How to get more Google reviews for your salon or clinic

I’ll walk you through the whole thing: why reviews matter, how to get your review link and QR code, exactly what to say when you ask, how to reply to good and bad reviews, and the shortcuts that can now get you into real legal trouble in the UK.

There are two reasons, and both affect your bookings.

The first is visibility. When someone searches “brow lamination near me”, Google shows a map with a few businesses underneath it. Google’s own guidance on improving your local ranking says that more reviews and positive ratings can help your ranking, and lists how many reviews you have as part of how prominent your business looks. Reviews aren’t the only factor (distance and how relevant and complete your profile is matter too) but they’re one you can actually influence.

The second is trust. Booking a treatment means letting a stranger near your face, your skin or your body. People read reviews before they book, and they read the recent ones most carefully. A salon with lots of recent, detailed reviews feels safe. One with six reviews from 2022 feels like a gamble, however good the work is.

If you’re working on showing up locally more generally, my guide to getting found on Google locally covers the bigger picture. Reviews are one of the easiest wins in it.

Asking someone to “search for us on Google and find the reviews bit” is asking them to do homework. Most won’t. You need a direct link that opens the review box straight away.

Test the link on your own phone before you send it to anyone. Then save it somewhere you can grab it in two seconds, like a note on your phone or a saved reply in WhatsApp Business. Clients need a Google account to review, but it doesn’t have to be Gmail.

Print the QR code on a small card for your reception desk, your aftercare leaflets and the back of your business cards. If your profile still isn’t fully set up, sort that first with my Google Business Profile guide for salons.

Timing does most of the work. The best moment to ask is when the client is happiest, and in beauty that’s usually one of these:

That last point matters for aesthetics clinics and facialists. Asking straight after a peel, when the skin is red, isn’t ideal. Wait until they’re seeing the glow. Just make sure the timing is set by the treatment, not by how you think the client felt. Everyone gets asked.

Most people I work with hate asking. It feels needy. But clients who love you genuinely want to help, they just don’t think of it. Keep the ask short, personal and specific.

In person, as they’re paying:

By text the day after:

When someone sends you a compliment:

A few things that help. Use their name. Send it from your own number or business WhatsApp, not a no-reply address. Ask them to mention the treatment, because specific reviews help the next client and naturally include the words people search for, but don’t tell them what to write. And keep the message to the review only. Bolt an offer onto it and the ICO would treat it as marketing, which needs the client’s consent or the soft opt-in.

Asking in person is lovely, but you’ll forget on busy days. Most booking systems can send an automatic message after an appointment. Have a look in the settings of whatever you use, whether that’s Fresha, Phorest, Timely, Booksy or something else.

Check where the message sends people, though. Some systems push clients towards reviews on their own platform rather than Google. Those are still worth having, but they won’t help your Google profile. If you can, add your Google link to the follow-up message yourself.

Set the timing to match the treatment: a few hours after a lash or nail appointment, a week or two after a skin course. Don’t send it after every infill, or regulars will tune it out. And make sure it goes to every client, not just the ones you think will be happy (more on why below). Then count your new reviews each month. If the number drops, the automation has usually broken.

I reply to every review on my clients’ profiles, and I’d suggest you do the same. It shows future clients you care. Google’s own tips on replying are sensible: keep it short and polite, personalise it, reply promptly, and don’t use replies to push offers or deals.

Thank them by name, mention something specific and keep it warm. For example:

Avoid copying and pasting the same reply on every review. It looks automated and people notice.

It stings, I know. Wait until you’re calm, then reply briefly, politely and without arguing. Your reply is really for the next person reading it, not the reviewer.

Take the details offline. Never share anything about their treatment, skin, health or history in a public reply, even if they’ve mentioned it themselves. For clinics especially, that’s confidential health information and you have data protection duties around it.

When you sort it out, don’t make a refund or redo conditional on the review coming down. Google bans rewards for revising negative reviews, and the CMA’s guidance treats that kind of condition as suppressing genuine reviews. If they update it afterwards, that’s their choice.

If you can’t find the person in your booking system, say so calmly: “I can’t find a booking under this name. If you’ve visited, please get in touch so I can help.” Then report the review to Google through your profile if it breaks their rules, such as spam, a conflict of interest, or someone who was never a customer. People do review under different names, or after using a gift voucher, so check before you assume it’s fake.

There are some very tempting shortcuts here, and since April 2025 they can cost you far more than a few missing stars.

No discount, no free add-on, no prize draw entry. Google’s prohibited and restricted content policy says businesses can’t offer incentives such as payment, discounts or free services for reviews. Referral rewards are fine. Review rewards aren’t.

It’s called review gating: sending a “how did we do?” message first and only passing the Google link to people who said they were happy. Google’s policy says businesses must not selectively solicit positive reviews. The CMA’s fake reviews guidance goes further, and gives “encouraging just those who are satisfied to leave reviews” as an example of cherry-picking that may break consumer law. Ask everyone, every time. The odd lukewarm review among lots of glowing ones makes the whole lot look more believable anyway.

No reviews from your mum, your partner, your staff or the nail tech you swap with. This is where it becomes a legal issue, not just a Google one. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews became banned practices in the UK from April 2025, and the CMA’s guidance specifically gives asking a member of staff to write a review as an example of commissioning one. The Competition and Markets Authority can now enforce consumer law directly, with fines of up to 10% of global turnover.

Google has its own penalties too. Under undertakings it gave the CMA in January 2025, UK businesses caught boosting their rating with fake reviews can have a warning shown on their profile, their reviews deleted and new reviews blocked.

Paid review services and “I’ll review you if you review me” groups on Facebook fall into the same trap. Google also removes reviews it thinks are fake, so you can lose them overnight along with any trust you’d built.

Handing clients the salon tablet, or standing over them while they type, feels efficient. Google’s policy says businesses shouldn’t require or pressure people to leave reviews while they’re on the premises. Give them the link or the QR card and let them do it on their own phone, in their own time.

If you show reviews on your website, the same CMA guidance applies. A widget that only ever displays five-star reviews can give a misleading picture. Link to your full Google profile alongside any highlights, and keep quotes word for word.

Then keep going. A steady flow of reviews every week looks far more natural, and helps far more, than a burst of twenty followed by silence. For more ideas on getting the phone ringing, see my list of beauty salon marketing ideas, or if you’d like help with your local search as a whole, have a look at my SEO service.

Make sure you have a verified Google Business Profile, then get your direct review link and QR code from it. Send that link to every client after their appointment with a short, personal message, and add it to your booking system’s automatic follow-up so nobody gets missed.

No. Google’s policies don’t allow incentives for reviews, and in the UK concealed incentivised reviews have been a banned practice under consumer law since April 2025. You can reward referrals, just not reviews.

Stay calm, apologise that they weren’t happy, and invite them to contact you directly to sort it out. Keep it short, never share personal or treatment details in public, and don’t make putting it right conditional on them removing the review.

You can report a review through your Business Profile if it breaks Google’s rules, for example if it’s spam, offensive, from someone with a conflict of interest or clearly not from a real customer. Google won’t remove a review just because it’s negative, so a calm, professional reply is often your best response.

Google’s systems filter out reviews they think might be fake or against policy, and that sometimes catches genuine ones too. A sudden burst is more likely to look unusual, so ask steadily and let clients review on their own phones, in their own time.