Dealership Review Request Texts: Templates, Timing and Google's Rules

A good dealership review request text is short, comes from a named person at the dealership, includes the direct Google review link, and goes to every customer after a completed sale or service visit. A review request text should never offer a reward, ask for five stars, or ask the customer to mention a salesperson by name.

At a glance

• Google's review policy bars businesses from offering incentives for reviews, asking only happy customers, asking for specific content, and, since April 2026, asking staff to collect a set number of reviews or reviews that name an employee.
• The FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule bans incentives tied to a positive or negative review, and the FTC says asking only satisfied customers could violate the FTC Act.
• A practical send window is the same day as a service pickup and the day after a vehicle delivery, with one reminder at most and nothing after a STOP reply.
• The number to track each week is new Google reviews divided by review request texts sent, split by sales and service, because review requests that go out without being counted cannot be improved.

This article is general information as of October 2026, not legal advice. Have your attorney review your texting consent wording and your review process.

What a dealership review request text should include

A dealership review request text should include five things: the customer's first name, the sender's first name and the dealership name, a thank-you tied to the actual visit, the direct link to the dealership's Google review form, and a way to opt out of texts. Everything else is optional, and most of it makes the text longer without making it more likely to be read.

• A real sender. "This is Dana at Lakeside Motors" reads like a person. "Lakeside Motors values your feedback" reads like a mass message.
• One specific detail. Mention the vehicle or the job: "your new Tacoma", "today's brake service". The detail shows the text is about the customer's own visit.
• One link, and the right one. Use the review link that Google gives the dealership in its Business Profile (see the template section below). CTIA, the wireless industry association, recommends that any link shortener used in business texts be dedicated to the sender rather than shared, in its Messaging Principles and Best Practices.
• An opt-out line. CTIA recommends standard "STOP" wording for opt-out instructions. Include it in the first text to a number and in any text that starts a new kind of message.
• Nothing that steers the review. No stars, no requested wording, no staff names to mention, no reward. The next section explains why.

The rules every review request text has to follow

Three sets of rules apply to a dealership review request text: Google's own review policy, the Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews, and the federal and carrier rules for business texting. Google's policy is the strictest of the three on what a request may say.

What Google's review policy prohibits

Google's prohibited and restricted content policy for Maps reviews says a business may ask for genuine reviews "without offering incentives to do so or attempting to influence the rating or the contents of the review." Under that policy a dealership may not:

• Offer incentives "such as payment, discounts, free goods and/or services" for a review. Google says reviews posted because of an incentive are removed.
• "Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers." Asking customers how they feel first and sending the Google link only to happy ones, often called review gating, falls under this.
• "Require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises," or "request that specific content be included."
• Ask staff "to solicit a certain number of reviews," or ask staff to collect reviews that include specific content, including content that identifies a staff member.

The last two points matter for dealerships, where review contests and "please mention my name" requests are common. According to PPC Land, Google added the staff quota and staff-name clauses on April 17, 2026. A salesperson can still sign the text with a first name. What the policy rules out is asking the customer to name that salesperson in the review, or setting staff a review quota.

Google's help page on getting more reviews repeats that offering "free or discounted goods or services" in exchange for reviews "is strictly prohibited," and notes that customers must be signed in to a Google Account to leave a review.

What the FTC rule adds

The FTC's questions and answers on the Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule (November 2024, updated May 2025) cover four points a dealership should know:

• Incentives tied to sentiment are banned. The rule prohibits incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment, positive or negative, and the FTC says this applies on third-party review platforms as well as the business's own site.
• Other incentives are not banned by the rule, but Google bans them. The FTC says the rule does not prohibit incentives that carry no sentiment requirement, though an undisclosed incentive could violate the FTC Act. For Google reviews the question is settled by Google's policy above: no incentives at all.
• Asking only happy customers is risky. The FTC says the rule has no specific ban on asking only customers believed to be happy, "but this practice could violate the FTC Act."
• Employee and family reviews need disclosure. The FTC says family members of a business owner may write reviews if they clearly disclose the relationship. A general request sent to all recent customers is not a violation just because some of them turn out to be employees.

The FTC's announcement of the final rule says the rule lets the agency seek civil penalties against knowing violators.

Texting consent and opt-outs

The CTIA best practices sort business texts into conversational, informational and promotional messages, and expect more consent for each step up. CTIA's document does not mention review requests specifically. A plain review request with no offer is closest to an informational text, which CTIA says the customer should agree to receive when giving the dealership a mobile number. A review request that also carries a coupon or a sales offer is a promotional text and needs written consent first.

The working rule this article recommends: ask for permission to text at the desk or at service write-up, record the answer on the customer record, send review requests only to customers who agreed, and keep offers out of review request texts. A STOP reply ends every text from the store. The consent rules, quiet hours and opt-out deadlines are covered in detail in our guide to text messaging for car dealerships.

When to send a review request text

The best time to send a review request text is soon after the customer has finished the experience being reviewed: the same day as a service pickup, and the day after a vehicle delivery. There is no published dealership study that proves one exact hour, so treat the timing below as a recommended starting point and adjust it from your own numbers.

Vendor guidance points the same way. The texting provider Textmagic, in its July 2026 review request templates, suggests one to four hours after a service and 24 to 48 hours after a delivery. Shiftix Cloud's own 30-Day Reputation Sprint Checklist suggests about two hours after a service pickup.

• Service pickup: two to four hours after the repair order is closed and the vehicle has left, the same day.
• New or used vehicle delivery: the next day, late morning or early evening, after the customer has driven the vehicle and slept on the purchase. A text sent while the customer is still at the delivery desk can feel like pressure, which Google's policy warns against.
• RV, boat and powersports delivery: after the delivery walkthrough and, where the dealership knows it, after the first trip or first time on the water. A customer who has used the unit can review the whole experience, not only the paperwork.
• Sending hours: between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the customer's local time. The federal quiet-hours rule is written for solicitations, but there is no reason to send any customer text outside that window.

Send the request to every customer after every completed sale and repair order, including customers the team expects to be unhappy. If a customer has an open complaint, a manager should call that customer about the problem, but the review request still goes out the same way it does for everyone else. Skipping unhappy customers is the selective asking that Google's policy prohibits.

Timing only helps if the requests actually go out after every visit. The Revenue Leak Audit from Shiftix Cloud is a complimentary review of follow-up and customer retention, among other areas, with no obligation.

Review request text templates for sales and service

The templates below cover the six review request texts a dealership sends most often. Replace the words in brackets. Each template names the sender and the dealership, refers to the actual visit, and asks for an honest review without steering the rating. These are suggested wordings; they have not been tested for response rates.

How to get the Google review link for the templates

Google's help page on creating a review link or QR code gives the steps: go to the Business Profile, select Read reviews, then Get more reviews, and copy the link from the share option. Google notes that the review QR code can only be generated in a computer browser. A dealership with several rooftops should copy a separate link for each location's Business Profile, so each review lands on the right store.

Sales delivery, sent the next day

Hi [First name], this is [Salesperson] at [Dealership]. Thank you for choosing us for your [year model]. If you have a minute, we would value an honest Google review of your buying experience: [review link]. Reply STOP to opt out of texts.

Service pickup, sent the same day

Hi [First name], this is [Advisor] in the [Dealership] service department. Thanks for trusting us with your [vehicle] today. How did we do? You can leave an honest Google review here: [review link]. Reply STOP to opt out.

RV, boat or powersports delivery, sent after the first trip

Hi [First name], [Name] at [Dealership] here. We hope the first trip in your [RV, boat or model] went well. If you have a moment, an honest Google review of your experience with us would help other buyers: [review link]. Reply STOP to opt out.

A customer who texts a thank-you first

Thank you, [First name], that is good to hear and I will pass it on to the team. If you would like to share your experience with other customers, you can leave a Google review here: [review link].

A customer who texts first has started the conversation, so a reply on the same topic is a conversational text under CTIA's categories. Offer the link once and do not repeat it if the customer does not reply.

A customer who replies with a problem

I am sorry to hear that, [First name]. I have shared this with [Manager name], our [service or sales] manager, who will call you today to make it right.

Do not ask the customer to hold off on a review, and do not ask the customer to delete or change a review in exchange for anything. Google's policy treats discouraging negative reviews and incentives to change a review as violations. Fix the problem first. The customer is free to update a review if the experience changes.

One reminder, sent three to five days later

Hi [First name], [Name] at [Dealership] again. If you have time this week, we would still appreciate an honest Google review of your [visit or purchase]: [review link]. This is our only reminder. Reply STOP to opt out.

Wording to leave out of every template

• "Five stars", "a 5-star review" or "if you were happy". These try to influence the rating or select happy customers.
• "Please mention [salesperson] by name". Google's policy bars asking staff to collect reviews that name an employee.
• Any discount, gift card, entry into a drawing or free service. Google prohibits incentives for reviews.
• Coupons or sales offers in the same text, which would make the review request a promotional text.

How many review reminders to send

A dealership should send one review reminder at most, three to five days after the first request, and then stop. This is a recommendation, not a rule from Google or the FTC, but vendor advice agrees on restraint: the business phone provider Quo recommends only one follow-up when a customer does not respond, and 9 Clouds, a dealership marketing agency, recommends limiting how many times a dealership asks and then stopping.

Cancel the reminder in any of these cases:

• The customer replied STOP or any other opt-out word. Stop every text from the store, not only review requests.
• The customer has already posted a review. Check the Business Profile before the reminder goes out, or set up the review tool to do it.
• The customer replied to the first request in any way. Answer the reply instead of sending the reminder.
• The customer has an open complaint. A manager's call comes first. The reminder can follow once the problem is resolved.

Two texts per visit, at most, keeps review requests from crowding out the service reminders and updates that customers actually need.

How to measure review request results

The way to measure review request texts is to count, each week, how many requests went out and how many new Google reviews came in, separately for sales and service. That review rate shows whether the process is running and whether changes to wording or timing help.

Track these five numbers each week, by department and by rooftop:

1. Completed visits: vehicles delivered and repair orders closed.
2. Requests sent: review request texts sent. Requests sent divided by completed visits shows whether every customer is being asked.
3. New Google reviews: from the Business Profile, for the same week.
4. Review rate: new Google reviews divided by requests sent.
5. Opt-outs: STOP replies to review requests. A rise is a sign the texts are too frequent or are reaching people who did not agree to them.

Here is a worked example with invented numbers to show the arithmetic. A store closes 200 repair orders and delivers 50 vehicles in a week. Service sends 150 requests and sales sends 48. The Business Profile shows 21 new reviews that week. Service sent requests to 75% of its customers (150 of 200), so a quarter of customers were never asked, and that is the first gap to fix. The overall review rate is about 11% (21 of 198). Reviews cannot always be matched to a department, so the department split is an estimate unless the reviewer mentions the visit.

Keep text in perspective. BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 (January 2025, 1,026 US consumers) found email was the request method the most consumers called effective, at 40%, with an in-person request at 27%. The same survey reported that 63% of consumers expect a business to answer a review within roughly two days to a week. A dealership that already asks by email can test text against email instead of replacing one with the other, and should budget time to reply to the reviews that come in.

Some vendor pages quote much higher response rates for review texts than for email. Those figures were not published with a method or a source, so this article does not repeat them.

Where software helps with review request texts

Software helps with review request texts by sending the request automatically when a sale or repair order closes, so the request does not depend on someone remembering. Software does not decide the wording, the timing or the rules; the dealership still has to set those.

Shiftix Cloud describes these related features on its own pages, as read in October 2026:

• Improved Service Communications. The service page lists "Automated follow-up and CSI/review requests" and two-way SMS and email with complete history.
• Marketing Monitor. The marketing page lists a Review Builder feature to "prepare and manage business review-request workflows around completed customer interactions, by SMS and email."
• Unified Customer Inbox. The communications page lists opt-out keyword handling, business-name and opt-out disclosure support, and consent and communication-history visibility.
• Aria AI Assistant. The Aria AI Assistant prepares SMS and email follow-up for a team member to review and approve. It is human-controlled: staff review and approve before anything is sent.
• Google Business Profile. The integrations page lists Google Business Profile, described as "Reviews & local search management." The page says listed providers are examples or potential connection targets and that availability is confirmed during setup.

Whatever tool sends the texts, check that it sends to every customer rather than filtering by a satisfaction score first, and that a STOP reply stops all texts from the store.

Next steps

The next step depends on where a dealership's review process stands today.

• No process yet: copy the Google review link for each rooftop, adapt the sales and service templates above, and start sending after every completed visit. The 30-Day Reputation Sprint Checklist lays out the first month week by week.
• Requests go out, but not to everyone: measure requests sent against completed visits and fix the gap first. For the service side, see what an automotive service CRM does and what a service advisor does at pickup.
• Staff contests or "mention my name" scripts: retire them. Google's April 2026 policy change bars both.
• Texts without recorded consent: fix consent capture before sending more. Our guides to dealership text messaging and missed call text-back cover the texting rules and wording.

Frequently asked questions

Can a dealership offer a discount or gift card for a Google review?

No, not for a Google review. Google's review policy prohibits offering payment, discounts, free goods or free services in exchange for a review, and Google says incentivized reviews are removed. The FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule separately bans any incentive tied to a positive or negative review. A dealership can thank customers for their business in other ways, but not in return for a Google review.

Is it okay to ask customers for a five-star review?

No. Google's review policy says a business may ask for reviews only without attempting to influence the rating or the contents of the review, so asking for five stars breaks that rule. Ask for an honest review instead. Asking only the customers who say they are happy is also prohibited by Google, and the FTC says it could violate the FTC Act.

Can salespeople ask customers to mention them by name in a Google review?

No. Since an April 2026 update, Google's review policy prohibits merchants from asking staff to solicit reviews that include specific content, including content that identifies a staff member, and from setting staff a quota of reviews. A salesperson can still sign a review request text with a first name. The request should not ask the customer to name anyone.

How many times should a dealership ask a customer for a review?

A dealership should ask once after each completed sale or service visit and send one reminder at most, then stop. That limit is a recommendation rather than a legal rule, and vendor advice from texting providers and dealership marketing agencies points the same way. Cancel the reminder if the customer has opted out, has already posted a review, or has replied to the first request.

Review requests are one part of follow-up after the sale and after the service visit, and gaps there tend to show up elsewhere too. The Revenue Leak Audit is a complimentary, no-obligation review, with no software purchase required, that looks at lead response, follow-up, conversion, customer retention, accountability and workflow. Shiftix Cloud walks through the findings with you.

Sources

• Google Maps: Prohibited and restricted content (review policy)
• Google Business Profile Help: Tips to get more reviews
• Google Business Profile Help: Create a Google link or QR code to request reviews
• PPC Land: Google tightens Maps review policy, staff names and quotas now banned
• FTC: Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, Questions and Answers (November 2024, updated May 2025)
• FTC: Announcement of the final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials
• CTIA: Messaging Principles and Best Practices (May 2023)
• BrightLocal: Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 (January 2025)
• Textmagic: Review request templates to text for customer feedback (July 2026)
• Quo: Feedback request text message templates (May 2025)
• 9 Clouds: Reviews for car dealerships 101 (undated)