Is there a way for users to not have to sign into Google to leave a review?

Google reviews force the customer to login first? Is a login required to leave a review?

If you own a business you know how important it is for customers to leave reviews for your reputation, and if you have been in business for awhile you know that the more steps it takes for a customer to leave a review the less likely they are to do so. This is the unfortunate truth we all have to deal with, the happy customers are lazy and the angry ones are driven. Send out 1000 review emails and the return rate is about 2%. Ask them in person to do it when they get home and it's about 4%. Do neither and you would be lucky to get two reviews per month organically. 

We offer a plethora of Google Tap Review Products like cards, signs, and more to help get reviews face to face before they leave your store. This method increases review capture to 30-40%.

If you made a point to capture reviews in person you likely noticed an obstacle for some of your customers. That obstacle is Google asks for the users to sign in before they are able to leave a review. This small step may seem quick and easy, but you have likely realized it deters even your happiest customers to think to themselves "I will just do it later," and we all know they rarely do. If they don't have a google login at all it's even more tedious to create an account. 

The good news is about 70-80% of customers are already logged in to Google via Youtube, gmail, or chrome. In this case they go right to the review page with our products. No login needed. For the 20-30% that are not logged in, continue reading. 

How to bypass login in for Google reviews?

If you have scoured the web looking for a way past this, your answer is here. The answer is it is not possible to leave a review without being signed into Google.

Signing in to leave a Google review is apart of Googles policy for multiple reasons. This is global, for us and all competitors no matter what anyone says. It is the raw Google policy that no one can overcome. Why? 

1) Google needs to know who is leaving the review for reliable and trustworthy data. Think about it, your competitor can just go leave 500 5-star reviews for themself, right? Not if they have to sign-in first so Google knows who is leaving the review. Well, they can just use a different email to do that? Nope, google restricts one review per person per 90 days. By signing in they always know who is leaving the review.

You can also think of it as a defense mechanism for business owners, we have all had that one crazy 1-star customer that was looking to bury you, you know they would have left 100 1-star reviews to destroy your business. Luckily, per Google policy they can only leave just one review which also brings us to the next point...

2) Requiring a google login to leave a review helps attach an identity to the reviewer. This is good for a few reasons. 

a: Since an email is required to leave a review you will be able to respond to the review, whether negative or positive. And by responding your customer will get a notification of your response which could allow them to change the review or re-open a necessary line of communication to help amend a problem. 

b: By logging in, the customers name is often shown in addition to their email. This allows the business owner to possibly see what went wrong. A "you suck, 1-star - by Jerry Fisher" allows you the information needed to lookup this Jerry Fisher customer, which employee worked with Jerry, possibly see what went wrong, then follow up with the customer to fix the problem either via the email or your own information on the customer. 

c: Needing to sign-in also helps you because if the customers name is attached to the review they tend to be a little more logical, honest, and less harsh. Imagine if an unhappy customer didn't have any ties to their review? They could really dig in, lie, be offensive, or could be a shady competitor.  On the flip side, happy customers often put nicer comments knowing their name will be on the review. We all like kudos points. 

3) Customers are slightly incentivized to leave honest reviews by Google. Plus, it helps your business show reviews from reliable customers. 

A user can login and see all the reviews they have ever left, and change them if need be. If they left a review that got a lot of likes from the local community or multiple reviews with likes, then Google gives their next given review a little more weight compared to others that are one-timers. Google will also be more likely to show a reliable reviewers review at the top of the list on your GMB page. Google also gives them badges for being a trusted reviewer of the community, and encourages them to leave reviews more often. 

On the flip side, a negative Nancy that leaves 1-star reviews for every business in their wake with will be down-ranked and not weigh as heavily against you if you become another victim. 

4) More marketing data for Google. Yay...

This is not so much a pro or con for you as a business owner, but certainly a pro for Google. We all know Google try's to collect as much data as possible where it can. Google already creates a secret digital profile for you based off of the YouTube videos you watch, the emails you send/receive, the items in your google drive, what you search on google, etc. Why not also profile you by the places you shop at? They can use this valuable data to better serve you ads and better pin-point your demographic. Creepy, yea. It's the world we live in now. 

 

But wait, there is technically a way to bypass the login for Google reviews!  🎉

Yes, it's possible. We lied. However it is far more steps for the customer than to just login the right way, which defeats the whole purpose of this conversation of leaving reviews as fast as possible. 

When the user is presented with the login screen for google reviews, there is an option to leave a review as a guest. When clicked, the user must enter a valid email address, their full name, and their birthdate. Doing so essentially creates them a temporary Gmail that they can use to login to leave a review. This is roughly 5 more steps than just logging in normally, so it's best to say there is not an easier way to leave a review than the inconvenient login screen. 

With our upgraded review system you can have the option to put multiple review sites on one page. So if a user does not have a gmail, they can just select Yelp, or trust pilot, or TripAdvisor. This is a slight workaround to the problem that maximizes review capture. (image below). We find this is the best way to get past the problem of users not have a gmail to leave a google review. 

Take a look at some of our most popular review products, all are customizable with a one day turnaround. We ship globally