Get reviews: launch SMS or email campaigns

Who this is for: you want to grow your Google review volume (or Trustpilot) by proactively sending requests to your customers. After a sale, a service, a meal, a consultation — you turn a customer experience into a public review.

What you'll see: the Get Reviews page, the monthly quota, both send modes (single + batch via CSV/Excel), how to customize SMS and email templates, and how to set up the Google/Trustpilot links beforehand.

How GMB Club's acquisition system works

Acquisition runs in 3 steps:

Chargement du diagramme…

You get a monthly quota per bubble:

• 50 SMS / month (phone counter)
• 200 emails / month (envelope counter)

The quota resets on the 1st of every month. If you need more, the "Contact us" link (at the top of the page) lets you request a quota increase.

Prerequisite: have a Google Maps link configured

To send review requests, GMB Club needs a link to your Google reviews page. Depending on your setup, this link may already be filled in automatically — go to Settings › Information (under LOCATION) and check whether the "Google Maps link (for review requests)" field is filled.

If it's empty, you can fetch it by hand in a few steps:

1. On Google, sign in with the Google account that owns this location's listing.
2. Search your listing's name in the Google search bar.
3. Your business shows up in the panel on the right of the results.
4. Click "View reviews".
5. Click "Get more reviews".
6. Google shows you the link — copy it and paste it in the "Google Maps link (for review requests)" field in Settings.

If you also want to collect on Trustpilot, fill in the "Trustpilot link" field right below (format https://www.trustpilot.com/review/your-business.com). Optional.

Without a Google Maps link in place, the "Send review request" button stays disabled with the message "Cannot send to Google Maps: link missing in Settings."

Open the Get Reviews page

Two entry points:

1. From the Dashboard → the "Get Reviews" card (orange email icon)
2. Via the nav menu: depending on your menu, the entry is called "Acquisition" or "Get Reviews"

Direct URL: /dashboard/avis-acquisition

Mode 1 — Single send (one customer at a time)

This is the default mode when you land on the page. Ideal for sending after a one-off transaction (a customer who just left, a meeting that just wrapped up).

At the top of the page you'll see:

• The "Get Reviews" title (orange star)
• The quota counters: 0 / 50 (SMS) | 0 / 200 (email)
• The "Need more? Contact us" link
• The two toggles "Single send" / "Batch send"
• A yellow banner "Review Acquisition Campaigns" with a quick reminder:
  • Single send: contact a customer individually by SMS or email
  • Batch send: import up to 50 contacts via CSV for grouped campaigns
  • Personalize your templates with {nom_client} for a message tailored to each recipient

Fill in the single-send form

GDPR tip: keep a written trail of consent (a mention on the receipt, a checkbox on the booking form, verbal agreement noted in your CRM). GMB Club doesn't store the proof, that's on you.

Click "Send review request". The customer gets the message within a minute. The monthly quota goes down.

Mode 2 — Batch send (CSV or copy-paste from Excel)

This is where GMB Club saves you time. You import a customer list and send a campaign in one shot.

Click the "Batch send" tab at the top of the page:

Two import methods:

Method A — Import a CSV

1. Click the "Import a CSV" tab
2. Read the "Expected CSV format" block:
   • Accepted columns: name, email, phone (variants Name/Email/Phone also work)
   • Maximum 50 contacts per file
   • "Download example" link (orange) to get a ready-to-fill template
3. Click "Choose File" in the "CSV FILE" area and select your file

Minimal CSV example:

name,email,phone
Jean Dupont,[email protected],+33612345678
Marie Martin,[email protected],+33698765432

Method B — Paste from Excel or Google Sheets

1. Click the "Paste from Excel" tab
2. Copy your data from your spreadsheet (the first row must contain headers: Name, Email, Phone...)
3. Paste in the input area
4. Click "Import contacts"

If the columns aren't auto-detected, GMB Club shows "Map your columns": for each column, pick from a dropdown whether it maps to Full name, First name, Last name, Email, Phone, or Ignore. Validate with "Confirm mapping".

Preview and send

Once the contacts are loaded, GMB Club shows:

• "{{count}} contacts found"
• A summary of missing emails or invalid emails (which will be skipped)
• A preview of the first rows to double-check everything's good

When it all looks right, the "Send {{count}} review requests" button shows up in orange. Click to launch the campaign.

During send, a progress bar shows up with Sent and Failed counters. At the end: "Send completed: X success, Y failures".

Quota heads-up: GMB Club checks your quota before sending. If you try to send to 60 contacts when you only have 30 SMS left for the month, you get "SMS quota insufficient. You have 30 SMS remaining for 60 contacts." Either trim the list, or wait for the 1st of the month.

Customize the SMS and email templates

This is the thing to do before launching a real campaign. The default templates are generic — a personalized message has a much better conversion rate.

On the Get Reviews page (in Single send OR Batch send mode), scroll to the "CUSTOMIZE MESSAGES" block and click to expand it:

You'll see two fields:

Custom SMS message

• Limit: 280 characters (the counter at the bottom shows how much you've used)
• Available variables (shown above):
  • {nom_client} — replaced by the customer's first/last name
  • {lien_avis} — replaced by your Google or Trustpilot link

Default example (Food'Alexandre Lyon Bellecour):

Hi {nom_client}, thanks for visiting Food'Alexandre - Lyon Bellecour! Your review really matters to us. Leave us a review here: {lien_avis}

Custom Email message

• Limit: 1000 characters
• Same variables
• The {lien_avis} link appears as a big orange button in the rendered email

Default example:

Hi {nom_client},

Thanks for visiting Food'Alexandre - Lyon Bellecour!

Your review is precious to us and helps us improve our services. Could you take a few seconds to share your experience?

Thanks for your trust!

The Food'Alexandre - Lyon Bellecour team

Preview and save

Next to each title Custom SMS message / Custom Email message, the orange "Preview" link opens a preview of the message as it'll be received (with {nom_client} replaced by a sample).

At the bottom, click "Save my messages". A green confirmation message "Custom messages saved!" shows up.

Conversion-rate tips:

• Formal or casual? Match it to your customer base. Bistro/hair salon: casual works. Law firm/medical: formal.
• Short > long. The SMS should fit in a single SMS (160 chars standard, 280 max on our side). No need to explain why you're asking for a review.
• Mentioning the first name roughly doubles the open rate on emails. Always keep {nom_client}.
• One single call to action: an intro line, the link, that's it. No PS, no promo, no unsubscribe option besides the one GMB Club already adds automatically in the email footer.

Track your sends

The counters at the top of the page (X/50, X/200) show your usage for the month. For each send, GMB Club also keeps track of what the SMS carrier or email provider returned — mostly useful to understand failures (unreachable number, rejected email, etc.).

Good to know: GMB Club doesn't drop tracking pixels or redirect URLs in the review-request SMS and emails (no open tracking, no click tracking). To measure a campaign's impact, look at how many new reviews come in over the following days on your Review Management page.

Knowing where a new review came from

If you want to tie incoming reviews to a specific source (an in-store QR, a QR on a receipt, a QR on a business card…), use QR codes:

1. Create one QR per location or per use case in Settings › QR attribution
2. Turn on "Automatic attribution" in Settings › Auto-replies (Review attribution section)

GMB Club then tries to link each new Google review to the right QR, by cross-referencing the QR name (if it shows up in the review text) and the scan time. Handy to figure out which of your touchpoints brings in the most reviews.

Best practices: when to send

When to send?

• After a sale/service: within 24-48h, not immediately (the customer needs time to live the experience).
• Not on Sundays or public holidays (the message gets lost in the noise).
• Tuesday-Thursday between 10am and 7pm has the best open rates.
• No more than once per customer per year on the same channel.

How many follow-ups?

• Just once. If the customer doesn't leave a review after the first request, don't follow up (GDPR risk + annoyance).

Who to send to?

• All your recent customers (CRM, register, booking file).
• Not to known unhappy customers. If you know a customer had an issue, handle the complaint first. Asking for a review from an annoyed customer = guaranteed 1-star.
• Quality beats volume. 30 targeted customers convert better than 200 random contacts.

Common issues

"Cannot send to Google Maps: link missing in Settings." → The "Google Maps link (for review requests)" field in Settings › Information is empty. Depending on your setup it may be filled in automatically, but if not, follow the steps at the top of this page to grab it from Google (search your listing → View reviews → Get more reviews).

"Quota reached" → You've used up your 50 SMS or 200 emails for the month on this bubble. Either wait for the 1st of the month, or click "Contact us" to ask for an increase.

My CSV won't load → Check the headers: name, email, phone (in English). And no more than 50 rows. If you're starting from Excel, it's often easier to go through "Paste from Excel" which handles the mapping automatically.

My customer didn't get the SMS → Check the phone format: +33612345678 (preferable) or 06 12 34 56 78. If the customer's phone blocks international SMS, it won't go through. Also check they haven't filtered out SMS from short/unknown numbers.

My customer got the message but doesn't leave a review → Not everyone follows through, that's normal. To boost conversion: personalize the message (first name, mention the transaction), only send to customers who had a good experience, keep it short and clear on the ask, and only send once per customer.

How do I know if a review came from my campaign? → There's no direct attribution between an SMS/email request and a review: just watch the new reviews showing up in the days following your send. If you want more precise attribution per physical touchpoint, use dedicated QR codes per location (Settings › QR attribution) — each QR has its own name and GMB Club can link it to reviews that mention it.