Short answer
Ask every real customer, soon after the experience, with a link that opens the review box directly. Start with your past customers, then ask new ones right after each sale or service, and reply to every review. Buying reviews looks faster, but Google removes them and can restrict the profile, so you end up with fewer reviews than before.
Free tools for this
Why bought reviews are not the shortcut they look like
Sellers promise a pile of reviews in a few days. Google runs automated and manual checks for patterns that real customers do not produce: many reviews arriving at once, reviewers with no history, the same wording, and the same accounts reviewing many unrelated businesses.
Reviews that fail those checks are removed, often weeks or months after you paid, and often in waves. The rating you bought falls back and you are left with nothing. Repeated violations can lead to the profile being restricted or suspended, which takes the business out of Maps and local results altogether.
In India, fake reviews are also treated as misleading under consumer-protection rules, so the risk is not only with Google.
The fast route that works: ask your past customers
Most businesses have never asked the people who already bought from them. That list is the largest source of honest reviews you have, and it is available today.
Clean the list first: remove duplicates and anyone with an open complaint to sort out personally. Then message them in small batches over several days, from your own WhatsApp, with a personal opening and a link that goes straight to the review form. Send one polite reminder at most, and stop for anyone who says no.
Do not skip the people you suspect are unhappy. Choosing who to ask is called review gating and it is against Google's rules. Ask everyone the same way.
Try it now: Google Review Kit → · WhatsApp Link & QR Generator →
Ask at the moment that matters
A request that lands right after the good experience gets answered. The same request three days later, by email, usually does not.
Pick the moment for your business: at the counter after payment, when a delivery arrives, or when an appointment ends. Use the channel your customers already use, which in India is usually WhatsApp. Put a QR code on the counter, the bill folder or the packaging for people who are in front of you.
Tell your team to say one sentence out loud, such as “If you have 30 seconds, we would value your honest feedback on Google.” A person asking is worth more than a sign.
Get the right link
The best link is the short one Google gives you. Sign in to the account that manages your Business Profile, search for your business on Google and press Ask for reviews. Copy that link. It opens the review box directly.
Your normal Maps link is not a review link. It opens your listing, and the customer then has to find the review button, which is where many people give up. A link built from a Place ID is a fallback, and some users report it does not open the review box, so test whichever link you use on two phones before you print or send it.
What not to do
Do not offer a discount, gift or anything else for a review. Do not ask for a particular star rating. Do not ask only your happy customers. Do not have staff or family leave the first reviews, because a conflict of interest is one of the easiest things for Google to spot.
Each of these can get reviews removed or the profile penalised, which costs far more than the reviews were worth.
Reply to every review
Reply within a day or two, to good and bad reviews alike. The next customer reads your reply more than the review. Thank people, stay calm and specific, and move any complaint offline with a business phone or email. Never argue and never ask someone to change their review.
If a review is fake or from someone who was never a customer, report it to Google instead of replying to it.
How long it takes
There is no honest number to promise. It depends on how many real customers you have and how many choose to reply. What you can control is how many of them you ask and how easy you make it. Steady accumulation matters more than any target, and a fresh review now and then looks more natural than a spike.
The free Google Review Kit on this site builds the QR code and printable card, ready-to-send messages in four languages, a tap-to-send list for your past customers, and calm replies for every rating.