ReviewGun

Guide

How to get more Google reviews

Almost nobody has a review problem. What they have is a habit problem: they know reviews decide the quote, they mean to ask, and the week goes past. Every business with a hundred reviews got them by making the asking ordinary — and every business stuck on eleven has been about to fix it for two years.

Here is the system, the moments it runs on, and the honest answer about what reviews will and will not do for your ranking.

Why the count and the date both matter

  • The reviews people read are the recent ones

    Four glowing reviews from two years ago and nothing since reads as a business that used to be good, or one that has stopped caring. A steady trickle of new ones reads as a business that is still working — which is the thing a customer is trying to work out.

  • The count tells them other people took the risk

    Given two similar quotes, a homeowner picks the business with forty recent reviews over the one with six. Not because forty is a magic number, but because it means forty other households let somebody in and were pleased with the result.

  • You cannot out-work a quiet listing

    The best tradesperson on the street with eight reviews loses the quote to a competent competitor with sixty, every time it matters. Reviews are the only part of your reputation that travels ahead of you.

  • Volume is what makes one bad night survivable

    With thirty reviews, a bad job is three per cent of your story. With six, it is a fifth of everything anybody can read about you. Asking more often is also what protects you from the review you cannot control.

The system, in five steps

  1. 1Every customer gets asked — not the ones you like

    The rule is everybody, every job. Choosing who gets asked is review gating, which is prohibited, and it is also unreliable: the quiet customer who was perfectly happy is the one whose review you would have missed. Set the rule once and stop deciding in the moment.

  2. 2Ask at the moment the job ends

    The walkthrough, the handover, the moment they say thank you. That gratitude lasts about ten minutes and it is the only window where asking costs you nothing socially. Not next week, when the job is forgotten and so is your name.

  3. 3Make it one tap

    Send them to the review box, never to your profile. Every extra step — searching your business name, finding the review button — is somewhere they give up, and sending them to the profile is the single most common reason a review request produces nothing.

  4. 4Send it from your own phone, in your own words

    A normal text from a number the customer recognises, with the customer's name in it and no marketing in sight. Wording that sounds like a tradesperson beats wording that sounds like a campaign, and the customer can tell the difference from the first line.

  5. 5Ask once more, a few days later, and then stop

    One nudge catches the customers who meant to and forgot, which is most of them. A second reminder is where goodwill starts going the other way, so the follow-up happens once and never becomes a routine.

Steps two to four are the ones with detail behind them: review request text templates for the wording, how to find your google review link so the link actually opens the review box, and your google review qr code for the in-person version.

The four moments to ask

They are not alternatives to choose between — they reach different customers, and the businesses with the fullest listings use all four without thinking about it.

In person, as you hand the job over

Reaches the customer standing in front of you, who is already pleased and already holding a phone. A QR code on a card or the invoice turns that into one tap without you waiting for them to type anything.

By text, before you pull out of the driveway

Reaches everybody you have just finished with, including the customers who paid and went back inside. Two taps from the van is the version of this that survives a busy week — which is exactly the week the asks stop happening.

On the invoice, quote or receipt

Reaches the customer who pays a week later, and the one who files your paperwork and finds it again in six months. It costs nothing and it is the ask that happens whether or not anybody remembered.

On the job-site sign

Reaches the neighbours watching the work go up, who have not met you and have no way to judge you yet. That is a customer you would otherwise never get the chance to ask.

What decides whether it survives a busy month

  • It has to happen on the busy weeks. The weeks you most need new reviews are the weeks nobody has time to ask for one. The whole design of the ask has to be small enough for that week: two taps, in the van, before the next call. Anything that needs a quiet afternoon is a system that stops in June.
  • Whoever is with the customer asks. Not the office, and not when somebody eventually gets round to it. The person the customer dealt with, at the moment the work finished, is the only one whose ask reads as a thank-you rather than a request.
  • The customers who complained get asked too. A complaint you put right is the most credible review you will ever receive, and skipping that customer because the job was bumpy is gating — the same rule again. Fix it, then ask.

What not to do

  • Do not offer anything in exchange — no discounts, no free call-outs, no entry into a draw. It puts the listing at risk rather than the review.
  • Do not decide who gets asked. Review gating is prohibited, and the customers you would screen out are the ones whose reviews would have counted most.
  • Do not ask for five stars. Ask for a review and let them write it; a listing where every rating is five is less believable than one with an honest spread.
  • Do not buy reviews, and do not ask staff or family. It reads as fake engagement, and it is.
  • Do not chase. Once more after a few days, and then leave it alone for good.

Those are not style preferences — each one is a rule, and What Google's review policy allows sets out where the line is, along with the short list of reviews Google will actually remove.

Questions contractors ask about getting reviews

How do I get more Google reviews?
Ask every customer, at the moment the job ends, with a link that opens the review box rather than your profile, sent from your own phone in your own words — then ask once more a few days later. That is the whole method. Most home service businesses are not short of happy customers; they are short of a habit, which is why the reviews stop in the busy weeks.
How many Google reviews do I need?
There is no number Google requires, and anybody quoting one is selling something. What matters is that your newest review is weeks old rather than years, and that you look at least as busy as the businesses you lose quotes to. Pick the three competitors you actually come up against, count theirs, and treat that as your working target.
How long does it take to build up reviews?
A review usually arrives within a few days of being asked. The count builds at the rate you finish jobs — some customers will never reply, and that is normal, so ten jobs a week is not ten reviews a week. What you are aiming for is a listing where the newest review is always recent, which is a few months of asking every job.
Does asking for reviews annoy customers?
Some will ignore it. Almost none are annoyed by one polite request at the end of a job they are happy with, because it is an ordinary thing for a business to do. What people resent is being chased, which is why the follow-up happens once and nothing arrives after it.
Should I ask in person or by text?
In person if you are there when the job ends, because that is the moment they are happiest and a QR code makes it one tap on the spot. By text when you have already left, or when the customer was never on site — which is most repeat and remote work. The best answer is both, pointed at the same review link.
Do more reviews help me rank in Google Maps?
Reviews are one of the signals Google uses in local results, and nobody outside Google can tell you how much weight they carry — so be sceptical of anyone promising you a map position. What is certain is that the customers comparing your quote with two others read your reviews before they call, and that is the part you can influence.
My customer list is small. Is it worth starting?
Start now, because every job is one ask and the list grows as you work. Your existing regulars count too — they have the most to say and have usually never been asked — and a year of asking every job produces a listing that would cost a competitor real money to catch up with.
Do I need to pay for a review tool?
No tool produces the reviews; the asking does. A tool is worth paying for when the alternative is not asking — the value is having the wording, the review link and a record of who was asked in one place, so it happens in two taps in the van instead of tonight when you remember. If you would ask on the driveway without it, you do not need it.

Two taps, on the job you are on today

Save your wording and your review link once, then send from your own phone before you pull out of the driveway. $29 a month after 3 days free.

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The rest of the guide

Nobody needs all of it. If you are starting from nothing, read the first two.

Review requests for your trade

The method is the same whatever you do for a living. These pages are about the jobs, the timing and the objections that come up in yours.