The Reviews tool turns satisfied patients into public reviews. FrontDesk can ask each client for a rating after their visit, send happy ones to the review sites you care about, and keep less-happy feedback private so you can make it right.
Open it from Settings → Reviews, in the Communication group. (It used to live under Engage; that address still redirects here.) The page has three tabs, Overview, Requests and Settings, and each location has its own review settings.
Turn on automatic review requests
- Go to Settings → Reviews.
- On the Overview tab, turn on Review Generation ("Automatically send review requests to patients after appointments").
- On the Settings tab, check Send delay, Ask the same client again after, Send via, Which visits, Reminders and your Review Platforms (below).
From then on, every visit that's marked Completed (on the calendar, from the appointment, or in the mobile app) and every video visit that ends gets a review request for the client (for a group session, each client who was there).
When an automatic request goes out
- Send delay hours after the visit ends (its start time plus its length). The default is 2 hours; you can set 0 to 72.
- If the visit is marked completed later than that, the request goes out within about five minutes.
- Texts wait for daytime: they only go out between 8am and 9pm in the client's local time, so a request due in the evening goes out the next morning.
- The request shows as Scheduled on the Requests tab until it's sent.
- Turned off in the meantime: a waiting request whose time comes while Review Generation is off is marked Skipped instead of going out (turned back on before then, it goes). Requests you send yourself aren't affected.
Who gets one (and who doesn't)
A client gets an automatic request unless:
- They were asked recently. A client who was sent a review request, automatically or by hand, within the Ask the same client again after time (90 days unless you change it) isn't asked again, so weekly clients aren't asked after every session. Set it to Every visit to ask after each visit anyway.
- They already have one for this visit. Each visit gets at most one request per client.
- They weren't there. A cancelled or no-show visit gets none; in a group, only clients who attended get one.
- The visit type isn't on your list. When you've chosen Visit types, only those visits get a request.
- They're too new. With Minimum visits above 1, a client is only asked once they've had that many completed visits (this one included).
- They can't be reached. Clients marked do-not-contact, or with no phone number or email for the way you send reviews, get none.
At send time FrontDesk checks again and marks the request Skipped, with the reason, if the account was closed or archived, Review Generation was turned off, the visit was cancelled since, or the client replied STOP, turned off texts or email, or has a blocked number. When you send by Both and only one way works, it's sent that way.
Send a request by hand
Press Send Request at the top of the page. Send Review Request asks for First Name, Last Name, and the Phone Number or Email Address (whichever Send via needs), and sends it straight away. Manual requests work whether or not Review Generation is on.
Settings
On the Settings tab:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Send delay | Hours after the visit to send an automatic request (0–72, default 2). |
| Link expiration | Days until the review link stops working (1–30, default 7). |
| Ask the same client again after | How long before a client who was asked for a review (automatically or by hand) can get another automatic request: Every visit, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days (default), 6 months or 1 year. Each visit still gets at most one request per client. |
| Send via | SMS, Email or Both. |
| Positive rating threshold | 5 stars only, 4+ stars (default) or 3+ stars. Ratings at or above it are pointed to your review platforms; lower ones stay private. |
| Visit types (Which visits) | Pick from your services list to send automatic requests only after those visit types. Empty (the default) means every type. |
| Minimum visits (Which visits) | Only ask a client once they've had at least this many completed visits (1–50, default 1). |
| Send reminders (Reminders) | On by default for practices that set up reviews from October 1, 2026; off for practices set up before, until you turn it on. A reminder goes to a client who hasn't opened their link yet. |
| How many (Reminders) | 1 reminder or 2 reminders (default). |
| First reminder / Second reminder | Days after the request went out (default 1 and 3; the second has to come after the first). |
| Review Platforms | Add Review Platform: Google, Yelp, Facebook, Healthgrades, Zocdoc, or Other, with its Review Page URL and optional Display Text (for example "Review us on Google"). |
Check each request
The Requests tab lists every request with the patient, status, rating, platform and date sent:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | Waiting to go out (an automatic request before its send time, or a text waiting for 8am). |
| Sending / Sent | On its way, then delivered to the text or email service. |
| Opened, Rated, Reviewed | The patient opened the link, rated the visit, and clicked through to a review site. |
| Failed | It couldn't be sent. The reason shows under the status; fix it and use Resend. |
| Skipped | A scheduled request that wasn't sent, with the reason ("Not sent: ..."). You can still send one yourself. |
| Expired | The link ran out before it was used (or before a scheduled request went out). |
The row's menu has Resend (not for rated, reviewed or expired requests) and Mark Followed Up for private feedback.
Reminders
A client who hasn't opened their review link gets a short reminder ("a quick reminder from ... we'd love your feedback on your visit") with the same link, by the same way you send requests:
- Up to 2 reminders (set How many), the first 1 day and the second 3 days after the request went out unless you change them.
- Each is sent at most once. None goes once the client has opened or rated the link, after the link expires, or while Review Generation or Send reminders is off.
- The same checks as the request itself: do-not-contact, a STOP reply, texts or email turned off, a blocked number, or a closed account mean no reminder. Texts wait for 8am–9pm in the client's time.
- A reminder that couldn't go out within a day of its time is dropped rather than sent late, and a reminder never follows within 12 hours of another send (a Resend included).
- Reminder texts appear in the client's message thread and count as texts on your plan.
You can still use Resend to nudge someone yourself.
Track your reputation
While Review Generation is on, the Overview tab shows Requests Sent, Responses, Avg Rating, Positive Rate, Review Clicks (patients who clicked through to a review site), and the rating distribution. Responses are the requests that got a rating, and Positive Rate is the share of those at or above your Positive rating threshold; a request nobody has rated yet counts in neither.
Reviews for your website
If your practice has a FrontDesk website, a client who gives a good rating is also asked whether they would share a sentence or two for your website. They choose how their name shows (first name and last initial, just initials, or no name) and tick a box agreeing that you may show it; the exact wording they agreed to is kept with their review. Nothing appears on your site until you approve it on the website's Reviews section (Online Booking → Website → Pages, the Reviews section, From your clients). To stop asking, turn off Ask for words for our website in Settings.
Good to know
- Texts count toward your plan. Each review request text counts as a text, like any other text FrontDesk sends.
- More reviews, more calls. A strong Google rating is one of the biggest drivers of new-patient calls, which your AI then answers and books.
- Keep it genuine. Ask real patients after real visits; don't offer incentives for ratings, which most platforms' policies forbid.