> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dmly.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Ask for Google reviews > Send customers a tracked Google review link on WhatsApp, SMS or email — by hand, or automatically from a flow. A review request sends a customer a short, tracked link to your Google review page. You can send them by hand from **Reputation → Request reviews**, or let a flow ask for you after a job is done. WhatsApp is the default and the one that performs — the message goes out on an approved template, so it arrives even when the customer hasn't messaged you in days. ## Before you start You need a connected Google Business Profile — the review link comes from it, and there is nothing to send without one. Until you connect, **Request reviews** shows sample numbers badged **Preview** and the send button is disabled with **Connect your Google Business Profile to send review requests.** Review requests are part of the **Reputation & Reviews** plan feature. Without it, both the connect button and the flow node are blocked. Connect a Google Business Profile before you send anything. Check whether Reputation & Reviews is on your plan. ## Send requests by hand Go to **Reputation → Request reviews**. Under **Recipients**, use **Search contacts to add…** to build the list. You can send to up to 200 contacts at a time. Pick **WhatsApp**, **SMS** or **Email**. Whichever you pick is the channel that sends — this is a send you asked for, so it isn't filtered by your notification settings. If you have more than one WhatsApp number connected, a **Send from** picker appears. It only shows for WhatsApp. Select **Send requests**. DMLY tells you how many went out and how many "couldn't be reached on that channel." Every send is recorded under **Recent requests** with the contact, channel, date and status — even the ones that failed. The table shows the 50 most recent requests, so a full 200-contact send overflows it. ## Which channels actually deliver * **WhatsApp** — the request goes out on the Meta-approved `dmly_review_request` template, which delivers outside the 24-hour window. That matters: you usually ask for a review days after the last message, when a freeform reply would be blocked. * **SMS** — sends if you have SMS set up. * **Email** — available from the **Request reviews** tab only. The flow node cannot send email. If you have more than one Google location connected, requests are scoped to the location selected in **Switch location** at the top of the page. With a single location, everything is shown. ## What marks a request Failed A request is marked **Failed** when DMLY doesn't know how to reach the contact on the channel you picked: * **WhatsApp or SMS** — the contact needs an identity on that channel. A contact with no WhatsApp identity cannot be asked on WhatsApp, whatever else is on their record. * **Email** — the contact needs a valid email address. * **Opted out** — a contact who has opted out is never sent a request, on any channel. When a contact fails any of these, the request is marked **Failed**, nothing is sent, and the row is kept. Nothing is retried automatically — fix the contact or pick a different channel and send again. Passing all three isn't proof a message went out. A request can be recorded as **Sent** and still deliver nothing — if the `dmly_review_request` template isn't approved yet and the customer hasn't messaged you in the last 24 hours, if the contact's active channel is something other than WhatsApp (a contact who talks to you on Instagram, say, even though they also have a WhatsApp identity), or if Meta rejects the send. Your [logs](/troubleshooting/logs) are where the real outcome is recorded. ## Read Opened — not Sent, Delivered or Responses The **Request reviews** tab shows four numbers. Only one of them means what you'd expect: * **Opened** is real. It is counted by the tracked link (`/r/`) in the message, which redirects to your Google review page and records the first open. No Google data is involved. * **Sent** counts request rows, not messages that went out. It includes the ones marked **Failed** — so the contacts DMLY just told you "couldn't be reached on that channel" are inside the number. A row also counts as sent whenever the send didn't raise an error, and a WhatsApp send can be dropped without raising one. Read it as "DMLY created the request and nothing errored". * **Delivered** is stamped the moment DMLY hands the message off, not when the customer's phone receives it. It equals **Sent** minus the requests that failed. * **Responses** is never filled in. It stays at 0 no matter how many reviews you get. (The `74` you see before connecting is sample data.) To check whether your messages are landing, use **Opened** and your [logs](/troubleshooting/logs) — those are the two that reflect what actually happened. There is no link between a review request and the review that follows. To see whether reviews are actually landing, use [Reviews](/reputation/reviews) and the rating trend there — not the **Responses** card. ## Ask automatically with the Request Google review node Add a **Request Google review** step to any flow to ask without lifting a finger. It has two settings: * **Send on** — **Contact's active channel** (the default), **WhatsApp** or **SMS**. On the default, DMLY sends on WhatsApp unless the contact's active channel is SMS. * **Review template** — the WhatsApp template used for the request. **Default review template** uses the customer name, business name and review link. Hidden when **Send on** is **SMS**. The node never stops a flow. Whether the request sends, is skipped or fails, the flow continues to the next step — so you can safely put it in the middle of a longer sequence. Every outcome is written to your [logs](/troubleshooting/logs), which is where to look when a request you expected never arrived. It is skipped when Reputation isn't on your plan, when no Google Business Profile is connected, or when DMLY doesn't have your review link yet. Each successful send fires the **Review request sent** trigger. Use it to start a second flow — a polite nudge a few days later, or a tag on the contact. ## Route happy customers to Google Asking everyone for a public review is how you collect one-star reviews. The shipped **Post-chat CSAT → Google review** template handles the sorting for you: 1. An agent replies to a customer in the [Inbox](/inbox/overview). 2. An hour later, the customer gets a 5-point rating question on WhatsApp. 3. **★ to ★★★** — the conversation is assigned to a person to put things right. 4. **★★★★ or ★★★★★** — the customer gets a thank-you, then the **Request Google review** step. Only the happy responders are ever asked publicly. The unhappy ones reach a human instead. Start from the template in [Automation](/automation/overview) rather than rebuilding it — the star ratings are wired to the right branches already. The template's review step is set to **Contact's active channel**, which for a WhatsApp conversation means WhatsApp. You don't need to change it. ## The shareable review link The **Review link** at the top of **Request reviews** is your raw Google review URL — **Copy** it into a receipt, a bio or a poster. It works anywhere, but it isn't tracked: opens are only counted for requests DMLY sends. You picked a channel the contacts can't be reached on. Sending on WhatsApp to contacts who have never messaged you on WhatsApp fails for all of them. Check the contact has an identity on that channel, or send on the channel they actually use. DMLY fetches your review link from Google the first time it needs it. This message means the fetch hasn't succeeded — usually an expired connection. Reconnect under **Integrations → Channels** and try again. Read and reply to the reviews you collect. How the rating question works and what it reports.