Guide
How to get more reviews, without begging.
Review count is one of the few things that lifts both your ranking and your conversion at once. Most restaurants ask badly, or never.
In short
Ask every satisfied customer once, close to the moment they were happy, with a link that opens the review box directly. The highest-yield moments are just after a collection order is handed over and a few hours after a delivery arrives. Never offer anything in exchange for a review, and never filter who you ask by expected rating: both breach Google's policies and can get reviews stripped.
Updated 28 August 2026
Why volume beats a perfect score
A five-star average looks worse than it sounds. Shoppers treat a spotless score as either too small a sample or a curated one, and research on rating displays consistently finds the sweet spot sits a little under perfect rather than at it. What genuinely helps is depth: a lot of reviews, recent ones, across a spread of scores, with the owner visibly replying. That reads as a busy real business rather than a managed reputation.
- Recency counts: a wall of reviews from three years ago reads as closed
- Volume relative to your neighbours is the number that matters
- A handful of ordinary reviews beats a few glowing ones
The moments worth asking in
Timing does more work than wording. There are three moments where a request converts several times better than average, and all three share a feature: the customer has just had the good bit.
- Collection, at the counter, as you hand the bag over
- Delivery, two to three hours after the order lands, by text
- Dine-in, when the plates go and before the bill arrives
- Never during a problem, and never before the food has been eaten
Make the ask one tap
Every extra step halves the response. Do not send somebody to a homepage, or to Google generally, or ask them to search for you. Use the short review link from your Google Business Profile, which opens the star box directly. Put it in the delivery follow-up text, on the receipt as a QR code, and on a small card in the bag. The best-performing version of the ask is short, names the person, and does not explain itself.
What not to do, and why it backfires
Do not offer a discount, a free side or entry to a draw in exchange for a review. Do not ask only the customers you expect to say something nice. Both are against Google's review policies, and enforcement is not the only risk. Incentivised reviews read as incentivised, and a wall of suspiciously similar five stars is a signal to buyers as well as to Google. The reason to do this cleanly is that it works better, not only that it is allowed.
Answering the bad ones
Roughly one in twenty will be unfair and you will want to argue. Do not. The reply is not for the reviewer, it is for the next fifty people reading. Acknowledge the specific thing, say what you have changed, offer to sort it offline, and stop. Short and unbothered reads as competent. Long and defensive reads as guilty, whatever the facts are.
Questions, answered straight.
Not covered here? Just ask us.
How many reviews should I be getting?
As a rough working target, one review per fifty orders is achievable with a consistent ask and no incentive. Most restaurants that never ask sit nearer one per five hundred, which is why the gap between two neighbouring shops can look so wide.
Can I get a false review removed?
You can report it, and reviews that clearly breach policy, such as ones with no visit or with abuse in them, are sometimes removed. Plenty are not. Budget your energy accordingly and put it into the reply instead.
Should I ask for Trustpilot reviews too?
Only if you will keep it up. One well-populated profile beats three thin ones. For a single-site restaurant, Google is where the buying decision happens, so start and usually stop there.
Do review requests annoy customers?
Asking once, at the right moment, rarely does. Asking repeatedly, or asking after a problem, reliably does. Send once per customer per visit and suppress anybody who has already reviewed.
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