How to get more reviews. Yourself.
The proven ways — the channels, the timing, and the weekly rhythm that keeps them coming. Every move here is one we run for our own clients, and we're happy to hand you the whole thing.
Read it, use it, keep it. And when doing it every single day turns out to be the hard part — which it will — you'll know exactly where we fit.
Six moves, in order.
None of them need a budget. All of them need you to actually do them — which, as you'll see at the end, is the whole catch.
Ask everyone, the moment they're happiest
The single biggest lever is simply asking — in person, by SMS, by phone call, and by email — while the good feeling is still fresh. Someone who just had a great visit is at peak goodwill; a week later that feeling has faded, and so have your odds.
- Ask face-to-face at the desk before they leave — a warm, specific ask converts far better than any automated one.
- Name the specific thing they came in for when you ask — a personal ask lands far harder than a generic 'leave us a review.'
- Train every team member to make the ask naturally, in their own words — not a line they read off a card.
- Ask every patient, not only the ones you're sure are thrilled (more on why that matters below).
Make it one tap
Every extra step loses people. The distance between “sure, I’ll leave a review” and a posted one is measured in taps, so remove every one you can.
- Send a direct link straight to your review form — not your homepage, not your profile, the review box itself.
- Put a QR code at the front desk and on the receipt, pointing at that same direct link.
- Don't make them log in to anything new or fill out a form first. Friction is the enemy.
- Test it on your own phone. If it's more than two taps to the review box, fix that before you ask anyone else.
Time it right
When you ask matters as much as how. The hours right after a visit convert dramatically better than days later — roughly, every day you wait cuts your odds. Same-day asks are the difference between a trickle and a steady stream.
- Aim to ask within a few hours of the visit, while it's still top of mind.
- Never let the follow-up slip past 24 hours — after that, response rates fall off a cliff.
- For treatments with a visible result, ask once it lands and they can actually see it.
- Build the ask into closing out the visit, not a Friday batch you'll forget to run.
Use every channel, and don't stop at one
One ask on one channel is easy to miss. The practices that win layer them — a real call where they can, a text the same day, an email as backup — and a gentle nudge if the first ask goes quiet. Most reviews land on the second or third touch, not the first. That's not pestering; it's patience.
- Lead with a real phone call where you can — a warm human voice converts far better than any automated message, and it doubles as a check-in on how they're doing.
- Follow the same day with a short, friendly SMS that carries the one-tap link.
- Add an email the next morning as a backup, for anyone who didn't get to it.
- If it goes quiet, one polite reminder a few days later is fair — most reviews come on the second or third touch, not the first.
- Stop the instant they post, or ask you to stop. Persistence isn't pestering.
Reply to every review, good and bad
Responding is the multiplier most practices skip. A warm reply to a happy review signals care to every future patient who reads it. A calm, human reply to a critical one often builds more trust than the five-star ones do. Active profiles get rewarded, too.
- Reply to every review within a few days. Thank people by name, keep it warm and specific.
- For criticism, stay calm, take the detail offline, and never argue in public — future patients are watching how you handle it.
- Treat your replies as marketing copy, because that's exactly what they are.
- A profile that visibly responds reads as a practice that cares, which is the whole point.
Build a weekly rhythm
The moves aren't hard. Keeping them running is. The practices that pull ahead don't have a secret channel — they have a system that doesn't depend on anyone remembering.
- Give it a named owner. “Everyone” means no one.
- Run a 15-minute check each week: who got asked, who didn't, which reviews still need a reply.
- Track the review count weekly so progress stays visible and the habit stays alive.
- Pin a one-page version of all of this where the front desk actually sees it.
Only asking the patients you're sure are happy.
Cherry-picking who you ask — or quietly routing the “unhappy” ones to a private form first — feels safe. It's actually the fastest way to stall. It caps your volume to a sliver of your patients, and since 2024 the FTC treats that kind of review-gating as illegal. Ask everyone, the same way. Genuine reviews — all of them — are what compound, and a few honest, less-than-perfect ones are what make the five-stars look real.
Every move above works. Doing them every day is the hard part.
None of this is secret, and none of it is hard on its own. The reason most practices still fall behind isn't knowledge — it's consistency. The ask slips the moment the day gets busy, and the day is always busy. The text doesn't go out. The reviews don't get a reply. Three weeks later you're back where you started.
That's the whole reason applaud exists. We run the three highest-impact channels — real human follow-up calls, SMS, and email — for every eligible patient, every week, so the rhythm never depends on a busy front desk. You get the reviews without chasing them. And because every touch is a moment of care, patient satisfaction climbs right alongside your rating.
Want it as a one-page playbook?
We've put the whole thing — every channel, the timing windows, the front-desk one-pager, and the mistake to avoid — into a short, free PDF. In your inbox in under a minute, ready to pin up. No call required.
We'll run the whole playbook for you. You just watch the reviews come in.
The same six moves, run by a trained team and the timing models we've built across hundreds of thousands of patient touches — calls, SMS, and email, for every eligible patient, every week. Nothing for your front desk to remember.
Pay per posted review only. No setup fee, no retainer, cancel any month.
20 minutes on Zoom. No deck, no pressure. We'll pull your Google profile and your closest competitor before the call, walk through the gap live, and tell you exactly what it would take — whether that's us or not.