Short answer: ask every customer, by text, right after the job, with a direct link to your review form. Make it one tap, send one reminder, and reply to every review you get. Never pay for reviews, offer discounts for them, or only ask happy customers.
Most contractors don't have a review problem. They have an asking problem: they do great work and never ask. Here's a system that runs on every job.
Step 1: Get your direct review link
In your Google Business Profile, choose Ask for reviews (or "Get more reviews"). Google gives you a short link that opens the review form directly. Save it in your phone's text replacements so typing something like "rvw" expands to the full link.
Step 2: Ask at the right moment
The best time is when the customer is looking at the finished job: the fresh paint, the dry basement, the cold air coming out of the vents. Ask in person first, then send the text before you leave the driveway, while they still feel it.
Step 3: Send a short, personal text
Copy and adapt these:
"Hi Maria, thanks for choosing us for your kitchen cabinets! If you're happy with how they turned out, a quick Google review would mean a lot to our small team. It takes about 30 seconds: [link]. — Luis, Brightline Painting"
"Hi Tom, glad we got your AC running again before the weekend. Would you mind leaving us a Google review? It really helps other homeowners find us: [link]"
Use their name, mention the actual job, and sign it with your own name. It reads as a person, not a marketing system.
Step 4: Send one reminder
If they haven't left one after 3 days, send one friendly follow-up. Then stop. Most reviews come from the first message or the reminder, and more than that starts to annoy people.
Step 5: Reply to every review
In BrightLocal's 2026 survey, 80% of consumers said they're likely to use a business that responds to all its reviews, and half said generic replies put them off. So:
- Positive reviews: thank them by name and mention the job ("Thanks, Maria, those cabinets were a fun project!").
- Negative reviews: reply calmly, don't argue, and offer to fix it offline with your phone number. Future customers read your reply more closely than the complaint.
What not to do
- Don't offer discounts, gift cards or entries into a draw for reviews. Google's policies ban incentives for reviews, even for honest ones.
- Don't "gate" reviews by asking unhappy customers to contact you privately and only sending happy ones to Google. Google prohibits it.
- Don't buy reviews or have friends and family write them. Google filters and removes them, can suspend your profile, and the FTC's rule on fake reviews (effective October 2024) allows fines.
- Don't ask for them all at once. A burst of 30 reviews in a week after months of silence looks unnatural. A steady pace is better for rankings anyway.
Why it's worth the effort
Review count, rating, recency and a steady influx of reviews are all among the top 15 Google Maps ranking factors in Whitespark's 2026 survey. And 74% of consumers told BrightLocal they only look at reviews from the last three months, so a review from last year is doing much less work than one from last week. See how many reviews top contractors in five trades have.
Frequently asked questions
Can I ask customers for reviews by email instead of text?
Yes, but text usually gets a faster response for home-service businesses, because the customer sees it right away on the device they'd use to leave the review.
Can I delete a bad Google review?
Not yourself. You can flag a review that breaks Google's policies (for example spam, a fake review or hate speech) and Google may remove it. For a genuine negative review, a calm, helpful reply is your best tool.
Can review requests be automated?
Yes. Many job-management apps can text a review link automatically when a job is marked complete. Our local SEO plans set this up so a request goes out after every job.