For a local trade business, Google reviews are the closest thing to free advertising that exists. They decide whether you appear in the map pack, and once you are there they decide whether anyone calls you rather than the company above you. Most contractors do excellent work and have eleven reviews.
Ask at the right moment
There is one reliable window: just after the customer has paid. The work is done, it worked, the money is settled, and nothing is outstanding. Ask before payment and it feels transactional. Ask a week later and the feeling has faded.
Ask in a way that can be acted on
“Leave us a review on Google” requires them to search for you, find the right listing, and work out where the button is. Half of willing customers fall out at that point.
Send the direct link. In your Google Business Profile, use the “Ask for reviews” option to get the short link that opens the review box directly. That link is the difference between a 10% and a 40% response rate.
What to say
Thanks again, Dana — glad the heat is back on. If you have thirty seconds, a quick Google review genuinely helps a small company like ours get found. Here’s the direct link: [link]
Short, specific to the job, explains why it matters, one link. Do not suggest what to write — reviews that sound coached read as coached.
Rules worth knowing
- Never offer anything in exchange. No discounts, no draws, no gift cards. It violates Google’s policies and risks the listing you depend on.
- Do not filter. Asking only happy customers — “review gating” — is also against policy. Ask everyone you did good work for.
- Never buy reviews. Detection is good and the penalty is your business disappearing from the map.
Reply to every one
Including the bad ones, especially the bad ones. A calm, factual reply to a one-star review persuades more future customers than the five-star ones do, because it shows what happens when something goes wrong. Never argue, never share customer details, offer to take it to a phone call.
Make it happen without remembering
The reason contractors have eleven reviews is not reluctance — it is that the asking depends on remembering, at the end of a long day, for every job. Automate that one trigger and the number climbs on its own.
How Toolbelt does it
Add your Google review link once. When an invoice is marked paid, Toolbelt can send the review request automatically, in your name, once per customer — or you can fire it manually from the share panel. Three free estimates, no card.
Next: your Google Business Profile, which is where those reviews actually do their work.