Google Reviews for a Singapore Business: How to Ask, What Is Banned

Short answer: ask every customer for a review after the job, using the link or QR code Google issues for your Business Profile, and never attach a reward to it. Google's policy bans paid, incentivised, staff-written and gated reviews. In Singapore, buying reviews is an unfair practice under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act, and on 30 September 2026 the regulator made 45 businesses remove their fake reviews and apologise publicly for 6 months.

Sources are linked where each figure appears, checked 18 October 2026.

What did the CCS action on fake reviews cover?

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) concluded its largest fake-review investigation to date on 30 September 2026. The facts as reported by Mothership on 30 September 2026 and summarised by Rajah & Tann on 9 October 2026:

• A local provider, Reputifly, ran the websites BuyReviewSG and GetReviewSG and sold packages of reviews posted by paid recruits.
• Reviews went up on Google, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Carousell, Yelp and Trustpilot.
• About 100 businesses were caught in the investigation. 45 admitted buying reviews and gave undertakings. 2 declined to give undertakings and remain under investigation.
• Each of the 45 undertook to stop, to find and remove the fake reviews, to report progress to CCS, to strengthen compliance, and to display a public apology for 6 months on their website, their social media accounts and at their premises.
• The provider admitted generating the reviews and paying reviewers. Its director must keep an apology on the Reputifly site for the same 6 months.

This was not the first case. In its media release of 21 June 2024, the regulator published findings against a furniture retailer that had posted five-star reviews on its own website using real customers' names and photos without consent. The undertaking there included a channel for customers to report fake reviews.

The legal basis in both cases is the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act: a fake review is a false or misleading representation to consumers. The penalty in practice has been undertakings and public apology rather than fines, but the apology sits on your homepage for half a year.

What does Google's own review policy say?

Google publishes its rules in the Maps user-contributed content policy. The parts that apply to a business owner:

• Fake engagement. Content that is not based on a real experience is prohibited. That includes reviews you write, reviews from staff, and reviews posted from several accounts or devices to look like different people.
• Incentivised content. Reviews motivated by payment, discounts, free items or services are prohibited. So is offering anything to change or remove a negative review.
• Conflict of interest. Reviews from employees, contractors or anyone with a business relationship are prohibited.
• Review gating. A business may not select which customers are asked, may not pressure customers to post while on the premises, may not set staff a quota of reviews, and may not ask for specific wording or staff names.
• What is allowed. Google states merchants may encourage genuine reviews as long as there is no incentive and no attempt to influence the content.

Google's tips page for Business Profile adds two points. A business can remind customers to leave a review by sending them a Google link or QR code. A mix of positive and negative reviews reads as more trustworthy to buyers than a wall of five stars.

How do you ask for a review after a job?

The method that stays inside both sets of rules is simple: the same request, to every customer, at the same point, with nothing attached.

• Get the link. In Google Business Profile, use the review request option to copy your short link or download the QR code. Google's steps are on this help page.
• Pick the moment. Ask once the service is complete and the invoice is settled: after the handover, the appointment, the delivery or the class. Not before, and not while the customer is standing at the counter.
• Use WhatsApp. For most Singapore service businesses the customer is already in a WhatsApp thread. A one-line message with the link gets more responses than an email. Keep the wording neutral: thank them, ask for a review of their experience, paste the link.
• Use a QR code at the exit. A card or sticker with the QR code works for clinics, salons, workshops and F&B.
• Put the link on the site. A review page or a footer link lets a customer who looks you up later leave a review without searching for the profile.
• Ask everyone. The request goes to all customers, not a selected set. That is the line between a reminder and gating.

What is banned?

Two further practices are not in the policy text but cause trouble:

• Bulk requests from one device in one sitting. A burst of reviews from one location and one network in one hour looks like fake engagement to Google's systems, even when the customers are real.
• Reviews on your own website written in-house. The 2024 case was about a retailer's own site, not Google. Testimonials on your site must come from real customers who agreed to be quoted.

How should you reply to reviews?

Keep replies short and factual; future customers and AI answer engines read them.

• Reply to every review within 2 working days. A thank-you of one or two sentences is enough for a positive one.
• For a negative review, state what happened in neutral terms, say what you have done or will do, and move the conversation to WhatsApp or phone. One reply, no back-and-forth in public.
• Never offer money, a refund or a free service in the reply in exchange for a change. Resolve the problem, and let the customer decide whether to edit the review.
• Do not post customer details, order numbers or health information in a reply. The PDPA applies to replies as much as to forms.
• If a review is fake or breaches policy, use the report option on the profile. Google reviews the report; it does not remove on request.

Reviews and replies both feed what ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews say about a business. See what ChatGPT says about my business for how to check.

Checklist

• Review link and QR code downloaded from Google Business Profile.
• One standard WhatsApp message with the link, sent after every completed job.
• QR card at the counter or in the handover pack.
• No discount, gift, draw or refund tied to a review, in any channel.
• No staff, family or supplier reviews.
• Same request to every customer; no sorting by satisfaction first.
• Replies within 2 working days; negative reviews answered once, then taken offline.
• A written note in your staff handbook stating the above, so the policy survives staff changes.
• Any provider offering reviews for a fee declined in writing.

Real reviews support local rankings and AI answers alike. See SEO and AI search for how the two fit together.

What cense does

cense builds the review link, QR code and WhatsApp request into each client's website and enquiry flow, and the marketing agent checks weekly what AI answer engines say about the business. The client owns the site, the data and the profile. See SEO and AI search.