Review Solicitation
Review solicitation is the practice of actively requesting customers to leave reviews about their experience. Methods include post-purchase emails, SMS messages, in-store signage, QR codes, receipt messages, and verbal requests. Effective solicitation is ethical, non-selective, and compliant with platform guidelines.
Key Statistics
70% of consumers will leave a review when asked (BrightLocal).
Businesses that send review requests generate 4-5x more reviews than those that do not (Podium).
Email review requests have a 15-20% open rate, with 5-10% of recipients completing the review (ReviewTrackers).
Why It Matters
Most satisfied customers do not leave reviews unless asked. Without active solicitation, your review profile skews toward extremes — very happy or very unhappy customers — missing the moderate majority. A structured solicitation strategy ensures your reviews accurately represent your customer base and maintains a steady review velocity.
Real-World Examples
A veterinary clinic added a QR code to their checkout receipt with "Tell us about your visit." Monthly Google reviews increased from 1-2 to 8-10, and the clinic moved from page 2 to the top 3 in local search for "veterinarian near me."
An e-commerce brand A/B tested review solicitation timing. Emails sent 3 days after delivery had a 12% review completion rate, while those sent immediately after shipping had only 3%. The delay allowed customers to actually use the product before reviewing.
Best Practices
Ask every customer for a review, not just those who appear satisfied — non-selective solicitation keeps you compliant.
Make the review process as easy as possible — direct links to the review form, not to a page where they need to find it.
Send one request and at most one follow-up reminder — more than that becomes annoying and hurts your brand.
Personalize solicitation messages with the customer's name and specific service or product they purchased.
Test different channels and timing to find what works best for your specific customer base.
Common Mistakes
Asking for a specific star rating ("Please leave us a 5-star review!") which violates platform policies and feels manipulative.
Sending review requests from generic no-reply email addresses that end up in spam folders.
Over-soliciting by sending multiple review requests for a single interaction, which annoys customers.
Not providing a direct link to the review platform, adding friction that reduces completion rates.
How Reputic Helps
Reputic's feedback funnels provide a branded solicitation channel with customizable links and landing pages. Because Reputic routes all customers equally regardless of satisfaction level, your solicitation stays compliant with Google and other platform policies. Track solicitation effectiveness alongside review metrics at $24.99/mo.
No credit card required.
Related Terms
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. All major platforms including Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor allow businesses to ask customers for reviews. What is prohibited is selectively asking only satisfied customers (review gating), offering incentives for positive reviews, or specifying what rating to give.
The most effective methods are post-interaction emails (20-30% higher conversion than SMS), in-person requests at the point of service (highest conversion but lowest scale), and QR codes placed at relevant touchpoints. Multi-channel approaches combining 2-3 methods produce the best results.
Request reviews within 24 hours for service businesses, immediately post-transaction for retail, and 5-7 days after delivery for e-commerce. The key is to ask while the experience is still fresh. Waiting more than a week significantly reduces response rates.
No. Google, Yelp, Amazon, and most other platforms prohibit incentivized reviews, including discounts, free products, or contest entries in exchange for reviews. You can thank customers for leaving reviews after the fact, but the review itself must be voluntary and uncompensated.
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