Is It Legal to Text Customers for a Google Review? The Spam Act, Explained Simply

Short answer: yes. Texting a customer to ask for a Google review is perfectly legal in Australia — as long as you follow a few simple rules that, honestly, a decent business is probably following already.

If you've hesitated to set up review texts because you weren't sure where you stood, this one's for you. The rules come from the Spam Act 2003, they're enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), and they boil down to three things: have a proper basis to text, say who you are, and make it easy to opt out. Do those three and you're not just legal — you look more professional to every customer you message.

One thing before we dig in: this is general information, not legal or compliance advice. If your situation is unusual, a quick chat with your lawyer is money well spent.

What the Spam Act actually covers

The Spam Act governs "commercial electronic messages" — marketing sent by email, SMS or instant message. If a message promotes your business, it's in scope, and the same three obligations apply whether you run a plumbing business, a physio clinic, a café or a law firm — sole trader or national chain.

Here's the part most owners find reassuring: none of the obligations are hard. They're the electronic version of basic good manners.

1. Consent. You need the person's permission to message them. The cleanest kind is express consent — they ticked a box, filled in a form, or simply said "yep, text me" when they booked. There's also inferred consent from an ongoing relationship, but as we'll unpack below, express consent is the one you actually want for review requests — and it's easy to get.

2. Identify yourself. The message must make clear who it's from and how to reach you. Your business name in the text does the job — no mystery numbers, no "guess who". Those details also have to stay accurate for at least 30 days after you send, so a customer can always tell who messaged them.

3. A working opt-out. Every message needs a free, functional way to say "no more" — the classic "Reply STOP to opt out" — and you have to honour it promptly. ACMA's rule: action opt-outs within five working days, keep that opt-out working for at least 30 days after the message, and don't make people log in or hand over extra details to unsubscribe.

That's the whole framework. Not so scary, is it?

The consent question, properly answered

Consent is where most of the worry lives, so let's be precise — and let's start with the path that's genuinely clean.

Express consent, captured up front, is your best friend. The simplest way to be on rock-solid ground is to get a quick yes before you ever send the text — and you've almost certainly already got the perfect moment to ask.

Booked over the phone, or dealing with someone face to face? Just ask on the spot. ACMA counts a yes given "over the phone" or "face to face" as valid express consent, so a one-liner does it: "I'll flick you a quick text afterwards to see how we went and ask for a review — all good?" A yes is a yes — no form required. That covers all the bookings that never see a piece of paper — the phone enquiry, the walk-in, the visit sorted on the spot.

Sending a quote, booking form, invoice or confirmation? Add one line and it's set-and-forget: "We may text you afterwards to ask how we did and invite a review — reply STOP anytime to opt out." Put it on whatever goes out first — often the quote or the booking confirmation — and every customer from then on has a clean basis baked in.

Now, the bit people get wrong. You might assume that because a customer handed over their number for the job, you've automatically got inferred consent to text them afterwards. Careful here — ACMA is explicit that inferred consent is for an ongoing relationship (think a subscription, an account, a membership), and that it does not cover sending messages after someone has just bought something from you. A one-off sale or service that's now finished is exactly that. So don't lean on inferred consent as your basis for that after-the-fact review text — it's the one footing ACMA rules out. That's precisely why you grab the express yes up front instead — and as you've just seen, that takes about ten seconds.

One more thing that trips people up: you can't text someone to ask for permission to text them. That request is itself a commercial message. Consent has to be collected another way — on the call, at the counter, or on that one line in your paperwork — which is exactly the ask above.

And if it ever comes down to it, the burden of proof sits with you, the sender — but discharging it is painless. Your record is simply the yes on the call or the line on the quote, backed by the fact that every message names your business and carries a one-tap opt-out. Nothing to upload, no calls to record. If your systems log the consent and the sends for you, the record keeps itself and you'll never think about it again.

The grey area, handled the grown-up way

Here's a second reason to relax. Is a pure review request — no offer, no promotion — even a "commercial electronic message" in the first place? Genuinely debatable. It promotes your business indirectly, but it's not selling anything, so there's a fair argument the consent rules don't even bite.

You could spend an afternoon arguing it either way. The professional move is not to bother: get the express yes up front and comply as if the Act applies anyway. Say who you are, include the opt-out. It costs you a dozen characters in the message and buys you total peace of mind — and a request that carries your name and a courteous opt-out simply reads better to customers regardless. Done right, compliance isn't a burden. It's a trust signal.

Where reviews fit in

Worth remembering why this is worth setting up: those reviews are doing real commercial work for your business every time someone compares you to a competitor. The legal side is the easy part — the difference between a trickle of reviews and a steady stream usually comes down to timing, consistency and how you word the ask.

So a compliant review text looks like this: sent to a recent customer who said yes to a follow-up text when they booked, shortly after the work's done, clearly from your business, with a one-tap review link and "Reply STOP to opt out" at the end. Every box ticked, nothing pushy, entirely legal.

The catch is doing that every time — capturing the yes, remembering the send, keeping the records, honouring every opt-out, at 4pm on a Friday with a full book still ahead of you. That's exactly the sort of thing worth automating: you capture the yes once at intake, and Gold Reviews handles the rest — it only sends when a job's flagged consent-given and the customer hasn't opted out, puts your business name and "Reply STOP to opt out" on every message, and honours STOP automatically. It doesn't collect the consent for you; it makes the compliant way the default way and keeps the record, so the right way is also the effortless way.

Text away — you're on solid ground.

This article is general information for Australian businesses, not legal or compliance advice. For guidance on your specific circumstances, speak to a qualified professional. Sources: ACMA — Avoid sending spam; ACMA — Email and SMS unsubscribe rules.