The part most tools do not tell you
Some of these systems filter the bad ones. That is against Google's rules.
It is called review gating: ask how the job went first, send the happy ones to Google and quietly divert the unhappy ones to a private form. It is common, it looks great on a dashboard, and it puts the profile you depend on at risk.
Gated
Ask how they felt, then decide who gets the link
The customer answers a "how did we do" screen first. Four and five stars are shown the Google button. One, two and three are shown a complaint box instead.
- Google's review policy prohibits soliciting selectively this way
- The rating climbs while the real problem stays invisible to you
- Buyers have learned to read a wall of flawless fives as bought
- It is your profile that carries the risk, not the vendor's
How this one runs
Everyone gets the same link, and you hear about it first
We do ask how the job went first, and it changes the wording. It never changes who gets the link. Every branch of the automation ends at the same Google box.
- The same direct link goes to every customer, in every case
- An unhappy answer alerts you before any review is posted, not after
- Unhappy customers are put right first, then asked anyway, two days later
- Nothing is offered in exchange for a review, ever
- A handful of honest middling reviews is what makes the rest believable
The actual automation, every branch of it
A job you marked finishedor a name off your past-customer list
“How did the job go?”a check-in, carrying no link at all
HappyThe review link, straight away.
UnsureA lighter ask, then an email an hour later.
UnhappyPut right first. You get an alert and a dated task with their name on it. Two days later, the same ask goes anyway.
No replyOne nudge, then a final follow-up three days on, then an email.
The same Google review linkEvery route above ends in the same box. That is the whole of the difference, and it is the one thing you should make any vendor show you.
You can check this one yourself. Google's own review policies cover fake engagement and offering incentives, and their Business Profile guidance is public. Read it, then ask any vendor you are talking to, including us, whether their flow puts a question in front of the review link. The answer to that single question tells you what you are buying.