Can you offer a discount for a Google review?

If you searched "can I offer a discount for a Google review", you probably saw a competitor with a pile of new reviews and wondered how they got them. Fast review pushes feel like they need a reward, and the reward is where owners get into trouble.

Why a discount for a review is a problem

Google wants reviews to reflect a genuine experience. A review given in exchange for a reward is not that, even if the customer was happy with the work.

Google's help page on reviews calls offering incentives such as free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews fake and misleading content, and says it is strictly prohibited. The contribution policy says the same thing in its own words and lists payment, discounts and free goods or services.

What counts as an incentive

Owners often think only a cash payment counts. Google's wording is wider than that.

• A percent off the next service call is an incentive.
• A free filter, free tune-up or free inspection is an incentive.
• A gift card, a raffle entry or a spot in a prize draw is the same kind of thing.
• A discount handed over after a customer posts a review is still an incentive.

Google's policy also covers incentives offered to get a review changed or removed. Do not trade a refund for a deleted review.

What is at stake if you do it anyway

Google calls these reviews fake and misleading content. That puts your listing on the wrong side of its own rules, whatever the customer thought of the work.

Google's pages checked for this post do not spell out a penalty for a given listing, so no one can promise you what happens. The sure thing is that the rule exists and the risk sits with your business, not the customer.

How to get reviews without any reward

Google says you can ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code to leave a review. That is the approved way to ask, and it costs nothing.

1. 1Ask every customer, not just the ones who seemed happy.
2. 2Ask out loud before you leave the driveway.
3. 3Send your review link by text the same day.
4. 4Ask for an honest review and do not name a star rating.
5. 5Keep your review link saved in your phone.

Google's policy says merchants may not selectively solicit positive reviews, so the same ask goes to everyone. It also says businesses may not ask staff to collect a certain number of reviews.

A way to ask that offers nothing in return

Use this at the door or in a text. It is a plain request with no reward attached.

Thanking the customer is fine. Saying thank you is not a reward for a review. Just keep any discount you give for other reasons separate from the ask, and never link the two.

How to give a discount the right way

You can still run discounts. They just cannot depend on a review.

1. 1Offer referral or repeat-customer pricing that has nothing to do with Google.
2. 2Give the same discount to customers whether or not they post a review.
3. 3Do not mention reviews in the same message as the offer.
4. 4Do not check who reviewed before you hand a discount out.

What this will not fix

Asking the right way will not make reviews show up on a schedule.

• ×It will not guarantee a set number of reviews, because many customers never reply.
• ×It will not get an old unfair review removed. That takes a reply and sometimes a report.
• ×It will not fix a listing that has a wrong phone number or category.
• ×It will not make up for a job that went badly.

Common questions

Root's free check looks at this on your own business.