How Canadian businesses can ask for Google reviews without gating them

Short answer: ask every customer for an honest review shortly after the job, using the same direct link or QR code for everyone. Never offer anything in exchange, and never filter who gets asked based on how happy they seemed.

Review gating — where a business only sends the review link to customers it believes were satisfied, and routes complaints elsewhere privately — feels tempting but breaks Google's rules and, in Canada, sits close to conduct the Competition Bureau treats as a deceptive marketing practice under the Competition Act: presenting a curated, unrepresentative set of reviews as if it reflects genuine overall customer experience.

Getting your review link set up

Every Google Business Profile has a direct "ask for reviews" link once the profile is verified. A landscaper in Winnipeg or a dental clinic in Montreal can turn this into a QR code for a receipt, invoice or van decal — the point is that the same link goes to every customer, happy or not.

When to ask

Timing matters more than wording. Asking right after a job is finished — while the work is fresh — gets a better response rate than a generic email weeks later. A plumber in Edmonton finishing a same-day call-out can ask before leaving the property; a longer renovation project might ask at final walkthrough instead.

What not to do

• Don't offer a discount, gift card or entry into a draw for leaving a review — this breaches Google's policy against incentivized reviews regardless of intent.
• Don't ask only the customers you're confident were happy and quietly skip the rest.
• Don't write or edit a review on a customer's behalf, even with good intentions.
• Don't post fake reviews from staff, friends or family accounts — Google's Maps content policy prohibits this, and it's also the kind of conduct that draws Competition Bureau attention when it misleads consumers.

Where reviews show up beyond Google

Some Canadian customers also check HomeStars or Yelp Canada before booking, particularly for home services. The same honest, ask-everyone approach applies there — you can't control what platform a customer checks first, so consistency across all of them matters more than optimizing for just one.

Where Local SEO AI helps

Local SEO AI's review requests feature sends every customer to the same Google review destination — it does not offer incentives, filter customers, or gate reviews, and it's software, not a Google partner; live Google connection is awaiting approval before requests link to your live profile. As an illustrative example only: a hypothetical Toronto café owner might set up requests to go out automatically the same day a customer's order is marked complete, sent to everyone equally. See /ca/pricing for plans, billed in GBP (£), or the Toronto and Calgary pages for local examples. Next: read how to reply to Google reviews.