Who to target
From a Google Maps list, filter for:
- few reviews compared with competitors (e.g. under 50 in a busy niche)
- ratings between 3.5 and 4.4 — room to improve
- high rating, few reviews — great service nobody is asking about
Sort by Maps rank to see who is losing visibility.
Explain it in their language
Owners don't care about "online reputation". They care about calls, bookings and customers. Connect reviews to those:
"Customers searching 'dentist Plano' see your practice 6th. The top three have 300+ reviews; you have 41. A simple ask-after-every-visit routine typically closes much of that gap in a few months."
Keep the service simple
- a review-request routine (text or email after each visit or job)
- a short link straight to the review form
- reply templates for good and bad reviews
- a monthly report: new reviews, rating, rank
Price it monthly
A small monthly fee is easy to approve. Show the value as "one extra customer a month pays for it".
Niches that care most
Dentists, med spas, restaurants, auto repair, moving companies, home services.
Stay within platform rules
Ask all customers for honest reviews; don't offer incentives for positive reviews or filter who gets asked, which breaks platform rules in many cases.
Related: finding businesses with bad reviews