Review Request Templates for Email and Text (Copy and Paste)
Ready-to-use, em-dash-free review request templates for email and SMS, plus the consent and timing rules that keep your asks compliant and welcome.
In short
The best review request is short, warm, and easy to act on: a single tap to your review link, sent soon after the visit, with a friendly follow-up at most. Below are copy-and-paste templates for email and text, written for any local business. The rules that keep them safe: only message people who agreed to hear from you, always include an easy opt-out, and invite everyone, never only the happy ones.
Most review requests fail for boring reasons. They are too long, they arrive too late, or they ask the customer to go hunting for the right page. The fix is not clever copy. It is a short message, sent at the right moment, with a one-tap link to your review box. Get that shape right and almost any wording will do.
Below are templates you can paste straight into your email tool or texting system, written to be friendly and free of jargon. They work for any local business; we use a home-services voice, with HVAC as a running example, but swap in your own trade and they fit.
Before you send: the rules that keep it compliant
A review request is a message to a real person, so the same basic courtesies and consent rules apply as any other message you send. None of this is complicated, and following it keeps both your reputation and your listing safe.
- Only message people who agreed to hear from you. Texting especially relies on consent. Send to customers who gave you their number for follow-up, not a cold list.
- Always give an easy opt-out. Every text should make it obvious how to stop, usually "Reply STOP to opt out." Emails need a clear unsubscribe.
- Keep it short and timely. Ask soon after the visit, in plain language, with a single link. Long messages and late asks both get ignored.
- Invite everyone, not just the happy ones. Sending the ask only to customers you expect to praise you is review gating, which Google prohibits. The link should be free for anyone to use.
- Never offer a reward for a review. Incentives for reviews are not allowed. Ask for honest feedback with no strings attached.
Invite everyone, then route privately if you want
It is fine to give an unhappy customer a private way to reach you. It is not fine to stop them from posting publicly. The compliant pattern is to invite every customer to review, and offer the private channel as an extra, never as a filter. We cover the exact line in Is this allowed?.
Merge fields: make each message feel personal
A message that opens with someone's name and names the work you did lands far better than a generic blast. Most email and texting tools support merge fields, little placeholders that fill in automatically. In the templates below, anything in curly braces is a placeholder you map to your own data.
{first_name}the customer's first name, so the message feels addressed to them.{business_name}your company name, so they instantly know who is writing.{review_link}your one-tap review link, the direct Google link or a compliant funnel.{tech_name}optional, the name of the person who did the work, which adds a human touch.
Email templates
Email gives you a little more room than a text, but the discipline is the same: get to the ask quickly, keep one clear link, and never bury it. Here is a first ask you can paste in.
Email: the first ask
Subject: A quick favor, {first_name}?
Hi {firstname}, thanks for trusting {businessname} with the work today. If everything is running the way you hoped, would you mind leaving us a quick Google review? It takes about a minute and it genuinely helps a small local team get found by your neighbors. Here is the one-tap link: {review_link}. Thank you, and do reply to this email if anything is not quite right, we would rather hear it from you first.
Notice the shape: a thank you, a reason, a single link, and an open door for anyone unhappy to reply privately. That last line invites everyone while still giving an unhappy customer a gentle off-ramp to you, which keeps it on the right side of the gating rule.
Email: the single follow-up
Subject: One more quick thing, {first_name}
Hi {firstname}, just a friendly nudge in case my last note slipped past. If you have a spare minute, a quick Google review of {businessname} would mean a lot to our team: {review_link}. No worries at all if now is not the time, and thank you again for your business. This is the last you will hear from me about it.
One follow-up, clearly the last one, sent a few days after the first. That is the ceiling. Past two messages you are no longer reminding, you are pestering, and it costs you more goodwill than the review is worth.
Text (SMS) templates
Texts get read fast, which is their superpower, so they have to be short and respectful. Only send to customers who gave you their number expecting to hear from you, and always include the opt-out. Here is a first ask sized for a single screen.
Text: the first ask
Hi {firstname}, it is {techname} from {businessname}. Glad we got everything sorted today. If you are happy with the work, a quick Google review really helps our team: {reviewlink}. Reply STOP to opt out.
Text: the single follow-up
Hi {firstname}, just a friendly reminder from {businessname}. If you have a minute, a quick review would mean a lot: {review_link}. No worries if not. Reply STOP to opt out.
Both texts fit the rules in one breath: they name who is writing, they keep it to a sentence or two, they carry one link, and they end with an easy STOP. The follow-up makes clear there is no pressure, which is exactly the tone that earns a tap.
Lead with a name they recognize
A text from an unknown number gets ignored or reported. Opening with your business name, and the tech's name if you have it, tells the customer instantly who you are and why this is welcome. Recognition is what separates a helpful reminder from spam.
Timing: ask while the work is still fresh
The single biggest lever is when you send. A customer who just had their problem solved is at peak goodwill. A week later that feeling has faded and your message competes with everything else in their inbox. As a rule of thumb, send the first ask the same day or the next, while the visit is still top of mind, and the follow-up a few days after that.
If you want the deeper logic on timing, including in-person scripts, we wrote a companion piece on the best time to ask a customer for a review. The headline holds for any business: sooner beats later, and an in-person ask beats a message every time.
Make it run without anyone remembering
A template only helps if someone actually sends it, and on a busy day that is the part that slips. The durable fix is to trigger the ask automatically when a job is marked complete, so the first message and the single follow-up go out on their own, with the merge fields filled in and the STOP line built in.
That is exactly what our review requests and automated follow-ups handle: the same templates you see here, sent at the right moment, to everyone, with the opt-out and the compliance baked in so nobody has to remember the rules on a Friday afternoon.
Start with one template today
Pick the first-ask text above, drop in your details, and send it to this week's satisfied customers within a day of the visit. Add the single follow-up next. Keep it to everyone, keep the STOP line, and the genuine reviews start to accumulate on their own.
One last reminder, because it is the one that protects you: send to everyone, not only the people you expect to praise you. Inviting the full list is what keeps your listing safe and your rating real. Need the boundary spelled out? It is all in Is this allowed?.
Frequently asked questions
- How soon should I send a review request?
- Send the first ask the same day or the next, while the visit is still fresh and goodwill is high. If you can ask in person at the end of the job and text the link right then, even better. The follow-up should go a few days later, once, and then you stop. Late asks compete with a customer who has already moved on, so sooner almost always wins.
- How many follow-ups should I send?
- One. A single, friendly follow-up a few days after the first ask is the ceiling. Two total messages is plenty to remind someone who simply got busy. Beyond that you stop reminding and start annoying, which costs you more goodwill than the review is worth. Make the follow-up clearly the last message so it feels considerate, not pushy.
- Is it allowed to text customers for reviews?
- Yes, with two conditions: consent and opt-out. Only text customers who gave you their number expecting to hear from you, never a cold or purchased list, and always include an easy way to stop, usually "Reply STOP to opt out." Keep the message short and timely. And send the same invite to everyone, since texting only the customers you expect to be happy would be review gating, which Google prohibits.
ReviewGrowth Playbooks Desk
Reviews and review collection
Our playbooks desk helps local service businesses turn everyday good work into a reputation customers can find. We write about reviews, trust, and the small moments that earn them.