How to Get More Google Reviews for Your Med Spa (the Right Way)

Med Spas · 7 min read

When someone is choosing between two med spas, price and location matter, but reviews are often what actually tips the decision. People are trusting you with their face, their skin, their time, and their money — and a stack of recent, specific, five-star reviews does more to put them at ease than any amount of ad copy.

The problem is that most practices know reviews matter and still don't have many. It's rarely because clients are unhappy. It's because nobody asks, or the ask happens at the wrong moment, or it's so easy to forget that it never becomes a habit.

What doesn't work (and what gets you in trouble)

Before getting into what works, it's worth being direct about what to avoid. The FTC's Trade Regulation Rule on Consumer Reviews and Testimonials, in effect since October 2024, makes several practices clearly off-limits: buying reviews, writing reviews yourself or having an AI write them, review gating (asking happy clients to post publicly while quietly routing unhappy ones to a private form so only good reviews go live), and suppressing or threatening clients who leave honest negative feedback. Platforms like Google also have their own policies against incentivized or fake reviews.

For a med spa specifically, there's a second layer: HIPAA. Asking for a review has to be handled in a way that never confirms, in public, that a specific person is a patient or what they were treated for. The request itself should be generic — "Thanks for visiting us" — not "Thanks for your Botox appointment," because that becomes a public, identifiable health disclosure the moment it's visible on a review platform or even in some notification contexts.

What actually works: make asking automatic, not awkward

The practices with strong review profiles usually aren't doing anything clever — they've just made the ask a normal, automatic part of every visit instead of something a staff member has to remember to do by hand.

1. Ask at the moment satisfaction peaks

Right after a good appointment — when a client is pleased with how they look and feel, checking out at the front desk — is the best moment to plant the seed that a review would help. A simple verbal mention ("If you have a minute later today, we'd really appreciate a Google review") combined with a follow-up text or email makes it far more likely to happen than relying on the text alone.

2. Automate the follow-up

A short SMS or email that goes out automatically a few hours after an appointment — with a direct link straight to your Google review form — removes almost all the friction. The easier you make it to leave a review, the more people who intended to actually will.

3. Keep the message generic and private-information-free

The review request itself should never reference a specific treatment. "Thanks for stopping by [Practice Name] — if you have a moment, we'd love a quick Google review" works for every client, every visit, and keeps you clearly on the right side of HIPAA regardless of what anyone was there for.

4. Respond to every review — the right way

Responding to reviews (good and bad) shows prospective clients that someone's paying attention. For positive reviews, a short, warm thank-you is enough. For negative reviews, the response should never confirm the person was a patient or reference any treatment — something like "We're sorry to hear this and would like to understand what happened — please reach out to us directly at [phone/email]" keeps the conversation appropriately private while still showing you're responsive.

5. Monitor, don't just collect

Once requests are flowing automatically, it's worth checking in regularly: Are reviews actually coming in? Is the rating trending up or down? Are there patterns in what people mention — wait times, a specific provider, the online booking experience — that point to something worth fixing? Reviews are useful operational feedback, not just a marketing number.

Consistency beats intensity

A burst of 20 reviews in one week followed by silence for six months looks less trustworthy — and helps your local rankings less — than a steady trickle of a few new reviews every week, indefinitely. The goal isn't a one-time push. It's building a system that keeps working quietly in the background after every single visit, for as long as you're in business.

If your current process for review requests is "we mean to get to it," that's the first thing worth fixing — not because reviews alone will fill your calendar, but because they remove one of the biggest hesitations a prospective client has before they ever call.