At delivery, in one sentence, then never again

Ask at the moment you deliver, in one sentence, attached to the delivery, then stop permanently.

The single ask is not a compromise between asking and not asking. It is the version that converts best, and the second ask is a different message doing a different thing.

Why the moment of delivery

Willingness to leave a review decays fast, from a peak that occurs when the buyer opens what you sent.

At that moment they have the deliverable in front of them, they have just formed an opinion, and they are still in the exchange. Three days later they would have to reconstruct the job from memory, which is why the reviews that arrive late are the vague ones even when the buyer was delighted.

That is also the argument for putting the ask inside the handover rather than in a separate message, which is a second notification asking for a favour and reads as pressure. The handover message is doing several jobs at once and this is one of them.

The sentence

Plain, unapologetic, and honest about why you want it.

If it was useful, a review helps a lot at this stage - it is how a new name becomes a booked one.

It gives a reason, the reason is true, and it asks for nothing beyond a review.

Things to leave out. Do not specify what to write, because a coached review reads as one. Do not mention stars, because naming five is the fastest way to make a four feel like an accusation. Do not offer anything in exchange: platform rules almost everywhere forbid it, and the FTC's 2024 rule on fake reviews bans incentives conditioned on a review expressing a particular sentiment.

Why the second ask fails

It converts badly, which is the small problem. Someone who did not review after the first ask has usually decided, and the reasons are mostly not about you: they are busy, private, or they do not review anything.

The larger problem is what it changes. The first ask closes a transaction; the second is a request from someone who wants something and did not get it, and it moves the relationship from finished to slightly owed.

It also produces worse reviews than the first ask does. A prompted, reluctant reviewer writes the minimum, and the minimum skews neutral. A wall of prompted three-word reviews is worse for a listing than fewer unprompted specific ones, which is most of the reason the first ten reviews are worth being deliberate about.

And it costs the repeat booking, which is worth several reviews, because mild irritation is enough to lose one.

Buyers are consistently clear about this when asked, and the etiquette side of a commission sets the expectation plainly: one request is normal and expected, and chasing is the thing that makes a good job memorable for the wrong reason.

The buyers you do not ask at all

Some jobs should close in silence, and that is a separate decision with its own rules which overrides everything here.

What to do when the review does not come

Nothing, and specifically not a reminder dressed as something else. The "just checking you received it" message is a review request, the buyer knows it is one, and the transparency of it is the part that grates.

Take the non-review as data. A run of deliveries that generate no reviews at all is telling you the work is fine and forgettable, which is a problem with the deliverable rather than the ask.

Two more things not to do. Never contact a buyer outside the platform to ask, since off-platform contact is prohibited in most terms and puts your identity and theirs somewhere neither of you can withdraw it from. And do not argue with a score you did receive; what a bare number communicates rarely justifies the conversation.

Where a platform sends its own review prompt on a schedule, your one ask sits alongside it rather than instead of it, and it is worth knowing which prompts your buyers already get; Rate Cock documents that on its judges page.