# How to ask customers for reviews without breaking the rules

*Updated 2026-11-13 · https://roovello.com/guides/how-to-ask-customers-for-reviews*

Ask every customer, ask soon after the service, ask once with at most two reminders, and never mention stars, a rating goal or a reward. Those four habits keep you inside the FTC's 2024 review rule and most platforms' policies, and they produce more honest reviews than any trick. The customers most likely to respond are the ones you ask within three days.

## When to ask

Send the first request 24 to 72 hours after the service, while the experience is fresh and any problem has had time to surface. Mid-morning on a weekday performs best for most service businesses. Follow with a reminder on day 4 and a last one on day 10, then stop. Stop earlier the moment the customer clicks, reviews, unsubscribes or bounces.

## What the request may say

Say who you are, what the job was, and that an honest review helps the next customer. Link to one place to write it. Sign it from a person.

- Do: "Thanks for having us out on Tuesday. If you have two minutes, an honest review helps neighbors choose. Here is the link."
- Do not: mention stars, a target rating, or how much a five-star review means to you.
- Do not: offer a discount, gift card or drawing entry in exchange for a review, unless the offer is for any review and is disclosed on the review itself.
- Do not: ask the customer how it went first and only send the link to the happy ones. That is review gating.

## Why gating is illegal, not just frowned upon

The FTC's Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, in effect since October 21, 2024, prohibits review suppression, which includes soliciting reviews only from customers likely to be positive. Google's and Yelp's policies prohibit it too. Beyond the law, gated profiles have a recognizable look, all praise and no replies to anything, and readers have learned to discount them.

## Doing it with Review Requests

RooVello's Review Requests tool ($39 a month, month to month) runs this exact sequence for you: upload your customer list or BCC us on receipts, and we send three emails timed after the service date, from "{Your business} via RooVello", replying to you. The emails never mention stars or a goal, you cannot pick recipients by expected sentiment, and every customer is asked at most once per 90 days.

Your customer list is used only to send your requests. It lives in a separate schema that cannot be joined to anything else, is never analyzed, exported or shared, and is deleted on a retention schedule.

## What comes back

Reviews written from a request link are labeled "Invited by the business" and "Verified customer", count fully in both scores, and show readers that you ask everyone. A profile with a healthy mix of invited and organic reviews, with replies on the negative ones, is the most credible kind there is.

## Frequently asked

### Is it legal to ask customers for reviews?

Yes, in the United States, as long as you ask without regard to what they will say, do not offer a reward for a positive review, and disclose any incentive. Yelp discourages asking as a matter of its own policy, but it is not a legal issue.

### Can I offer a discount for a review?

Only if the offer is for any honest review, positive or negative, and the review discloses the incentive. Many platforms prohibit incentives entirely. On RooVello an incentivized review must be labeled and counts at 0.8 weight; offering a reward specifically for a positive review violates the FTC rule.

### How many reviews should I expect from a request campaign?

It varies widely by industry and by how recent the service was. Asking within three days with a short, personal email and a single link gives the best response. A reminder or two roughly doubles the total; more than that mostly produces unsubscribes.

### Can I ask customers to review me on Google and RooVello at once?

Yes, but give one link per email. A request with two destinations converts worse than two requests with one each. Many businesses alternate.

## Related

- https://roovello.com/guides/review-gating-explained
- https://roovello.com/guides/ftc-fake-review-rule-explained
- https://roovello.com/guides/how-to-respond-to-negative-reviews
- https://roovello.com/pricing