Three numbers that frame the whole category

advertised entry price at the category leader, before messaging registration and numbers: $399+
expected launch price here, one location, no contract — $19 held for founder-tier signups: $29
filtering unhappy customers out before the ask, which several tools quietly enable: Against policy

Unbuilt · taking signups

One message, at the right hour, to everyone

It asks every customer, not the ones you felt good about. Timing per service type, the channel each customer actually reads, and a message that does not sound like software wrote it.

Send by SMS, email or WhatsApp, chosen per customer
Timing rules per service — a haircut and a root canal are not the same week
One follow-up, ever, and then it stops
Every customer asked, because gating is not on the menu

Join the waitlist

Expected launch price $29 a month, one location. Messaging at cost.

Why this is a real category and a bad one

The underlying fact is not in dispute: a business that asks gets reviews and a business that does not, does not. There is no clever mechanism here and no growth hack. The whole product is a scheduler with good manners.

What makes the category unpleasant is the pricing and the quiet policy problem. Entry prices of three or four hundred dollars a month exist because the products are sold to multi-location chains through a sales team, and a single-chair salon buying one is paying for an account manager it will never call.

The policy problem is quieter. A large share of what buyers want is a filter: ask the happy ones, catch the unhappy ones before they post. Google's policy on soliciting reviews prohibits exactly that, and a product that offers it is selling its customers a risk they have not been told about.

What a one-location business actually pays

Published list prices, August 2026, before messaging costs.

Tool	Entry price	Contract	Built for
Review Requests	$29/mo	None	One location
NiceJob	~$75/mo	None	Small service businesses
Birdeye	~$299–499/mo	Annual, commonly	Multi-location
Podium	$399/mo advertised	Annual, commonly	Multi-location
Asking by hand	$0	None	A business with more discipline than most

NiceJob is the honest comparison and it is a good product. The gap between $29 and $75 is not a claim of superiority — it is a claim about how much of a reputation suite a one-chair business will ever open.

The five ways asking fails in practice

None of them are about the message text, which is what everybody focuses on.

It happens for a fortnightSomebody decides to ask everyone. It works. Then a busy week arrives and it stops, and the habit does not come back on its own.
Only the pleasant customers get askedEntirely human, entirely understandable, and it is selective solicitation — the practice Google's policy prohibits. Doing it by instinct is still doing it.
The timing is wrong for the serviceAsking an hour after a haircut is right. Asking an hour after dental surgery is not, and the same rule cannot serve both.
The message reads like a form letterCustomers can tell, and a message that sounds automated converts worse than a slightly awkward one that sounds like a person.
The link takes four taps to reach the review boxEvery tap loses people. A direct link to the review form is the single highest-leverage detail in the entire message and it is frequently wrong.

What it would cost

One location, flat, no contract, cancel whenever. Messaging shown separately at cost.

Expected launch price

$29per month

Founder price$19 per month

Flat, one location, no contract. Messaging costs are passed through at cost and shown separately, because hiding them is how the headline prices in this category stop meaning anything.

This product does not exist yet. The number above is the price we expect to launch at, not a commitment. If the waitlist says it is wrong, it changes.

What the price covers

Unlimited review requests to your own customers
SMS, email and WhatsApp, chosen per customer
Timing rules by service type, not one global delay
Exactly one follow-up, then silence
A direct link to your review form, checked rather than assumed
A weekly note telling you who was asked and what arrived

What it does not cover

Sentiment gating, in any form. Not a missing feature — a refused one.
Buying, incentivising or writing reviews. All against policy, all a way to lose a profile.
Listings management, social posting, competitor benchmarking, and the rest of a reputation suite.
A guarantee about ratings. Anyone offering one is describing something they do not control.

Founder price holds while the account stays open.

Objections, including the one that may sink this

I want to catch unhappy customers before they post.: This is the most common request in the category and the answer is no. Google's policy prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews, and products that enable it are handing their customers a risk in exchange for a nicer average. You can absolutely ask every customer for feedback privately as well — what you cannot do is use that feedback to decide who gets the review link.
NiceJob is $75 and already exists.: It does, it works, and it has no contract. If you want the broader product — the site widget, the referral features, the social proof tooling — it is the better purchase and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. The narrower bet is that most single-location businesses want the asking and nothing else.
We ask at the counter. It works fine.: It does work, and it works better than any message, and it happens for about three weeks. If you have been asking at the counter consistently for a year, you are the exception this product is not for.
Text messages cost money.: They do, and in the United States there is also a registration process for business messaging with its own fees. That is why messaging here is passed through at cost and shown as its own line, rather than folded into a headline price that stops meaning anything at volume.

Tell me when this exists

Useful in the context field: your trade, and which channel your customers actually reply on.