When should you ask for a review?
A review request sent a week after the lesson gets ignored. The same request that evening gets answered, because the student still remembers the drill that finally clicked. Send it the same day, every time, and make the link open the Google review form directly so leaving a review takes thirty seconds.
Doing that by hand after every lesson is what breaks down. CoachGrow can send the request for you after each lesson, so the habit survives a busy week.
Ask everyone, and keep it clean
Send the request to every student you have genuinely coached. Do not filter by who seems happiest; Google calls that review gating and does not allow it. Never offer a discount, a free lesson, or a gift card in exchange for a review, which Google also prohibits.
Skip Yelp. Yelp asks businesses not to request reviews at all, and it filters reviews it thinks were solicited.
Catch up on the students you already have
Your past students are the fastest backlog to clear. Send each one a short personal message with their first name and your review link, a few at a time over a week rather than fifty in an afternoon. Here is a version that works:
"Hi Sam, thanks again for the lessons this spring. If you have a minute, a Google review helps other players find me: [link]. No pressure either way."
Put the reviews where they get read
Show your reviews on your website, and feature your best one near the top so it is the first thing a new visitor reads. Reviews with specifics, such as a skill that improved or a nervous beginner who relaxed, convert better than five stars and a "great coach".
Reply to every review, including the short ones. It takes a minute, and a profile with answered reviews reads as a business that is paying attention.
Coach names have been changed.
