Ask the day you finish the job
Most customers who never leave a review aren't unhappy. They just got busy. The ask came a week later in an email they never opened, and the moment was gone. So the rule is simple: ask the same day you finish the work, while your job is still the most recent thing that happened to their house.
The peak moment is right after the final walkthrough or right after they pay. That's when they're most grateful and most likely to spend the sixty seconds. By the next morning you're competing with work, kids, and everything else in their life.
Text beats email. A text gets read within minutes. A review request email lands in a pile of promotions and sits there. Use text as your main channel and put the same link in your invoice email as a backup.
If a job went sideways, don't send the link. Call the customer, make it right, then ask once it's fixed. That's normal judgment, not the automated screening (called review gating) that Google prohibits. More on the rules below.
Grab your review link first (two minutes)
You need the direct link that opens the review box, not a link to your website or your Maps listing. Every extra tap loses people.
While signed into the Google account that manages your Business Profile, search your business name on Google. In the profile panel that appears, click "Ask for reviews". Google shows a short share link that looks like g.page/r/AbC123/review. Copy it. If you don't see the panel, your profile isn't verified yet. Start at business.google.com and finish verification before anything else.
Test the link on your own phone before you send it to anyone. Tapping it should open the review box with your business name and the star picker right there. If it opens your listing instead and makes them hunt for a review button, you grabbed the wrong link.
The moment that works on real jobs
Tee it up in person before you leave. Say something like: "I'm going to text you a link to leave us a Google review. It takes about a minute and it helps a small shop like ours more than anything." A customer who knows the text is coming opens it. A cold text from a number they just met often gets ignored.
Then send the text within the hour. Not from the truck three days later, not in a Friday batch. Within the hour.
- One-day job: ask at the wrap-up, text before you're out of the neighborhood.
- Multi-day job: ask only on the final day, at the walkthrough. Don't ask mid-project.
- Emergency call: they're relieved, and relieved customers write the best reviews. Text the same afternoon.
- Late finish: don't text at 9pm. Send it at 9 the next morning instead.
- Invoice email: add one line above the total. "Happy with the work? Leave us a Google review:" plus your link.
What to say (copy these)
Keep the text under 160 characters so it arrives as one message. This one is 145 with a real link in it:
"Hi Sue, Mike from Badger Plumbing. Thanks for having us out today. If you've got a minute, a Google review helps us a lot: g.page/r/AbC123/review"
Swap in the customer's name and what you actually did. "Thanks for having us out to fix the water heater" gets a better response than a line that reads like a blast to 500 people.
If nothing shows up after 3 or 4 days, send one follow-up: "Hi Sue, Mike again. No pressure, just in case the weekend got away from you: g.page/r/AbC123/review". Then stop. Two asks is the limit. A third one costs you goodwill.
One thing not to write: don't ask for "a 5-star review". Ask for a review, period. Asking for a specific rating reads pushy, and steering people toward only positive ratings is the exact behavior Google's policy bans.
Make it automatic so it survives a busy week
The system fails when it depends on you remembering at 4:30 on a Thursday. Take ten minutes and remove the remembering.
- Save the message as a phone shortcut. iPhone: Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement, add a shortcut like "revq" that expands to your full message. Android with Gboard: keyboard settings > Dictionary > Personal dictionary.
- Already paying for Jobber or Housecall Pro? Both can send a review request automatically when you close out a job. Turn that on before buying any separate review tool.
- Make a leave-behind card. Open your review link in Chrome, click the share icon at the right end of the address bar, choose "Create QR code", and download the image. Print it on card stock with "Scan to leave us a Google review." Great for older customers who won't tap a link.
- Bare minimum: a repeating 4pm phone reminder that says "send review texts for today's jobs".
The rules that keep your reviews up
Google removes reviews that break its policies, and in bad cases suspends the profile. The FTC also finalized a rule in 2024 against fake and bought reviews, with real fines behind it. None of this is a problem if you ask plainly and ask everyone.
And reply to every review you get, good or bad. Search your business name, click "Read reviews", hit Reply. Two sentences is plenty. Owners who respond look alive, and future customers read the replies as closely as the reviews.
- No incentives. No discount, gift card, or prize drawing in exchange for a review. Google bans it outright.
- No gating. Don't run customers through a "how did we do?" survey and only send the Google link to the happy ones.
- No blasts to old customer lists. Forty reviews in one week after years of silence looks bought, and Google's filters treat it that way. A steady trickle from current jobs is the goal.
- No reviews from you, your family, or your employees.
- Fake or wrong-business review? Open it, click the three-dot menu, choose "Report review". Google removes policy violations, not honest complaints.