What Is Review Gating?
Review gating is the practice of filtering customers before asking for a public review — for example, asking a satisfaction question first and only inviting customers who respond positively to leave a Google review, while routing unhappy customers elsewhere. The temptation is easy to understand — a 2026 consumer review survey found 85% of consumers are more likely to use a business after reading positive reviews, and 77% are put off by negative ones — but Google's review guidelines prohibit gating because it distorts a business's public rating rather than reflecting genuine customer sentiment.
Last updated 2026-07-14
How to ask for reviews without gating
- Invite every customer to leave a public review, not just the ones you expect to respond well.
- Use a private feedback channel for service recovery, but don't make it a precondition for who gets asked publicly.
- Let the review platform's own routing — not your filtering — decide who gets asked.
- If you want early warning of a bad experience, ask for feedback alongside the public review request, not instead of it.
Common mistakes
- Using a "rate us 1–5 stars" pre-screen that only forwards 4–5 star responders to Google.
- Assuming gating is fine as long as it's not paid — it's prohibited regardless of incentive.
- Not realizing a review-request tool's default flow gates by design.
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