SMS vs Email: Which Gets More Google Reviews?

Both SMS and email will bring you reviews, each in a different situation. An SMS works when you have a phone number and the customer was with you in person, because they see it on their phone, where they can write the review right away. An email works for business customers, e-shops and as a reminder, because it carries more text and usually costs nothing extra. A review request sent by SMS or email can be considered a commercial communication, so you need consent and an opt-out in every message.

Below you will find a comparison, templates for both messages, SMS length rules and a way to chain the channels one after another.

SMS vs email: comparison table

Going by the table, neither channel wins outright. What decides it is which contact details you have for the customer and how they communicate with you otherwise.

When SMS works

The customer was with you in person

After a restaurant visit, a car repair or a haircut, the customer has their phone in their pocket. An SMS arrives where a Google review is the easiest to write: the link opens Maps and the review form. To write a review the customer has to be signed in to a Google account.

The message has one job

An SMS carries one request and one link. A customer will not read more than that on a phone anyway. No introducing the company, no links to social media, no newsletter.

You do not want to deal with mail filters

An SMS does not go through mail filters and tabs the way an email does. That does not mean it always arrives. The carrier may block it, the customer may have an invalid number or bulk messages switched off. But the risk of the message ending up among newsletters goes away.

Weaknesses of SMS

• Little room. The commercial-message label, the operator name, the link and the opt-out take up most of the message. More on that in the section on SMS length.
• Every part is billed. A two-part SMS costs twice as much as a one-part SMS.
• It feels more personal, and so it annoys more. Two SMS in a week from a restaurant where you had dinner once are already too much.

When email is better

Business customers

In B2B, communication happens by email. A review request after a finished job blends in with normal correspondence and does not feel like the company is writing to a private phone.

Longer cooperation or a more complex service

With a course, software, a renovation or consulting, the customer wants to know what the review is for. An email has room for two or three sentences of context and thanks for the specific job.

A reminder after an SMS

Someone who did not react to the SMS can get an email after a few days. A different channel and a different format annoy the customer less than a second SMS.

You do not have a phone number

E-shops and online services often have only an email address. Then work with what you have.

Weaknesses of email

• Tabs and filters. Gmail sorts messages from businesses into the Promotions tab, which the customer may never look at.
• A long email does not get read. Anyone who turns a review request into a newsletter with the company story loses the reader by the second paragraph.
• The customer opens it in the evening at a computer, where they may not be signed in to the same Google account as on the phone.

Consent and commercial communication: what every message has to meet

The rules in this section are Czech. In the Czech Republic the Office for Personal Data Protection (ÚOOÚ) says that requests for reviews or ratings can be considered commercial communications under Act No. 480/2004 Coll. (ÚOOÚ). Other countries have their own rules on electronic marketing, so check the ones that apply where you operate. For both SMS and email in the Czech Republic the following applies:

• Who you may write to. Someone who gave consent, or a customer under the customer exception: you obtained the contact in connection with a sale, the message concerns your own similar services, and the customer could refuse such messages free of charge when handing over the contact and can do so again in every message. The ÚOOÚ does not explicitly say that the exception covers a review request, so the safest route is a provable consent checkbox at the order or reservation.
• Labelling. The message has to be marked as a commercial communication. For an SMS, starting with “OS:” (the Czech abbreviation for obchodní sdělení) is enough. For email it has to be recognisable from the subject line, a footer alone is not enough. In other countries, mark the message as a commercial or advertising message in the way the local rules require.
• Who sends the message. The venue name is not enough if it differs from the company that operates the business. State the registered company name of the operator.
• Opt-out in every message. For email, a link is enough. For an SMS the ÚOOÚ also wants an option for people without internet access, for example a toll-free number they can call or text free of charge. A regular mobile number, where the customer pays under their own tariff, does not meet this condition.
• Anyone who writes “I do not want this” has to be removed from your mailing and gets no further message.

GDPR is a separate layer: work out on what basis you hold the customer's phone number and email and state it in your privacy policy. The wording of a consent checkbox for a reservation form is in the article how to get more Google reviews for a restaurant and it works for other industries too.

I am not a lawyer. Have the templates in this article checked by someone who works with commercial communications.

How long can an SMS be

One SMS has 160 characters if you stay within the basic GSM 7-bit alphabet. As soon as a message contains a character outside that set, such as an accented letter, a curly quote or an emoji, it is sent in UCS-2 encoding and only 70 characters fit into one part. A longer message is split into several parts that are put back together on the customer's phone. Each part then carries 153 characters in GSM, or 67 in UCS-2, because part of the space is taken up by the information needed to reassemble it.

What this means in practice:

• A message with all the mandatory details will usually not fit into one part. The restaurant template below, with a normal-length name and links, comes to around 220 characters: that is two parts in GSM and four in UCS-2.
• Plain characters save money. The same text without accents, curly quotes and emoji splits into far fewer parts. If your customers are, say, Czech or Polish speakers and you write to them in their own language, accented letters will switch the whole message to UCS-2.
• Shorten the link. A direct link to the review form from your Google Business Profile is shorter than the address of the whole profile.
• Sender name. If your SMS gateway allows it, set the business name as the sender instead of a number.

SMS templates

All templates use plain characters so that they fit into as few parts as possible. Replace the square brackets with your own details. No template makes a review conditional on satisfaction and none offers anything for writing one. Google's policy rules out “selectively solicit[ing] positive reviews from customers” as well as offering incentives in exchange for a review (Google). The “OS:” label is the Czech requirement; elsewhere, use whatever marking of a commercial message the local rules require.

Restaurant:

OS: [Venue name] ([registered company name of the operator]) thanks you for visiting. You can write a Google review here: [link]. Free opt-out: [link] or call free of charge on [toll-free number].

Garage:

OS: [Garage name] ([registered company name]) thanks you for leaving your car with us. You can say how the repair went on Google: [link]. Free opt-out: [link] or call free of charge on [toll-free number].

Salon, hairdresser, beauty:

OS: [Salon name] ([registered company name]) thanks you for visiting. If you would like to say how you liked it, the Google review is here: [link]. Free opt-out: [link] or call free of charge on [toll-free number].

Add the customer's name to an SMS only if the names in your system are reliably filled in. A typo in a name looks worse than no greeting at all.

Email template

Subject: Commercial message – thank you for visiting [Venue name]

Hello,

thank you for visiting us on [date of visit / we completed your job].
If you would like to tell us how it went, you can add a Google
review here:

[button or link: Write a review]

We read every review and reply to it.

[First name and surname or the [Venue name] team]
[registered company name of the operator], [address], company ID [ID], [phone]

This email is a commercial message. Do not want to receive more?
You can unsubscribe free of charge here: [unsubscribe link]

What to watch for in an email

• Subject short and specific, with the venue name. A generic “Rate our services” looks like a mass campaign.
• Body up to four sentences. Thank them for the specific visit or job, add the link, finish.
• One button. Do not add links to a newsletter, Instagram or a discount code.
• Plain text or simple HTML. An email without banners looks like a message from a person, not an advert.
• Make it possible to reply. Do not send from a noreply@ address. If the customer replies with a complaint instead of writing a review, you want to hear it and sort it out.

Combining both channels: step by step

It makes the most sense to send an SMS first and keep the email as a reminder. Customers who do not read the SMS get a second chance, and those who already wrote a review do not get another message.

1. Consent at the order or reservation. It is the safest route. Without consent, or without the customer exception being met, do not send a message. A guest who walked in off the street and left no contact gets only a QR code or a plate on the table.
2. An SMS the same day, or the next morning. The customer remembers the visit and the message does not arrive at night. For delivery and e-shops, only after delivery.
3. One to three email reminders a few days apart to those who did not respond to the SMS.
4. Then stop. Someone who does not react even to the reminders does not want to write a review. Further messages only annoy.
5. Stop the mailing for anyone who wrote a review or opted out.

Visit or completed job
    ↓ (same evening or next morning)
SMS with a review link and an opt-out
    ↓ (after a few days, only if no reaction)
1–3 emails with a review link and an opt-out, a few days apart
    ↓
End. No more messages.

If you send messages manually, point 5 is the weakest spot. For every customer you have to keep track of whether they have written a review in the meantime. Why customers do not write reviews even when the message reaches them is covered in the article why customers do not write reviews.

Common mistakes with SMS and email

• A selective sentence. “If you were satisfied, write us a review” or a message sent only to customers who gave praise. Under Google's rules, both amount to selecting the satisfied.
• A reward for a review. A discount on the next purchase, a free dessert, a prize draw. Google explicitly prohibits incentives.
• Asking for five stars. Google's policy does not allow influencing how many stars the customer gives. Ask for a review and leave the rating to them.
• Missing opt-out or “OS:”. Without them the message does not meet the requirements for a commercial communication in the Czech Republic.
• A link to the profile instead of the form. The customer has to hunt for where the review is written, and gives up along the way.
• Accented letters in an SMS. They needlessly raise the number of parts and with it the price.
• A message at 10 pm. Automatic sending right after closing time can arrive in the middle of the night. Set a time window.

Automating with Reputive

An SMS and email sequence is just one part of overall review automation, from requests to replies. How to word the request itself in person, at the counter or on the phone, is in the guide how to ask for a review the right way.

In Reputive it works like this:

• After the visit an SMS goes out, followed by up to three emails in a sequence.
• Contacts you add manually, upload as a CSV, or send through the API or Zapier.
• A review is recognised by the author's name. When the name matches the customer, further messages to them stop. If the name on Google does not match, for example with a nickname, the review may not be matched and further messages may continue.
• Reply drafts for new reviews are prepared by AI and you approve them before they are published.

Nobody can guarantee the number of reviews or the rating, and neither can we. What we can do is save you the manual sending and the tracking of who you should no longer write to.

Try how the sequence would look for you. You can try Reputive free for 14 days, no credit card required.