Ask every customer for a review the same way, by phone

Google's policy for reviews on Maps lists "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers" as rating manipulation and doesn't allow "content that has been posted due to an incentive offered by a business" (Google's content policy). Its Business Profile help calls free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews strictly prohibited (Google Business Profile Help).

The FTC's consumer review rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, bans incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, positive or negative (16 CFR 465.4). It has no specific ban on asking only happy customers, the FTC says, "But this practice could violate the FTC Act" (FTC Q&A).

The FTC's Endorsement Guides describe the version most stores would build by accident: ask recent buyers for feedback, invite only the very positive ones to post reviews, and thank the rest. That "may be an unfair or deceptive practice if it results in the posted reviews being substantially more positive than if the marketer had not engaged in the practice" (16 CFR 255.2, Example 11).

So the script follows three rules: ask everyone the same way, offer nothing for a review, and offer nothing to change or remove one. This is general information, not legal advice; check your setup with counsel.

A survey call asks how the order went; a review request asks a favor. On one call, the agent hears the answers before it asks, and an agent that adjusts to what it hears can end up asking only the happy ones: the pattern Example 11 describes.

Example: a split step on order fulfilled sends 30% of orders to the survey call and 70% to the review call, so each order gets one call and everyone on the review path hears the same request. If you run the two as separate flows instead, space their waits so one order doesn't bring two calls in the same week.

Some customers will say yes and then describe a problem, like the wobbly desk leg above. The agent sends the link as promised, opens a ticket with the AI summary, the order and the recording, and says your team will follow up.

It doesn't ask them to wait for the fix before posting, and it never offers a code to change their mind: Google's policy covers incentives for revising or removing a review, not only for posting one. Fix the problem and let the review say what it says.

Use the star mix as a check on the agent. Example: if your average rating sat at 4.3 before the calls and reads 4.8 a month later, read twenty transcripts before you celebrate. Better products and an agent that has started choosing whom to ask look the same in an average.