Asking customers to post about you is a Skill job you finish in one sitting, about an hour for the whole kit. You give ChatGPT or Claude the moments when customers are happiest, your handles and the platforms you use, and it writes four things: the spoken ask, a printed hashtag card, a text and email version of the ask, and the message you send to ask permission before you repost. Then you pick the one moment to ask, print the card, and say the line out loud for a month. The AI writes the words. You choose the moment, and you ask.
- Shape
- Skill
- Sitting
- one sitting
The shape: Skill
A Skill job is a brief you write once and reuse: one prompt, one answer, and your judgment on top. You connect nothing to the AI and build no system.
This job fits the shape because the hard part is wording, and wording is what the AI does well. Many owners who want customers to post never ask, or ask in a way that sounds like a favor they are embarrassed to request. The AI can write the same ask five ways, short enough to say at a register and warm enough that nobody feels sold to. It can also turn that ask into a card a customer actually keeps, and into the reply you send when someone does post.
The limit of the shape matters just as much. The AI does not know which moment in your business makes people reach for their phone. It does not see the customer's face when they pick up the order, and it cannot hand anyone a card. It also has no say over whether a photo is yours to use.
What this means for you: the AI drafts the kit in one pass, and you spend the rest of the hour deciding where it lives. The kit is cheap to change, so test it for a month and adjust. Keep the brief: when you add a product, open a second location or train new staff, paste it again with the new moment.
What you give the AI
The AI can only write an ask as good as the moment you describe. Give it these, by name, in one message:
- The moment customers are happiest, described plainly: "when they see the finished cut in the mirror", "when the box arrives", "when they taste the first bite on the patio".
- What a customer could photograph or film at that moment: the result, the space, the product in their hands, the view.
- Your handle on each platform you use, written exactly as it appears, and only the platforms you post on.
- One branded hashtag you want to use, or ask the AI for three options to check.
- Where the card could live: the counter, the bag, the box, the bill folder, the receipt, the email that confirms an order.
- How you will ask: in person, by text after the visit, by email, or all three.
- Anything you will not offer, such as discounts for posts, and any rules your industry has about testimonials.
- Two or three things customers have said to you, in their own words, so the ask sounds like your place and not like a template.
If you work in a field where testimonials carry rules, such as health, legal or finance, say so in one line. The AI should then keep the ask about the experience, not the result, but you check that yourself as well.
What comes back
You get a short kit in four parts. The spoken ask comes in several versions, each one sentence long. The card copy fits on a small printed card. The repost permission message is ready to send in a direct message. The written ask comes as one text message and one short email for the day after a visit.
Paste this brief into ChatGPT or Claude, with your inputs below it:
Write a kit that asks my customers to share their experience of my business on social media.
Write four things:
1. The spoken ask: five versions, one sentence each, easy to say out loud at the moment I list below. Warm, plain, never pushy. No guilt, no "it would really help us".
2. The hashtag card: copy for a small printed card. One line asking them to share, my handle on each platform listed, one hashtag, and one short line saying we may ask to repost with credit. Under 30 words total.
3. The written ask: one version for a text message and one for a short email, sent the day after a visit or delivery.
4. The repost permission message: a short direct message asking if we may share their post on our own account, with credit to their handle. It must ask for a clear yes and make "no" easy to say.
Rules:
- Ask them to share the experience, never to praise us or rate us.
- No rewards, discounts or entries in exchange for a post unless I say so below. If I do offer one, add a line telling the customer to say in the post that they got something for it.
- Never mix this with a request for a review.
- Use only the platforms and handles I list.
- If my hashtag is generic or likely to be used by others, say so and suggest three more specific options to check.
- Match the way my customers talk, using the quotes below.
The moment customers are happiest:
[describe it]
What they could photograph or film then:
[list]
My handles:
[platform: handle]
My hashtag:
[hashtag, or "suggest three"]
Where the card will live:
[list]
How I will ask:
[in person / text / email]
What I will not offer, and any rules my industry has about testimonials:
[list, or "no rewards for posts"]
Things customers have said to me:
[two or three quotes]Read the five spoken versions out loud and keep the one that sounds like you on a busy day. If none do, ask once with a single direction, such as "shorter, and with the word 'tag' in it". Asking for round after round tends to drift into marketing language nobody says at a counter.
How to judge it
You can reject a bad kit in a minute once you know the signs.
A bad kit looks like this:
- The spoken ask is longer than one breath. If you cannot say it while handing over a receipt, it will not get said.
- It asks for praise. "Tell everyone how great we are" turns a customer into a spokesperson, and most people quietly decline. A good ask is about the moment, not the verdict.
- The card asks for too much. Three hashtags, four handles and a website address mean the customer has to choose, and choosing is where they stop.
- It slips in a review request. Posts and reviews are separate asks with separate rules, and mixing them muddles both.
- It offers a reward without a disclosure line. A discount for a post with no word about disclosure leaves the customer in a spot they did not choose.
- The permission message assumes a yes. "We are sharing your photo" is not asking. The message has to wait for an answer.
- It sounds like any business. If you could swap your name for a competitor's and nothing changes, the AI ignored your customer quotes.
Then judge the hashtag. Search it in each app before you print anything. A good branded hashtag has few or no posts under it today, nothing you would be embarrassed to sit beside, and a spelling a customer can type from memory. Our hashtag research page walks through that check.
What stays with you
The AI writes the words. Almost everything that makes customers actually post stays with you.
These parts are yours:
- The moment. You know when a customer lights up, and the ask only works there. An ask at the wrong time, such as while they are paying for a repair they did not want, does more harm than no ask.
- Saying it out loud. A card on the counter with nobody pointing at it is decoration. The spoken line, said by you or your staff, is what moves people.
- Permission, every time. A tag is not a license. Before you repost a photo on your own account, your site or an ad, send the permission message and wait for a clear yes. Keep the reply.
- Faces and children. A customer's photo may show other people, including children, who did not agree to be on your account. Leave those out, or ask the people in the photo.
- Rewards and their rules. If you give anything for a post, the post becomes a paid endorsement, and in the United States the FTC expects it to say so. Review sites, Google included, do not allow rewards for reviews at all. Keep the two separate.
- The thank-you. When someone does post, reply, like it and thank them by name. That reply is the part other customers see, and it is the reason the next one bothers.
- Printing the card. The AI writes the copy. You choose the size, print it and put it where hands go.
An example (invented business)
This is an editorial example with a made-up business, to show the shape of the work.
Say you run a small bakery with a front window and four tables, and you post on Instagram and Facebook. You tell the AI the happiest moment is when a customer opens the box of a custom birthday cake at the counter to check it. They could photograph the cake, the box and the window behind them. Your handle is the same on both platforms. You want the card in every cake box, and you will not offer discounts for posts. You paste two things customers often say when they open the box, in their own words.
The kit might come back like this:
Spoken ask: "If you get a photo of it before it gets cut, tag us, we love seeing where they end up."
Card: "Before it gets cut, show us. Tag @[yourbakery] on Instagram or Facebook, with #[yourbakery]cakes. We may ask to share yours, with credit."
Permission message: "We love this photo of your cake. Could we share it on our page, with credit to you? Totally fine if not, just let us know either way."
You read the spoken asks aloud and pick the one with "before it gets cut", because it gives the customer a reason to take the photo now. You search the hashtag on Instagram, find it unused, and order a box of small cards that fit inside the cake box lid. When a photo appears, you send the permission message, wait for the yes, and then share it with the handle in the caption.
Where to ask
There is one real choice here: where the ask lives. The moment you described decides it.
| Where the happy moment happens | Where the ask goes | Why |
|---|---|---|
| In front of you, at the counter or the chair | Say it out loud, card on the counter | The spoken line does most of the work |
| When an order arrives at their door | Card in the box or bag, short note on top | The card is the only voice in the room |
| After the visit, once they see the result | Text or email the day after | The happy moment comes later than the visit |
| At an event or a busy weekend | A small sign at the spot people photograph | Nobody has time for a card in a crowd |
Most businesses need only one row. Pick the one where your customers already reach for their phones, and do that well for a month before adding a second.
Where the posts go next
Each post a customer shares, with permission, is material you did not have to make. The same goes for the words in your reviews, and our guide to turning customer reviews into a month of social proof shows how to use them. A short thank-you note in the bag pairs well with the card, and a contest is worth a look only if you are ready for the rules it brings.
Of every job on this list, social media is the one that comes back every week, and Boomp is software that does that one for you. See ten posts made from your website, free
