A roofing company I work with went from 41 Google reviews to 260 in eleven months without anyone on the team doing anything they were not already doing. The change was a workflow: every completed job triggers a text with a one-tap review link the next morning, one reminder three days later, and a stop the moment a review arrives. That is the whole method. Everything else on this page is the detail of making it work and keeping it inside Google’s rules. If you can automate Google reviews for a business, you change how it looks to every customer who searches for it.
It is one of the twelve core workflows, it belongs in every agency snapshot, and it needs a phone number that is registered for texting (see the A2P guide if you text US customers).
Why automation beats asking
Staff forget, feel awkward, or ask the wrong customers at the wrong moment. A workflow asks everyone, at the moment the job is done, in the same friendly words, and never takes it personally. The reply rate on a text with a direct link is typically 10–25% of customers; on “please leave us a review sometime” at the till it is close to zero. Over a year, that gap is the difference between a profile that wins the Maps pack and one that does not.
Step 1: Connect the profile and get the link
- In the sub-account, Reputation → Settings: connect the Google Business Profile (and Facebook if you want those reviews too). This lets GoHighLevel pull reviews in, show them in one inbox, and reply from there.
- Get the direct review link from the Google Business Profile (“Ask for reviews”). It opens the review form with the star picker ready.
- Store it as a custom value —
{{custom_values.link_review}}— so every template uses it and you change it once if it ever moves.
Step 2: The workflow
| Step | Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | Appointment status → Showed (or pipeline stage → Won, or invoice → Paid) | Pick the event that means “the customer has received the service” |
| Filter | Not tagged review-requested in the last 90 days; not tagged do-not-text |
Never ask the same person twice in a quarter |
| Wait | Until the next morning, 10:00 local (or 2–3 days for services that need time to judge) | Fresh but not intrusive |
| SMS | Review request with the link | Templates below |
| Tag | Add review-requested with today’s date in a field |
Drives the 90-day filter and reporting |
| Wait | 3 days | |
| Condition | Review received? (reputation trigger / tag review-received) |
If yes → thank-you and end |
| One reminder with the same link | Different channel, same ask | |
| End | — | No third ask |
A second small workflow handles the other direction: trigger: new review received → notify the owner, tag the contact review-received, and — for 4–5 stars — add them to the “referral ask” sequence a month later; for 1–3 stars, create a task to call within the hour.
Step 3: Templates
Short, personal, the customer’s first name, the business name, one link, no pressure, and the opt-out line for compliance.
Trades
Hi {first name}, it’s Dave from Northside Plumbing. Thanks for having us out yesterday. If you have 30 seconds, a Google review really helps a small local firm: {review link}. Reply STOP to opt out.
Clinic / practice
Hi {first name}, thank you for visiting Lakeside Physio. If you were happy with your appointment, would you share a quick Google review? {review link} — it helps other people find us. Reply STOP to opt out.
Salon / studio
Hi {first name}, we loved having you in today. A quick review on Google would mean a lot to the team: {review link}. Thank you! Reply STOP to opt out.
Agency / consultancy (email)
Subject: A quick favour, {first name}?
Thanks again for working with us on {project}. If you have a minute, a short Google review helps more than you would think for a business our size: {review link}. And if anything was not right, just reply to this email — I would rather hear it directly.
Reminder (email, day 3)
Subject: Still worth 30 seconds?
Hi {first name}, just in case Tuesday got busy — here is the review link again: {review link}. Either way, thank you for choosing {business name}.
Step 4: Reply to every review
Replies are visible to everyone who reads the profile, and they influence both customers and rankings. Reply within a day or two from the Reputation inbox: thank positive reviews specifically (“glad the new boiler is behaving”), and answer negative ones briefly, without arguing, with an invitation to sort it offline. GoHighLevel’s AI reply suggestions are a decent first draft; edit them so they sound like the owner.
The rules that keep the profile safe
Google’s policies, in short: no incentives for reviews; no review gating (asking “how would you rate us?” first and only sending the link to happy customers); no reviews from staff or family; no bulk requests to old lists in a single burst; no asking customers to mention keywords. Ask everyone, one at a time, when the service is complete. Sudden spikes of reviews after months of none also look like manipulation — a steady trickle from the workflow is exactly what Google expects to see.
Timing by business type
| Business | Trigger | Delay |
|---|---|---|
| Trades, cleaning, installs | Job marked complete / invoice paid | Next morning |
| Clinics, salons, fitness | Appointment showed | Same evening or next morning |
| Repairs, treatments with a result | Appointment showed | 3–7 days |
| Agencies, B2B projects | Project stage → delivered | 1–2 days, by email |
| Restaurants, retail with a CRM | Order / visit recorded | Same evening |
Measuring it
Requests sent, reviews received (the reputation dashboard shows the trend), request-to-review rate, average rating, and — the point of it all — calls and direction requests from the Google Business Profile month on month. A healthy account sends a request to every customer and converts 10–25% of them; if the rate is below 5%, the message is too long, the link is wrong, or the timing is off.
Showing the reviews
Once they arrive, use them: the reviews widget on the website’s home and service pages, the best three in the email footer, review screenshots in social posts and ads. A review that nobody sees again after Google is only half used.
Mistakes
- Asking before the job is finished.
- Three, four, five reminders.
- Gating.
- Sending from an unregistered number, so the requests never arrive.
- Never replying.
- Switching the workflow on with 2,000 old contacts imported and no 90-day filter — a burst of requests to people from three years ago.
Further reading: Google: get reviews on Google · Google review content policies · GoHighLevel Help Center.
FAQ
When is the best time to send a review request?
Within a day of the job or appointment finishing, while the experience is fresh and the outcome is visible — the next morning for most services, a few days later for anything that needs time to be judged (a repair, a treatment). A single reminder three days later catches the people who meant to.
Can I ask only happy customers for a Google review?
No. Google’s policy prohibits selectively soliciting reviews or discouraging negative ones — the “rate us first, then we send the link” gate is explicitly against the rules and can get a profile penalised. Ask everyone; handle unhappy customers by making the request easy to reply to instead.
Can I offer a discount for a review?
No. Incentives of any kind for reviews are against Google’s policies (and most other platforms’). A thank-you after the fact that does not depend on the review is fine; “leave a review and get 10% off” is not.
How do I get the Google review link for the workflow?
From your Google Business Profile: the “Ask for reviews” or “Get more reviews” option gives a short link that opens the review form directly. Store it as a custom value in GoHighLevel so every template uses the same link and it can be changed in one place.
Want the review workflow, the reply routine and the website widget set up in your account this week? See the GoHighLevel services — it is a two-hour build that keeps working for years.
