Review solicitation.In plain English.

Google lets you ask with its own review link or QR code. Its rules ban offering anything in return, discouraging negative reviews, asking only happy customers, pressuring people to review on the spot, asking for specific wording, and setting staff review quotas.

Yelp is the exception. It asks businesses not to ask anyone for a review, including customers, mailing lists, friends and family, and its software may stop recommending reviews that look solicited. Thumbtack does let new pros share a review link with past customers.

In the US, the FTC's rule on consumer reviews took effect on October 21, 2024. It bans incentives tied to a review saying something positive or negative, undisclosed reviews by a company's officers and managers, and threats or intimidation used to get negative reviews removed. Courts can impose civil penalties for knowing violations.

Ask every customer the same way, at the same point in the job, with a direct link.

Example: a dental office texts every patient the same Google review link the day after their visit, with no discount attached, and doesn't ask for Yelp reviews at all.