Leave out anything that steers the content. No "if you were happy", no "five stars would mean a lot", and no mention of a discount, a prize draw or a thank-you gift for reviewing. Google's policy forbids incentives and selectively asking for positive reviews, and the US and UK rules on fake and incentivised reviews make the same behaviour risky in law. Our guide to review gating and the review rules explains where the lines are.
Wording you can adapt
First text message
"Hi Sam, it's Jo from [firm]. Thanks again for trusting us with the move. If you have a minute, would you leave a short review of how it went? [link]"
That is under 40 words, so it fits comfortably in a text. Put the link last so it is the obvious next action, and send from the number the client already has in their phone if you can.
Follow-up text
"Hi Sam, Jo again. No pressure at all, but if you get a moment this week, a few words about the move would really help others choosing a firm. [link]"
Change the wording rather than resending the first message. A repeat looks automated. A follow-up that mentions something specific reads like a person remembering.
Email version
Subject line: "A quick favour, Sam" or "How did we do on your project?"
Body: two short paragraphs. The first thanks them for something specific. The second asks for a review and gives the link as a clear button or a plain link on its own line. Sign with a real name and role. Email gives you room for one extra sentence of context, which suits longer engagements such as a consulting project or a mortgage case, where a client may want reminding which part of the work you mean.
Timing and follow-up
Ask close to the moment the client feels the result. For service work that is usually the same day or within a few days of a defined finish: sign-off, completion, keys handed over, final report delivered. Waiting weeks lets the feeling fade and the client's inbox fill up.
Then one follow-up, roughly a week later, to anyone who has not left a review. Practitioners are blunt about the limit: two messages in total. A third starts to cost goodwill you earned during the work.
Two more timing rules matter:
- Do not send the request in the same minute as the final invoice or handover email. A short wait separates "thank you" from "please pay".
- Do not batch-send to a backlog of old clients in one afternoon. Reviews arriving in a sudden burst can look unnatural to review sites. Ask clients as they finish, steadily, week after week.
Consent and channel rules
Treat consent as part of the message, not an afterthought.
In the US, business texting runs through registered numbers, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act requires the right kind of consent for automated texts. Check that each contact has agreed to receive texts from you before a review request goes by SMS. Our guide to sending an automated text message covers consent, quiet hours and opt-outs for SMS on the platform.
In the UK, the ICO's guidance draws a line between service messages and marketing. A plain request for feedback about work you have just done sits closer to a service message. Add a promotion or a sales pitch to it and it becomes marketing, with the consent rules that come with that. Keep review requests free of offers.
Everywhere, honour opt-outs instantly, and do not send a review request to anyone who has asked you to stop contacting them.
How to set it up on the platform
- Open Reputation and copy your review link for each connected location.
- In the reputation settings, write your SMS and email request messages using the wording above.
- Send a test request to your own contact record by SMS and by email.
- Open the link from the test message on a phone and check it reaches the review form.
- In Automation, create a workflow triggered by your satisfied-finish stage or tag.
- Add a wait so the request does not arrive alongside the final invoice.
- Add the Send Review Request action and choose SMS or email.
- Add a condition that skips contacts with an open complaint or no consent for the channel.
- Add a wait of about a week, then a second request with the follow-up wording.
- Publish the workflow and check the first week of sends in the contact history.
Build the workflow once per service line if the finish point differs. For the full setup of the Google Business Profile connection, see our guide on getting GMB reviews with an automated request.
Imagine each of those 20 clients gets the first text on the day of sign-off and a follow-up a week later. If, say, three reply to the first message and two more to the follow-up, that would be five reviews a month from one workflow, with nobody needing to remember to ask. These numbers are made up to show the arithmetic; your own response will depend on your clients, your wording and your timing.
Writing the request like a marketing email. A logo banner, three links to different review sites, a newsletter sign-up and a line about your latest offer turn a personal favour into a campaign. One sentence of thanks, one ask, one link.
When not to send a request
Skip clients with an open complaint, a disputed invoice or a case that ended badly. Fix the relationship first; a request at that moment invites a public account of the dispute. Skip anyone without consent for the channel. And in regulated work, such as mortgage advice, check your own compliance rules on soliciting testimonials before you start, and word the request so clients are not prompted to share financial details in public.
Troubleshooting
Clients say the link does not work
The link often points to the profile rather than the review form, or the message was sent before the location was connected. Copy the link again from Reputation and send yourself a fresh test.
Texts arrive but nobody replies
Check the sender. Messages from an unknown number or a generic brand name get ignored. Send from a name and number the client knows, and shorten the message.
Some clients get the request twice
Two triggers, or two workflows, fire for the same finish. Keep one trigger per service line and check the SMS marketing best practices on frequency before adding more sends.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time of day to send a review request message?
During normal working hours on a weekday, when the client can act on it. Avoid late evenings for texts, and respect any quiet hours that apply to your number.
Should the request mention a star rating?
No. Ask for a review, not a rating. Wording that asks for five stars steers the content and conflicts with Google's policy against soliciting only positive reviews.
Can we ask for reviews on several sites in one message?
Pick one. A single link gets more reviews than a choice of three. If you need reviews on another site, rotate it in for a later group of clients.
How many follow-ups are acceptable?
One. Two messages in total is the standard practitioners settle on, and anything beyond that starts to feel like pressure.