The best time to ask for a review

Two shops send the same review request to the same number of customers. One gets reviews. One gets silence. The wording is rarely the reason. The timing almost always is. Ask too early and the customer has nothing to say. Ask too late and they have forgotten your name. This guide walks through the sensible windows, how reminders should work, and how to find your own best moment.

Why timing beats wording

A review takes effort. The customer has to open their phone, find your profile, think of something to write, and type it. They will only do that while they still feel something about the job.

That feeling has a short life. The day you fix someone's heating in January, they are grateful. A fortnight later it is just a warm house.

So the question is not "what should I say". It is "when is this person most likely to still care". Get the moment right and a plain message works. Get it wrong and no amount of clever writing saves it.

While the customer is still there

This is the strongest moment for quick, visible work. A haircut, a repair done on the spot, a meal, a car collected from the garage. The result is right in front of them.

Ask out loud, point at a QR code, and move on. One sentence is enough.

Keep one rule in mind. Google's Prohibited and restricted content policy says merchants should not require or pressure people to leave reviews while they are on the premises. So mention it once and let them go. Do not hold the card out and wait. Do not watch them type. The ask is allowed. The pressure is not. That policy is at https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114

A couple of hours later

This suits jobs where the customer needs a moment to breathe. A long appointment, a house move, a delivery and install.

They have left, they are home, they have a cup of tea, and they are on their phone anyway. A short text now lands well. The job is recent enough to describe in detail.

This window gives you a safety margin too. If something went wrong, you often hear about it in these first hours instead of reading about it later. A quiet two hours is a reasonable sign the job has settled. For most trades, this is the window worth trying first.

The next morning

Use this for work that is judged after a night, or for anything finished late in the day. Nobody writes reviews at nine in the evening after a kitchen fit.

Mid morning on a weekday tends to be a calm slot. People are through their first emails and not yet buried.

The next morning is also the right call when the job itself needs testing. A new boiler, a repaired washing machine, a mattress. Let the customer use the thing once before you ask what they thought of it. A review written after real use is longer and more convincing than one written out of politeness.

After a long course or project

Clinics, dentists, physios, trainers, accountants, builders. Here there is no satisfying ending at the first visit, so an early ask gets a thin review.

Wait for a natural finish line:

• The last session of a course of treatment.
• The day a case or a filing closes.
• Sign off on a finished build.
• The review appointment where you both agree it worked.

Ask the day after that milestone, not months into the middle of it. One more point for long jobs. Ask the person who actually dealt with you, not the office that paid the invoice. The payer often has nothing to describe.

How reminders should work

One reminder. That is the honest answer for almost every business.

Send the first ask in your chosen window. If there is no review after three or four days, send one shorter message. Then stop. A third chase annoys more people than it converts, and annoyed people sometimes write the review you did not want.

Three rules keep reminders clean:

• Check first, so you never chase someone who already reviewed you.
• Keep the same single link. Do not add a second choice.
• Honour opt outs at once, and permanently.

Stop means stop. No reminder, no seasonal campaign, no "just checking in" six months later.

Measure your own window

Everything above is a starting point, not a rule. A dog groomer and a tax adviser do not share a best moment, and your customers are not the average.

So test it. Pick two windows, say two hours after the job and the next morning. Use one window for a month, the other for the month after. Count the reviews each produced against the number of asks you sent.

Keep the message identical, so timing is the only thing that changed. Your own count beats anyone's advice, including this page. Run the test again if your work changes shape, like a shift from one off repairs to contracts.

The short version

• Ask while the customer can still remember the detail of the job.
• For quick visible work, ask in person, then let them leave without pressure.
• For most other jobs, a couple of hours later or the next morning works well.
• Wait for the real finish line on courses of treatment and long projects.
• Send one reminder after three or four days, then stop for good.
• Test two windows against each other and trust your own count.