Ask every customer, every time, a day or two after the job is finished, and send them your direct review link so it takes seconds. Send one polite reminder, never more. Reply to every review. Don’t offer anything in return and don’t pick and choose who you ask. It’s the system that wins, not the wording.
1. Get your direct review link
In your Google Business Profile, look for Ask for reviews (sometimes shown as “Get more reviews”). It gives you a short link that opens the review box straight away, with your stars ready to tap. Save it somewhere you can paste it from your phone. Asking someone to “search for us on Google and find the reviews bit” loses most of them.
2. Ask at the right moment
The best time is shortly after the job is finished and tidied, while the new roof, kitchen or boiler is still the best thing that happened to their week. Mention it in person at handover (“I’ll send you a link. A quick review really helps a small firm like mine”), then send the link a day or two later.
3. Keep the message short
Use their name and the actual job. Text or WhatsApp often gets a quicker response than email; email is easier to automate. Either works.
4. One reminder, then stop
People mean to do it and forget. One friendly nudge about a week later picks up a good share of them. More than one starts to feel like pestering, which is the opposite of the impression you want to leave.
5. Reply to every review
- Good ones: thank them by name and mention the job. It takes thirty seconds and shows the next customer there’s a real person behind the business.
- Bad ones: stay calm, stick to facts, don’t share private details, and offer to sort it out offline. You’re writing for the next hundred people who read it, not to win the argument.
What not to do
- Offer a discount, a prize draw or anything else in return for a review.
- Only ask the customers you’re sure were delighted.
- Write reviews yourself, or have friends and family pose as customers.
- Buy reviews or swap them with other businesses. It’s against Google’s rules and, in the UK, the law.
Make it happen every time
The hard part isn’t the asking. It’s remembering to do it on a Friday afternoon after a long job. The dashboard that comes with a Scalar Digital full build can do it for you: mark the job complete, and your customer gets your review link two days later, with one reminder a week after that, and never more.