A one-time review push gives you a spike and then silence. A system gives you a steady weekly trickle that keeps your rating fresh and your profile alive. The whole thing comes down to who asks, when, and how easy the ask is, run the same way every day, inside two hard rules: no incentives and no screening who you ask. This is general information, not legal advice.
A system, not a campaign
Most dispensaries "get reviews" by nagging staff for a week when the rating dips, collecting a burst, then forgetting until the next dip. The reviews age, recent ones stop appearing, and the profile looks stale. A system is different: a small, repeatable habit that produces a handful of genuine reviews every week whether or not anyone is thinking about it. Steady beats spiky — Google and shoppers both weight recent reviews, and a continuous flow is what keeps a profile looking current.
The two rules that shape everything
Before the mechanics, the guardrails, because they rule out the easy shortcuts. No incentives: you cannot offer a discount, a freebie, or a raffle entry for a review. No gating: you cannot ask only the customers you expect to be happy. Both come straight from Google's review policy, and breaking either gets reviews filtered or the profile penalized. Everything below lives inside those two lines. This is general information.
Decide who asks and when
The best asker is the person who just made the customer happy, the budtender at checkout or the driver at handoff. The best moment is right then, at peak satisfaction, not a day later. Give staff one friendly line to say, the same line every time, and something to point at: a QR code at the counter that opens your Google review page in one tap. That is the entire front end of the system. Fancy follow-up sequences underperform a good in-person ask at the right moment.
Kill the friction
Every extra step loses reviewers. A customer who has to find your business, log in, and hunt for the review button mostly gives up. A QR or short link that lands directly on the "write a review" screen captures far more of the people who were willing. Test it yourself on your own phone. If leaving a review takes more than a few taps, fix that before anything else, because ease is the single biggest lever on volume.
A worked example
A dispensary averaged one or two reviews a week and a rating that had not moved in months. No manipulation, just no system. The fix took a morning: a laminated QR card at each register linked straight to the Google review screen, one sentence added to the checkout script ("if you're happy, a quick review really helps us"), and a shared note where each shift logged the week's new review count. No incentive, no filtering who got asked. Within a month they were averaging eight to ten genuine reviews a week, the rating started climbing on recency alone, and the tracking note made it obvious which shifts had let the habit slip. Nothing clever happened. They just made the ask routine and the link one tap.
Track it so it stays a habit
Count new reviews per week and keep the number somewhere visible. The goal is a flat, steady line, not spikes. If the count only rises when someone runs a push, you still have a campaign, not a system. And read the reviews as feedback, not just score: they tell you what to fix, and fixing it produces better reviews, which is the loop working as intended.
Key takeaways
- Aim for a steady weekly flow of reviews, not a one-time spike; recency is what keeps a profile fresh.
- Two hard rules from Google: no incentives and no screening who you ask. They rule out the shortcuts.
- The system is who asks, when, and how easy: the staffer who just made them happy, at checkout, via a one-tap QR or link.
- Track new reviews per week; a flat steady line means it is a habit, spikes mean it is still a campaign. This is general information.
Frequently asked questions
When in the visit should staff ask for a review?
At the end, once the customer is happy with what they bought, usually at checkout or handoff. That is when satisfaction is highest and the ask feels natural. A budtender who says a single friendly line and points to a QR code at the counter will out-generate any elaborate follow-up sequence, because the moment and the ease are what matter most.
Should I email or text a review request after the visit?
You can, but only through channels the customer opted into, and the same rules apply: no incentives, no screening who you ask. A post-visit email or text with a direct link can lift response rates over the in-store ask alone. Keep it to one message, make the link one tap, and never bundle it with a discount offer, which would make it an incentivized review.
How do I know if the system is working?
Track new reviews per week and watch for a steady line rather than spikes. A system is working when reviews arrive continuously without a campaign pushing them. If the count only jumps when you run a push, you have an event, not a system. Consistent weekly flow is the signal that the ask has become a habit rather than a one-off effort.
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