Side Quests · Small missions. Real progress.
Time: 15 minutes | Cost: $0 | You’ll need: a notes app or spreadsheet, and a list of recent customers or clients
Most side hustlers know reviews matter. Fewer actually have a system for asking. The result is usually the same: a handful of reviews from the most enthusiastic customers, and silence from everyone else — not because they didn’t like the work, but because nobody asked them at the right moment. Today’s quest fixes the “nobody asked” problem with a simple tracker you can glance at before you forget again.
Your mission: Build a short tracker of your last several customers, mark who’s been asked for a review, and queue up your next three asks so review requests stop depending on memory.
Steps
- List your last 8–10 customers or clients. Open a spreadsheet or notes app and write down the most recent people you’ve worked with, served, or sold to. Don’t filter for “best” customers yet — just get names down so you have a real list to work from.
- Add two columns: “Asked?” and “Platform.” Next to each name, mark whether you’ve ever requested a review from them (yes, no, or unsure), and which platform makes sense for them — a platform that permits review requests, after checking its current rules. Yelp tells businesses not to ask for reviews, so leave Yelp out of this request tracker. This turns a vague feeling of “I should ask more” into a visible gap.
- Choose your next three customers fairly. Work through completed jobs in date order, regardless of whether the customer seemed happy or unhappy. Skip people who have already reviewed, declined or asked not to be contacted. Invite honest feedback without incentives, pressure or a requested rating. Google prohibits selectively asking for positive reviews.
- Draft one short request you can reuse. Write a two-sentence message: thank them for the business, then ask directly for a review with a link or simple instructions. Keep it casual and specific, something like asking them to share “one sentence about what it was like to work together.” A short, easy ask gets answered more often than a long, formal one.
- Schedule the first send and a recheck date. Pick the first eligible customer in your date-ordered list and send a request only where the platform permits it and you have an appropriate contact route. Respect opt-outs; do not keep chasing someone who declines. Then put a recurring reminder — weekly or biweekly — to revisit this tracker, mark new “Asked” entries, and queue the next few names. The system only works if it keeps running after today.
Quest complete when: you have a written list of recent customers with their review status tracked, one request already sent or scheduled, and a recurring reminder set so asking for reviews becomes routine instead of something you remember only after a great job well done.
