Short answer: Yes. You can text a customer asking for a Google review as long as they gave you their number for that kind of contact (or agreed to receive messages from your business), and you follow US texting rules — mainly the TCPA, CAN-SPAM, and your carrier's requirements. What you cannot do is text a random list of numbers you scraped or bought, or keep messaging people who told you to stop.
This guide walks through the rules in plain English, what "consent" actually means for a small business, what to say in the text, common mistakes, and the point where you're likely to get your number blocked.
Last reviewed: 2026.
The three sets of rules you have to think about
Business texting sits under three different rulebooks. Small business owners usually only hear about one and get blindsided by the other two.
1. Legal rules (FCC / TCPA)
In the United States, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) requires prior express consent before you send an automated marketing text to a mobile number. A one-time, personal "thanks for your business, would you mind leaving us a review?" text sent by a person is treated more leniently than a bulk automated campaign — but the safe rule is: if the customer gave you their number so you could contact them about their job, and your review request is a natural follow-up to that job, you're on solid ground. If you're texting an old lead list, purchased numbers, or someone who never gave you their number, you're not.
2. Carrier rules (A2P 10DLC)
If you send review request texts through any software (SoTrustworthy, Twilio, EZ Texting, Podium, etc.), that traffic goes over what the carriers call "Application-to-Person" messaging. To use it in the US you must register your business, your "Brand," and your "Campaign" through the 10DLC program. Unregistered traffic is aggressively blocked. This is a carrier requirement, not a legal one, but if you skip it the messages simply won't arrive.
3. Google's rules
Google's prohibited and restricted content policy for reviews bans review gating (asking only happy customers), incentives ("$10 off for a 5-star review"), and fake reviews. You can ask every customer for an honest review. You cannot filter by expected sentiment, and you cannot pay them for it.
What "consent" looks like in real life
You don't need customers to sign a scary legal document. In practice, consent for a review request text usually means one of:
- The customer gave you their cell number so you could contact them about their appointment, job, or delivery, and your review request is a natural part of that transaction.
- The customer checked a box or agreed to language like "we may send you occasional text messages, including review requests" when they filled out a form or booked online.
- The customer explicitly asked you to text them.
What is not consent:
- A lead list you bought.
- Someone who called you once two years ago about a quote and never became a customer.
- A number pulled from a public directory.
Keep a simple record of where the number came from and when they became a customer. If a carrier or a lawyer ever asks, you want to be able to answer in one sentence.
What to say (and what not to say) in the message
Carriers and Google both react to the wording. Keep it short, identify yourself, make the ask specific, and give a clear opt-out.
A safe template
Hi [First Name], this is Sam from Northside Plumbing. Thanks for letting us out today — if you have 30 seconds, would you mind leaving us a quick Google review? [link] Reply STOP to opt out.
What to avoid
- All caps, spammy phrases like "5-STAR REVIEW!!!"
- Promises of discounts, gift cards, or entries into drawings in exchange for a review.
- Vague "click here" links with no context.
- Sending the same text five times because they didn't answer.
- Sending it at 10 pm — carrier filters treat off-hours marketing texts as suspicious, and the FCC's calling hours (8 am–9 pm in the recipient's local time) are a reasonable default.
Handling opt-outs
Every carrier expects you to honor STOP, END, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, and OPTOUT automatically. If someone replies with any of those, you're required to stop messaging them. Ignoring this is the fastest way to get your business number blocked, fined, or added to a class-action complaint.
SoTrustworthy handles opt-outs automatically — the number is flagged and removed from future review campaigns without any manual work. If you're doing it yourself in your phone, you have to maintain a "do not text" list.
How many times can you follow up?
There's no legal number, but the practical answer is one initial ask, one gentle reminder about 3–5 days later, and then stop. Beyond that, complaints go up and delivery rates crater. Our own aggregate data across home service, dental, and beauty accounts shows almost all reviews come in on the first message or the first reminder — additional nagging mostly just annoys people.
Common mistakes that get numbers blocked
- Sending from an unregistered 10DLC number. Registration through your provider is not optional in the US anymore.
- Sending in bulk from a personal cell phone. Carriers throttle person-to-person numbers that suddenly start blasting.
- Not identifying your business in the first message. "Hey, can you leave us a review?" from an unknown number looks like spam.
- Skipping the opt-out language. Even one word ("Reply STOP to opt out") makes a big difference in filter scores.
- Buying a contact list. You have no consent, you'll get complaints, and your sender reputation will die within a week.
FAQ
Do I need written consent to text a customer for a review?
Written consent is required for automated marketing texts under the TCPA. A single, personal review request tied to a completed job is generally treated as transactional follow-up, but the safest posture is to keep clear proof that the customer gave you their number in the context of the transaction.
Can I text customers from a Google Voice number?
Google Voice is a person-to-person service and is not built for A2P/10DLC review campaigns. It'll work for a message here and there, but if you send in volume you'll be shut down without notice.
Can I text a customer who left a bad review to ask them to update it?
You can respond publicly to the review, and if they gave you a phone number as part of the original job, you can send one polite, non-pressuring message. Do not text them repeatedly and never offer anything in exchange for changing the review.
What if I'm using email instead?
CAN-SPAM applies. You still need consent (or an existing business relationship), a clear sender identity, a physical address, and an easy unsubscribe.
How SoTrustworthy fits in
SoTrustworthy is built for exactly this workflow: registered A2P 10DLC sending, automatic STOP handling, delivery status tracking, and simple templates so you can ask every customer honestly without accidentally breaking a carrier or Google rule. If you'd rather not think about the compliance layer, that's the shortest version of what we do.
Read next:
Ask every customer for a review—without review gating.
SoTrustworthy sends a compliant, perfectly-timed review request to every customer after the job — no filtering, no gating, just more honest 5-star reviews on Google.
