A review request workflow in GoHighLevel is a short automation: a job or appointment is marked complete, the system waits a few hours, sends a personal text with your Google review link, and follows up by email a few days later if no review has appeared. You can build the whole thing in under an hour inside any sub-account. This guide covers the exact trigger, wait, message and tagging logic, plus the compliance lines you should not cross. If you are still evaluating the platform, our GoHighLevel review covers the full feature set, and what GoHighLevel is explains the basics.
Why automate review requests at all
Local businesses lose reviews for one reason: asking is inconsistent. The owner remembers after a great job, forgets after a normal one, and the front desk has no process. An automation removes the memory problem. Every completed job triggers the same request at the same time, so review volume tracks job volume instead of how busy the owner felt that week.
For agencies, this is also one of the easiest wins to sell. It is visible, it is measurable (review count and average rating), and it runs without client involvement once built. Many agencies package it as a standalone service or as part of a wider local-business setup like the one we describe in GoHighLevel for med spas.
What you need before you build
Gather these items first so the build does not stall halfway through:
1. A sub-account for the business, with the contact list or CRM pipeline already in use. 2. Admin access to the business's Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business). 3. A phone number configured for SMS in the sub-account, with carrier registration completed. 4. A clear definition of what counts as a finished job: an appointment status, a pipeline stage, or a tag your team applies.
Item three trips people up. In the US, text messages to customers need registered sender identity or they get filtered. Follow our A2P 10DLC registration walkthrough before you turn the workflow on, or your requests will silently fail to deliver.
Step 1: Connect Google Business Profile and get the review link
Open the sub-account settings and connect the Google Business Profile integration, authorizing with the Google account that manages the listing. If the business has multiple locations, select the correct one. Connecting does two things: it lets GoHighLevel pull new reviews into the Reputation dashboard, and it lets you reply to reviews from inside the platform without logging into Google separately.
Next, open the Reputation section and find the review request area to copy your Google review link. This is the direct link that opens the review form for that listing. Menu labels shift between releases, so if a screen looks different from what we describe, look for the Reputation tab and the Google connection in settings. Paste the link somewhere handy, because it goes into every message you write.
Step 2: Choose the trigger
The trigger decides when a customer enters the workflow. Pick the one that matches how the business actually records completed work:
Appointment businesses (dentists, spas, chiropractors, salons): use the Appointment Status trigger and filter to Showed or Completed. This is the cleanest option because no one has to remember to do anything. Project or service businesses (plumbers, contractors, cleaners): use a Pipeline Stage Changed trigger set to your Job Complete stage, or a Tag Added trigger if the crew applies a tag from the mobile app. Payment-driven businesses: trigger on a successful payment or invoice paid event, which guarantees the customer has already received the service.
Whichever trigger you choose, add a filter so contacts only enter once. A customer who books four appointments in a month should not get four review requests. Use a tag such as review-requested and add a condition at the start of the workflow that stops anyone already carrying it.
Step 3: Build the workflow
Create a new workflow from scratch and add your trigger. Then add these actions in order.
First, add a Wait step of two to four hours. Asking immediately feels transactional, while asking the next day lets the moment pass. A short delay after the visit usually catches people while the experience is fresh. For appointment businesses, you can instead wait until a set time after the appointment end.
Second, add a Send SMS action with your review link. Keep it short, personal and free of anything that reads like a bulk blast. Use the contact's first name through a custom value or merge field.
Third, add an Add Tag action for review-requested so the contact is not entered again, and so you can report on how many requests went out.
Fourth, add a second Wait step of about three days, followed by an If/Else condition. The condition checks whether the contact has already left a review, which you can track by tag or by manual update if your setup does not auto-detect it. If no review is recorded, send a follow-up email with the same link. If one is, end the workflow.
Finally, add an internal notification action so the owner or office manager receives a message when someone replies to the text. Replies are where you catch unhappy customers early, which we cover below.
Message templates that work
Use plain language and a single call to action. A text version: Hi {first name}, thanks for choosing {business} today. If you have 30 seconds, a Google review helps us a lot: {link}. Reply STOP to opt out. Add whatever opt-out language your carrier registration requires.
An email version should be equally short: a subject line like a quick favor, two sentences thanking the customer by name, a button or link to the review page, and a signature from a real person rather than a department. Send it from an address that matches the business, not a generic no-reply address.
Test both on your own phone and inbox before activating. Confirm the link opens the correct review form, the first name merges correctly, and the message does not land in spam.
Staying inside Google's rules: no review gating
A popular but risky pattern is a satisfaction filter: ask customers how it went, and only send the happy ones to Google. This is called review gating, and Google's prohibited content guidance treats selectively soliciting positive reviews, or discouraging negative ones, as fake engagement. The FTC has also taken the position that selectively collecting positive reviews is deceptive. The source we reviewed is a vendor article from 2022, so check Google's current policy pages and consult a lawyer for your situation before relying on any interpretation.
The safe design is simple: send the same review request to every customer who completes a job. You can still run a private feedback channel, such as inviting a reply to the text if something went wrong, but do not route people away from the public review link based on their answer. Likewise, avoid offering discounts, gifts or entries in a drawing in exchange for reviews. Incentives tied to reviews can get reviews removed or the listing penalized.
Handling replies and negative reviews
Once reviews start arriving, the Reputation dashboard shows them in a single feed. Turn on notifications for new reviews, and set a rule that every review gets a reply within a day or two. Replies to positive reviews can be brief and specific. Replies to negative reviews should be calm, factual and offer to resolve the issue offline, without arguing details publicly.
The text replies you receive from the workflow are a second signal. If a customer answers the request with a complaint, a notification lets a human call them that day. That is customer service, not gating, as long as everyone still receives the same review link.
Costs and plan fit
Review automation uses features included in the standard platform, but sending texts and emails costs usage fees on top of the subscription. At the time of writing, the GoHighLevel pricing page lists Starter at $97 per month (3 sub-accounts), Unlimited at $297 per month (unlimited sub-accounts), and Agency Pro at $497 per month (adds SaaS Mode), with annual billing available at a discount. A single business can run this workflow on a smaller plan. Agencies deploying it for many clients will want Unlimited or Agency Pro. Our pricing breakdown explains usage charges in more detail.
Per-message costs are small, but they add up when you send two or three touches to every customer. Calculate expected monthly volume per client before you decide whether to bundle the usage into your retainer or rebill it.
Common mistakes
The most frequent problem is a trigger that fires too broadly, such as any tag change, so people get requests after cancellations or no-shows. Test with real statuses. Another is skipping the exit condition, which leads to repeated messages for the same customer. A third is pointing every location at one review link, so reviews pile up on the wrong listing. Create one workflow per location, or use a custom field that stores the correct link.
Also watch quiet hours. Add a time window action so texts are not sent at midnight, and respect the customer's opt-out immediately. Finally, do not overbuild. One text and one email is enough. A longer sequence irritates customers and raises opt-out rates.
Where to go from here
Once the review workflow is running, pair it with other revenue-protecting automations. The missed-call text back setup is a natural companion: one captures leads you would otherwise lose, the other turns finished jobs into social proof that brings in more leads. Together they form the core of a local business automation package.
If you want to build this yourself, start a trial, create a test sub-account, and run the workflow against your own phone number before using it on a client. That hands-on pass will teach you more than any tutorial, including how the menus look in your current version.