Key takeaways:
- Consent is the whole game — you need permission before texting a customer
- An existing business relationship is not automatically consent to send marketing texts
- Keep a record of when and how each customer agreed
- Honour opt-outs immediately and permanently, across every future campaign
SMS review requests work. Response rates are consistently several times higher than email, because the message arrives somewhere people actually look and does not have to survive a promotions folder.
That effectiveness is also why text messaging is more heavily regulated than email in most jurisdictions. The rules differ by country, and this is not legal advice — but the underlying principles are consistent enough to plan around.
Consent is the foundation
In the United States the TCPA governs this, with penalties assessed per message, which is what makes casual non-compliance expensive. Similar regimes exist elsewhere: PECR and UK GDPR in Britain, CASL in Canada, the Privacy Act and Spam Act in Australia.
The common thread: you need the recipient's permission before sending, and you need to be able to show you had it.
Getting consent that actually counts
The practical approach for a service business is to collect the mobile number and the permission together, at the point where you are already taking details:
- On the booking form, a clear unticked checkbox: "Text me about my appointment and to ask for feedback afterwards"
- On a paper intake form, the same wording with a box to initial
- Verbally at point of sale, recorded in your system with the date and who took it
What does not work: burying permission in terms and conditions, pre-ticking the box, or treating "they gave us their number so they must be fine with it" as consent. Someone handing over a number so you can text when you are outside their house has not agreed to a marketing message three weeks later.
Keep the record
If a complaint arises, the question will be whether you had consent and can evidence it. Store, per customer: the number, the date and time consent was given, the wording they agreed to, and the channel. This is unglamorous and it is the thing that resolves disputes.
Message content
Keep requests short, identify your business clearly in the message, and include a way to opt out. A workable shape:
"Hi Sarah, thanks for choosing Dave's Plumbing today. If you have a moment, a quick Google review really helps us: [link]. Reply STOP to opt out."
It identifies the sender, gives context, makes one ask, and offers the exit.
Opt-outs are absolute
When someone replies STOP, that is permanent and applies to everything, not just the campaign they replied to. Your system must record it and every future send must respect it. Texting someone who has opted out is the single most reliable way to turn an annoyance into a complaint.
Timing and frequency
- Respect quiet hours — a review request at 7am reads as spam regardless of its legality
- Send in the recipient's local time zone, not yours
- One request, with at most one polite follow-up. Beyond that you are harvesting complaints, not reviews
Do not let compliance scare you off
The requirements amount to: ask permission, write it down, say who you are, let people leave. That is a one-time setup in how you take customer details, after which SMS remains the most effective review channel available to a local business.
Collect consent once, properly, as part of taking customer details — then the most effective review channel is open to you. Start collecting reviews with SnappyRatings →