Private notes and the page your link opens

When a customer opens the link in a review request, or scans your QR code, they see a short page from your business:

• Your business name and a thank-you.
• A big Leave a review on Google button, first.
• Below it, a smaller link: Want to tell the owner something directly?, with a line saying they can still leave a review too.

Every customer sees the same page. There's no star rating or "how was it?" question first, and nothing changes based on what a customer might say. The private note is offered to everyone, and it never replaces the public review: a customer can do either, or both. That's how Google's review rules and the FTC's rule on reviews say asking has to work. See How we ask.

What a private note is

A short message from the customer to you. It goes only to your business's owners and managers (on Group, the people you choose) and never appears on Google or anywhere public. The customer can add their name and an email address or phone number if they'd like a reply, or leave them out.

Read your notes

1. Open Reviews and click Private notes, or go straight to Private notes.
2. New notes are marked New, newest first.
3. Click Mark read once you've dealt with one. Mark unread puts it back.

How long notes are kept

Notes are deleted automatically 2 years after the customer sent them. To delete one sooner, click Delete next to it. A deleted note can't be brought back. Anyone who can read notes can delete them.

Owners and managers can read private notes, and staff can't, because the page tells customers their note goes to the owner. On the Group plan the owner can switch Read private notes off for a manager, or on for a staff member. See Team and roles.

Reply to a note

If the customer left a way to reach them, it's under the note. Reply from your own email or phone. If they left nothing, the note is anonymous and there's no way to reply.

Alerts

Owners and managers get an email when a note comes in. The note itself isn't in the email. To stop these emails, turn off Email me when a customer sends a private note in Settings → All settings → Notifications. See Choose your alerts.

Clicks

The request funnel on your Dashboard counts Clicked: customers who tapped your Google button. The QR codes card on Requests shows how many scans went on to open Google. We count taps, never who made them. Reviewed counts the reviews we could tie to the customer you asked.