Is asking customers for Google reviews allowed?

In December 2022 the HHS Office for Civil Rights announced a settlement with New Vision Dental, which paid $23,000 and adopted a corrective action plan. The investigation concerned the practice’s responses to reviews on its Yelp page, including responses using patients’ full names where the reviewers had posted under pseudonyms, and responses including details about visits and insurance.[7]

In October 2019 Elite Dental Associates of Dallas paid $10,000 to settle an OCR investigation into the disclosure of patient information in responses to a Yelp review.[8]

The pattern in both is identical: the practice tried to defend itself in public and disclosed information doing it. Nothing requires you to stay silent, though. The FTC’s guidance says that if someone posts a negative review, “Yes, you can respond publicly to the review, and yes, you should watch what you say.”[6] The templates below do both at once.

Dentists. The American Dental Association’s Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct provides that “Although any dentist may advertise, no dentist shall advertise or solicit patients in any form of communication in a manner that is false or misleading in any material respect.”[9] The standard is truthfulness. A review from a real patient, in their own words, with nothing offered in exchange and no filter on who gets asked, is the version hardest to call misleading. Your state board may add requirements and this page makes no claim about any state’s rules.

Lawyers. Attorney advertising and solicitation rules are set state by state and vary meaningfully. We make no claim about any jurisdiction. Check your state bar’s advertising rules and any required disclaimers first.

Investment advisers. The SEC’s Marketing Rule permits testimonials and endorsements rather than banning them, but conditions them on disclosure made clearly and prominently “That the testimonial was given by a current client or investor” and “That cash or non-cash compensation was provided for the testimonial or endorsement, if applicable.”[10] Pay for a review and you inherit a disclosure obligation. Not paying keeps it simple, and it is what Google requires anyway.

Replace the bracketed placeholders with your contact details and change nothing else.

The same page draws the line at rewards: “Offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for customers to post reviews, change reviews, or remove negative reviews is considered fake & misleading content and is strictly prohibited.”[1]

Google’s Maps content policy is where the clearest prohibition on gating lives. Under Rating Manipulation, merchants may not “Discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers,” and when soliciting reviews merchants “should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises, nor should they request that specific content be included.”[2] Setting a stand out is fine. Standing over someone until they tap it is not.

The FTC’s Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, 16 CFR Part 465, took effect on October 21, 2024.[3] It targets fake and false reviews, reviews bought with incentives, undisclosed insider reviews, company-controlled review sites, review suppression, and fake indicators of social media influence.

On incentives it is narrower than most summaries claim. Section 465.4 bars providing “compensation or other incentives in exchange for, or conditioned expressly or by implication on, the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative.”[4] The FTC’s guidance confirms the rule “does not prohibit giving incentives for reviews, as long as there isn’t an express or implied requirement that the reviews have to express a particular sentiment,” while warning that failing to disclose an incentive can violate the FTC Act separately.[6] Its example of crossing the line: “Tell us how much you loved your visit to John’s Steakhouse and get a $5 coupon.”[6] For Google reviews the nuance is academic, because Google bans incentives outright with no sentiment condition. Never attach a reward.[1]

On suppression, section 465.7 covers two things: using unfounded legal threats, physical threats, intimidation or knowingly false public accusations to stop or remove a review, and materially misrepresenting that the reviews displayed on a site you control represent most or all of those submitted when negative ones are withheld.[5]

The internet gets this wrong: as written, section 465.7 does not by itself make it unlawful to ask only your happy customers. Gating is squarely a Google policy violation,[2] and it becomes an FTC problem specifically when a business publishes a curated review feed with the negatives filtered out.[5] Not gating keeps you clear of both.

• No gating. The Google button renders first, for everyone, before any rating is chosen. The private feedback box is identical at one star and at five.
• No incentives. You cannot configure a discount, freebie or entry in exchange for a review, because Google prohibits it.
• No pre-written review text. A neutral starter prompt at most, never a sentence to paste, never steered toward praise.
• No filtering or editing. TovTap does not post, reply to, edit or remove reviews. Your listing stays yours.
• No pressure. The stand sits on the counter. Nothing pops up, nothing chases anyone by text or email.

No. Google's own Business Profile help page tells businesses to remind customers to leave reviews, and it names visiting a Google link or scanning a code as ways to ask. What Google prohibits is offering incentives, discouraging negative reviews, and selectively soliciting positive ones. TovTap does none of those.

The FTC rule that took effect on October 21, 2024 targets fake and false reviews, reviews bought with incentives tied to a particular sentiment, undisclosed insider reviews, company-controlled review sites, and review suppression. A card on your counter that anyone can tap, with no reward attached and no filtering, is none of those things.

Asking is not where practices get into trouble. Replying is. Inviting a patient to leave a review discloses nothing about that patient, because the patient chooses what to write in their own account. The published HHS Office for Civil Rights enforcement actions against dental practices in this area were about what the practice wrote back in public, including using a patient's full name where the reviewer had used a pseudonym and referencing visit and insurance details. TovTap never posts or replies on your behalf.

No. Review gating means showing the Google option to happy customers and hiding it from unhappy ones. TovTap shows the Google review button to everyone, first, before any rating is chosen, and the private feedback box then appears identically whether someone tapped one star or five stars. Both options are open to every single person who taps.

Rules vary by profession and by state, so check your board and your own counsel. For dentists, the American Dental Association's published standard for advertising and solicitation is truthfulness: no dentist may advertise or solicit patients in a manner that is false or misleading in any material respect. Unincentivized, ungated reviews written by real patients are the easiest version of this to defend.

It might, and that is the point of not gating. You are not powerless, though. The FTC's own published guidance confirms that you can respond publicly to a negative review, as long as you watch what you say, and that nothing in the rule stops you from contacting a customer to resolve the problem they reported.