Ask every happy customer, at the moment they are most pleased, and make it one tap to leave the review. That is the whole method. The rules exist to stop you paying for reviews, filtering who gets asked, or writing them yourself, and none of those things are needed if you simply ask well and ask often.

Why reviews matter

When someone searches for a service near them, Google shows a map with a handful of businesses and their star ratings. Most people pick from that short list, and the number and freshness of reviews is one of the things Google uses to decide who appears there.

How to ask

The best time to ask is right after the job, when the customer has just said thank you.

Sign in to your Google Business Profile and find the option to get more reviews. It gives you a short link that opens your review form directly.
Put that link in your follow up email or text message, on your invoice, and on a small card or sticker as a QR code (a square barcode a phone camera reads) at the counter or in the van.
Ask in person with one plain sentence. Something like “If you were happy with today, a Google review would mean a lot to us” is enough.
Keep asking every customer, not just the ones who gush. A steady trickle of reviews every week looks natural. Twenty reviews in one weekend after a year of silence looks like a campaign and can trigger a filter that hides them.

What Google does not allow

Google removes reviews, and sometimes suspends profiles, for these things.

Paying for reviews, or offering a discount, gift or prize entry in return for one.
Review gating, which means sending customers through a form that asks how they feel first and only passing the happy ones on to Google.
Reviews written by you, your staff, your family or your mates.
Buying reviews from anyone, including people who promise they are real.
Asking customers to remove or change a negative review in exchange for something.

The Australian Consumer Law treats fake or misleading reviews as misleading conduct, and the regulator has taken businesses to court over it. Posting a review you wrote yourself, or hiding bad ones through a filter, is not a grey area.

Reply to every review

Thank each positive reviewer by name and mention something specific about the job. For a bad review, reply once, calmly, and in public. Acknowledge the problem, say what you did or will do about it, and offer to continue the conversation privately. Future customers read these replies more closely than the reviews themselves, and a measured response to criticism builds more trust than a page of five stars. Never argue, and never reveal anything private about the customer.

What to do next

Set up your short review link today and put it everywhere a customer sees you. If your profile itself is thin, with missing hours, few photos or the wrong category, fix that first, because it affects how often the review request even gets seen. That work sits under local SEO for Perth businesses, and your website should link to the profile so the two support each other, which we cover in websites and SEO.

Can I ask customers to leave a review?
Yes. Asking is allowed and expected. What is not allowed is rewarding them for it or choosing who gets asked based on how happy they are.

Should I reply to a review I think is fake?
Yes, briefly and politely, stating that you have no record of the customer. Then flag it to Google through your profile. Do not accuse the reviewer in public.

Will a bad review hurt my ranking?
Not much on its own. A business with a mix of ratings and thoughtful replies tends to do better than one with a perfect score and silence.

If this is happening in your business and you would like it sorted, call DM1 on (08) 6202 6012 or send us a message. We look after IT, Microsoft 365, websites and domain names for Perth small businesses.