How to get more Google reviews for your business in Morocco

Why reviews matter so much

Google says so in its help for businesses: review count and rating are part of what decides your place in local results and on Google Maps. Many recent, positive reviews give you a better chance of showing up when someone searches for "café" or "hairdresser" in your area.

Reviews also reassure new customers: they read the comments, and they read your replies.

Ask every customer, at the right moment

The best moment is when the customer pays or is about to leave: they've had a good time, their phone is in their hand, and they're not waiting for anything.

• Ask every customer, with the same sentence, whether they look happy or not. Google forbids asking only satisfied customers.
• A short sentence is enough: "If you have a minute, you can leave us a review on Google."
• Don't ask for a rating ("give us 5 stars") or for specific words: customers write what they want.

Make it a ten-second job

Every extra step loses reviews: searching for the business on Google, finding the profile, then the review button… Give customers a direct shortcut to the review window:

• Your Google review link, sent on WhatsApp or turned into a QR code. See how to find your Google review link.
• An NFC card at the till: customers tap it with their phone and the review window opens, no app needed. The QR code printed on it works for phones without NFC. That's what the Lemsa card does.

Put it where customers already hold their phone: at the till, with the bill, on the tables. Never hidden behind the card machine or under a menu.

Involve your team, without targets

Your waiters and sales staff see every customer: they are the ones who ask. Give them one sentence, the same for everyone, and show them how to present the card.

Google does, however, forbid setting your team a number of reviews to collect, paying a bonus per review, and having reviews written by staff, family or friends. Thank the people who show the card to every customer, not the ones who "bring in" the most reviews.

What you must never do

These practices get your reviews removed, and can get your Google profile restricted or suspended:

• Buying reviews, even when sold as "real Moroccan accounts". Google removes reviews it identifies as fake or paid for.
• Offering something in exchange for a review: a free coffee, a discount, an entry into a prize draw.
• Filtering customers: offering the Google review only to happy customers and sending the others elsewhere.
• Writing reviews of your own business, or fake negative reviews of a competitor.

An unhappy customer may need to talk to you privately. Offer that as well as the review link, never instead: on a Lemsa page, the complaint form always sits below the Google review button.

Reply to every review

Replying shows future customers that you're there, and Google recommends it. Thank people for good reviews; for a negative one, stay calm and offer a solution. To go faster, use our reply templates.

Keep your profile alive too: recent photos, up-to-date hours, news. See the Google profile guide.