Before you start
Bring the facts, not more tabs.
- A verified Google Business Profile for the restaurant — reviews attach to the listing, not to your website.
- Twenty minutes, a printer, and a phone to test the QR with.
- Whoever runs the floor on board. The ask is a service habit, not a marketing task.
You will learn to
- Make the direct link that opens Google’s rating box in one tap.
- Put a scannable QR at the three places a review actually gets written.
- Give staff a 12-word ask and the exact moment to use it.
- Reply within 48 hours and stay inside Google’s review policy.
Make the direct review link first
“Leave us a Google review” is four steps for a guest: open Maps, search the name, find the reviews, tap write. A direct link makes it one — the tap lands in the rating box.
- Open your restaurant in Google Maps, copy the address bar, and paste it into the Place ID finder on this site — it reads the ID straight out of the link. If the link will not resolve, Google’s own Place ID Finder does the same job from your business name. The ID usually starts with ChIJ.
- Paste the ID into the Google review link generator. The link is assembled in your browser and the QR is drawn there too — nothing is sent anywhere.
- Test it on your own phone. It should open your restaurant’s rating box, not a search page. Save the link and the QR PNG somewhere staff can find them.
Done when: Tapping the link on a phone opens Google’s rating box with your restaurant’s name at the top.
Put the link where the moment happens
A review gets written in the ten minutes after a good meal, or not at all. In those ten minutes the link has to be within arm’s reach — not buried on a page the guest would have to go looking for.
- Receipt: if your POS can print a footer image, put the QR there with one line of text. If it only prints text, use the short g.page link from the “Ask for reviews” button in your Business Profile — the full review URL is too long to type.
- Table tent: a small card with the QR and one line — “Enjoyed it? Scan to leave a Google review.” It can share the card with your menu QR. The table tent maker has that exact wording as one of its starting points, and lays out both faces for the fold.
- Takeout bag sticker: takeout guests never see a table tent. A sticker on the bag or a line on the takeout menu, plus one more card by the hours sign at the counter.
- Next-day message: if the guest booked or ordered through your site, you have a contact — a Naratake site with ordering or bookings turned on can keep a customer record from each one. One text or email the day after, with the link — only to guests who agreed to hear from you, and only once.
Done when: A guest who has just finished eating, at a table or holding a takeout bag, can reach a QR that scans.
The ask: 12 words and one moment
Signs get scanned by the guests who were going to review anyway. The ask is what moves everyone else — and it only works when it is short, sincere, and timed.
- The script, 12 words: “Glad you enjoyed it — a quick Google review would really help us.” Pin it on the staff board; once servers know the shape, let them say it their own way.
- The moment is after the compliment and before the check. When a guest praises a dish or thanks the server, that is it. Once the check is down, the mood is about money.
- Point at the QR, then walk away. “It’s on the card”, “it’s on your receipt” — and leave. A guest who feels watched does not write.
Done when: Every server can say the line from memory and knows the moment it fits.
Reply to every review within 48 hours
A reply is read by the next hundred guests, not the one who wrote the review. Google shows the owner’s answer under every review, and a restaurant that answers looks run by a person.
- Make it a rule: every review gets a reply within 48 hours, signed with a first name. Turn on Google’s new-review email so nothing sits unanswered.
- 5-star example: “Thanks, Maria — the short rib is the kitchen’s favorite too. See you next time.” Two sentences, with one detail from their review so it does not read as a template.
- 2-star example: “I’m sorry the wait ran to 40 minutes on Friday. That is on us — we were a server short. I’d like to make it right; please reach me through our site.” Acknowledge, own it, offer a route.
- Never argue, never bring up the guest’s history, never post a line you would not want screenshotted. If a review is fake or abusive, report it to Google instead of answering it.
Done when: No review on your profile is more than two days old without a reply.
Stay inside the rules, then measure one number
Google removes reviews and suspends profiles for a short list of things restaurants do every day. Stay inside the lines, then track the one figure that shows whether the system is working.
- No gating: do not ask “were you happy?” first and send only the happy ones to Google. Every guest gets the same link.
- No incentives: no free dessert, no discount, no raffle entry for a review — not even for “any honest review”. Google’s policy forbids it, and the reviews can be removed in bulk.
- No buying, no staff or family reviews, no shared tablet by the register as a review station — many reviews from one device look like fraud to Google’s filters.
- The measure: reviews per 100 covers, monthly. Count the month’s new reviews on the profile, divide by covers, multiply by 100, and write it on the staff board. The starting figure does not matter; next month’s should beat it.
Done when: You can state last month’s reviews per 100 covers, and nothing in the process would embarrass you in front of a Google reviewer.
Final check
Do not call it done until these are true.
- A tested direct review link and a QR PNG saved where staff can find them.
- The QR on receipts, on a table tent, and on takeout bags.
- A 12-word ask every server knows, and the moment it fits.
- Every review answered within 48 hours, signed by a person.
- Last month’s reviews per 100 covers written down as the baseline.