Google Reviews: One Link, a QR Code and an NFC Card at the Till

A happy customer leaves and says "I'll write you a review". Then they get home, open Google, search for the business name, find three similar listings, can't work out where to write and give up. Every extra step costs you a review. In LocalProAI I built a page that removes almost all of those steps.

A link that opens the review window directly

Google has an address that goes straight to the "Write a review" window of one specific listing. Whoever opens it sees the stars to tap and the box to write in. They don't have to search, and they can't pick the wrong business.

To build it you need the code Google gives every listing, the Place ID. Owners usually don't know it exists, and they shouldn't have to. LocalProAI takes it from the connected Google Business Profile, or from the listing found when the business signed up. If it is missing, the panel says so plainly with a "Write to us" button, and we set it from the admin side.

In the panel, under Reviews > Link, QR and NFC card, the link is ready with two buttons: "Copy link" and "Try it". You can paste it in a booking confirmation, at the bottom of an email or in your signature.

The QR code to print

The same page has the QR code for the link, generated by the LocalProAI server with no external service. You can download it as a 1000-pixel PNG, which is enough to print on an A5 sheet, or as an SVG if you are handing it to a print shop.

There is also a card that is already laid out: press "Print" and only the card comes out of the printer, without menus or the rest of the page. It works on the counter, next to the card reader, on a table or in the window. The customer scans it with their phone while waiting for change or for their coffee.

The NFC card at the till

A QR code asks the customer to open the camera and frame it. An NFC card is quicker still: they hold their phone against the card and the link opens. Blank NFC cards are cheap and you write them with your phone, once.

The page has a step-by-step guide (the panel is in Italian, so the button names are too):

• install NFC Tools, a free app for iPhone and Android;
• open "Write", then "Add a record", choose "URL / URI" and paste the link copied from the panel;
• tap "Write" and hold the card against the back of the phone until the app confirms;
• test the card with an iPhone and with an Android phone;
• only after the test, under "Other", choose "Lock tag".

That last step matters. An unlocked card can be rewritten by anyone with an NFC phone, even with an address that has nothing to do with you. Once it is locked, nobody can change the link. The lock can't be undone, though, so do it after checking that the card works.

Google's rules, written on the page

Google forbids two things that many owners do in good faith, and I put both in a box on the page where you can't miss them.

First: no rewards in exchange for a review. A discount, a free coffee, an entry into a prize draw. Even a small gift makes the review break the rules, and Google can remove it.

Second: you ask everyone for a review, not only the happy customers. Asking only the person who has just paid you a compliment looks clever, but Google's rules forbid it. In practice the card on the counter and the NFC card at the till solve this on their own, because they are there for anyone.

Once reviews come in, they need an answer, negative ones included. The LocalProAI site has a guide (in Italian) on how to get more Google reviews.

Each business sees only its own link

LocalProAI hosts many businesses on the same system. The link and the QR code are always worked out for the business the owner is logged in to, and there is no parameter in the address you could change to see someone else's. The QR code is also never cached in the browser, so an owner who runs two businesses from the same computer won't print the wrong one.

Why I worked on this

Reviews matter for how a business shows up on the Google map, and they can matter for what assistants like ChatGPT answer when someone asks for a recommendation. I wrote about that when I described how I check every week whether ChatGPT recommends a business. The most honest way to get more of them is to make them easy to leave, for every customer, while they are still there.