Reviews and consent: what you can send, and to whom

A review request is generally treated as a message about the transaction the customer just had, provided it is non-promotional: no discount, no offer, no "book again". It needs consent to be texted at all, which should be collected at booking and recorded; it needs the business identified and STOP honoured; and it must not offer anything in return for the review, which both Google's policies and the FTC's rule prohibit. Add a promotion and it becomes marketing, with marketing consent rules on top. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Transactional, if you keep it that way

"Thanks for coming in today. A review helps us: [link]. If anything was wrong, reply here." That message exists because of the visit and is about the visit. It is the kind of message most readings treat as transactional or informational, and the customer's consent to be texted about their visits covers it.

"Thanks for coming in. Leave a review and get 10% off your next visit" is marketing (it promotes a future purchase) and it is an incentivised review, which is a separate problem regardless of consent.

The consent you need

Consent to be texted at that number about the customer's dealings with you. Collect it at booking or intake, plainly: "Can we text you about your appointments and visits at this number?" Record the wording, the time and the source. The review request goes only to customers with that consent.

Marketing consent is separate and is not needed for a clean review request. If you want to send offers too, ask separately.

What you may not offer

Anything of value conditioned on leaving a review, or on its sentiment. Discounts, entries into a draw, free services, loyalty points. Google removes reviews it finds were incentivised and can penalise the profile; the FTC's rule covers incentives tied to sentiment and fake reviews. Even "leave us a review and get a free coffee" is a problem on Google. Keep the request free of any offer.

What you may say

Thanks. That reviews help a small business. The name of the person who served them. A direct link. A private way to raise a problem. That is the whole permitted vocabulary, and it is enough.

STOP, HELP and identification

The same as every text. The business name on the message. STOP honoured immediately and everywhere, not just for review requests. HELP answered. A customer who opted out of texts does not get a review request by text; email is the fallback if they consented to that.

Frequency and quiet hours

Once per visit, with a minimum gap per customer, inside quiet hours in the customer's timezone. Review requests that arrive at 10pm are the ones that get STOP replies.

Reviews on other platforms

Yelp discourages businesses from soliciting reviews at all and may filter solicited ones. Facebook and industry sites have their own rules. Check the platform you are linking to; the consent and incentive rules above apply regardless.

Frequently asked questions

Does a review request need written consent?

The strictest consent rules apply to marketing. A non-promotional request about the visit is generally not marketing. Collect and record consent to text about visits, and keep the request clean. Confirm with counsel.

Can we ask by text if the customer only gave their number for the booking?

Giving the number for the booking supports messages about the booking and the visit in most readings. Asking explicitly at booking costs one sentence and removes the question.

Can we mention a referral programme in the request?

That is a promotion, which makes the message marketing. Keep it out of the review request and send it separately to customers with marketing consent.

What Frontiva does here

Frontiva does not send review requests yet, for exactly the reason in this post: the consent customers agree to today is transactional in scope and excludes review requests, so the product refuses to treat it as a basis for asking. The reviews page tracks the feature. See SMS opt-in language that holds up for the consent wording.