How to get more Google reviews for a clinic

When and how to ask patients for Google reviews, the two common tactics Google bans, and how to reply to reviews without confirming that someone is your patient.

Most articles on getting clinic reviews say "just ask," and they're right. What they leave out is the rules around the ask. Google bans two review tactics that many clinics use. And the advice Google gives every business on replying to reviews is wrong for a business that holds patient records.

I covered the wider review strategy in the Google reviews playbook. This post covers the ask itself and the reply.

What Google allows and what it bans

Google's Maps content policy lets a business ask for reviews "that represent a genuine experience, without offering incentives to do so or attempting to influence the rating or the contents of the review."

Many clinics break the first row without knowing it. The setup is called review gating. You send a "How did we do?" message. Patients who give high scores get sent to Google, and patients who give low scores get a private form. Some review tools sell this as a feature. Google's policy calls it what it is: you "selectively solicit positive reviews."

Incentives are banned under US law as well. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews makes it illegal to give "compensation or other incentives" for a review that expresses "a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative." Google goes further: it bans any incentive for any review.

When and how to ask

Google lets you create a review link or QR code from your Business Profile. That link is all you need.

1. Ask once in personAt checkout, the front desk says reviews help new patients find the clinic and that a link is coming.
2. Send the link the same dayOne short message with the review link goes to every patient seen that day, not a chosen few.
3. Leave the service outThe message says "your visit," never the treatment.
4. Stop after one reminderIf there is no review after a second message, leave it there.

The third step matters more than it looks. I build appointment messages for a private medical centre in the Caribbean. Patients get three: a confirmation, one the evening before, and one a few hours before. None of them say what the appointment is for, because anyone can glance at a phone screen. Hold a review request to the same standard. Something like:

"Hi [first name], thanks for coming in to [Clinic] today. If you have a minute, a Google review helps other people in [city] find us: [link]"

The same rule applies to all your patient messages. I covered it in how to reduce patient no-shows.

Replying: where Google's advice doesn't fit clinics

Google's own tips for replying say to address the reviewer by name, "acknowledge their specific feedback," and "share a detail that reinforces their experience." A clinic that does this confirms in public that the reviewer is a patient, and often what they came in for.

::end

The practice had replied to reviews with patients' last names, treatment plans and insurance and cost details. HHS's Office for Civil Rights settled with it in 2019. The office's director said: "Social media is not the place for providers to discuss a patient's care." The rule behind this is HIPAA's privacy rule.

A safe reply thanks the reviewer and does not confirm that they were ever seen.

• Thank them for the review, not for "choosing us for your treatment"
• No names of staff who treated them, no dates, no services
• On a complaint, don't correct their account with details from the file
• Give a phone number or email for the practice manager and take it offline
• Never reply while angry. Have a second person read negative-review replies before they go up.

For a five-star review: "Thank you for taking the time to write this. We share every review with the team."

For a complaint: "We take feedback like this seriously and would like to talk it through. Please call our practice manager on [number]."

Neither one says "your visit," "your procedure" or "we're sorry your results." Each of those confirms the person is a patient. These replies are plainer than Google's examples, and that is what you pay for not confirming who your patients are.

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