How to ask your clients for reviews without feeling like you're begging
To ask your clients for reviews without begging, send everyone the same message a few hours after their appointment, with your Google link. In Proyecta that message is "Thanks for coming" and it goes out automatically, by email and WhatsApp.
Claudia runs a beauty salon and spa in Valle de Bravo, Casa Claudia, where she does haircuts, color, and facials. On weekends she gets clients from Mexico City who search for a salon on Google Maps. There, Casa Claudia had 31 reviews, and the most recent one was from June. If you don’t know how to ask your clients for reviews without feeling like you’re begging them, this will sound familiar.
Her clients told her “I loved it” at checkout almost every day. At first she’d ask them right there to leave a review, and they’d all say “of course.” Almost none of them did. Over time she got embarrassed to keep asking, and she only brought it up with the clients she trusted.
Why don’t your happy clients leave you a review?
Because you’re asking at the worst possible moment, without the link in hand. At checkout your client is paying, checking the time, and thinking about the meal waiting for her; she means it when she says yes, but by evening she’s forgotten.
Asking that way, one by one, is also what makes it awkward. Every time you pick who to ask, work up the nerve, and if she doesn’t leave one, decide whether to push.
When’s the right time to ask for a review?
A few hours after the appointment, once she’s home and looking in the mirror. A color client, two hours later, is still taking photos of her freshly done hair, and at that moment, writing a couple of lines is easy.
In Proyecta the message goes out 2, 4, 24, or 48 hours after the appointment ends, and it’s 2 if you don’t change it. There’s a single timing for all your services. A facial shows best the next day, but at Casa Claudia it’s almost all haircuts and color, so Claudia kept it at 2.
How do you ask your clients for reviews without messaging each one yourself?
With a message that goes out automatically, the same for everyone. In Proyecta it’s Thanks for coming, the email your calendar sends each client after her appointment to thank her and ask for a review. You’ll find it under Schedule, in Automations, on the To bring them back tab, and it’s turned off until you turn it on.
The email arrives with the subject line “Thank you for visiting Casa Claudia,” says “Would you leave us a review? It takes a minute and helps other people find us.” and includes a Leave a review button. It only goes out once per visit, and never for a canceled appointment or one marked No-show. All it takes is for the appointment to have already happened; you don’t have to mark it as anything.
That “same for everyone” is what took away Claudia’s feeling of begging. She no longer picks who to ask or has to push, because the message goes out once and that’s it.
If you use Welcome, each client’s first visit gets that email instead of Thanks for coming, and the welcome email doesn’t ask for a review. New clients only get asked starting on their second visit.
What link do you need to ask for reviews on Google?
The one that opens the review-writing window directly, not the one for your map listing. Your Google Business Profile has an option to ask for reviews that gives you a short link, the kind that starts with https://g.page/r/. Paste it into Review link and tap Save link.
If you leave it blank, the email uses your business’s map link, when it has one. That one opens your listing on Google Maps, where your client then has to hunt for the button to write a review. Plus, without your link, the WhatsApp message won’t go out.
What does the WhatsApp review request say?
It says this, with your client’s name, your business’s name, and your link: “Hi Jimena, thank you for visiting us at Casa Claudia. It was a pleasure to see you. If you have a minute, your feedback helps us a lot. You can leave it here: https://g.page/r/… Thank you, and see you soon!”
It goes out at the same time as the email, from Proyecta’s notification line and under your business’s name. With Thanks for coming turned on, it needs three things: your Google link pasted in, On Google selected under Where is the review asked?, and Also by WhatsApp turned on, which it already is by default. The text is fixed, and you can see it exactly as sent under How your client receives it. It reaches her even if she never gave you her email.
For Claudia, this was what mattered most. Her weekend clients almost never open emails from a salon, but they read WhatsApp on the drive back to the city.
The message doesn’t promise anything, doesn’t ask for five stars, and doesn’t offer a discount. Offering something in exchange for a review, or only asking clients who left happy, both go against Google’s rules. The second one was, without meaning to, what Claudia was doing with the clients she trusted.
What if you want to read every review before anyone else does?
Choose the other option under Where is the review asked?: On my site, then on Google. With this one, the email button says Rate your visit and opens a short page with your salon’s name on it: “How was your visit?,” a 1-to-5 star rating, an optional comment, and the name she wants to appear under.
The review reaches you first. You get an email, “New review from…,” with her star rating, what she wrote, and an Approve it in your admin button; it sits there as Pending and doesn’t show on your page until you approve it. When your client submits it, she sees “Would you share it on Google too?” with her comment ready to copy, no matter how many stars she gave.
With this option, three things change. It only goes out by email, with no WhatsApp. She can leave one review per visit, and the link is valid for 60 days after the appointment. And your page needs a reviews or testimonials section to hold it; if it doesn’t have one, the option shows up disabled.
Claudia stuck with On Google, for the WhatsApp. In the first week she got seven reviews, one of them 4 stars: Jimena wrote that her balayage turned out beautiful but that she’d waited 20 minutes. Claudia replied to her on Google and stopped double-booking color appointments on Saturdays.
How do I set this up for my salon?
Describe your business to Proyecta in your own words. Something like: “a page for my beauty salon and spa in Valle de Bravo, with haircuts, color, balayage, and facials each listing its price and duration, online booking with each stylist, photos of past work, and a WhatsApp button”.
Once your calendar is taking appointments, paste in your Google link, turn on Thanks for coming, and choose how many hours later it goes out. From there, asking your clients for reviews no longer depends on you working up the nerve at checkout.
Before you turn it on, open your salon on Google Maps, find your most recent review, and check its date. Then count in your calendar how many clients you’ve seen since that day. Those are all the times someone left happy and nobody handed her the link. Get started at proyecta.dev.