How to Get More Reviews
Most happy clients will leave you a review and almost none of them will think of it on their own. Here's how to build asking into the job, what to do when a bad one lands, and how to use the good ones.
Reviews are the closest thing a trade business has to a public track record. They decide which of three tradies on a map gets the call, and they quietly decide what you can charge, because a business with a long run of recent reviews doesn't have to be the cheapest. The good news is that this is one of the few marketing problems with a simple answer: ask, every job, at the right moment. This guide covers how to make that a habit, how to handle the bad ones, and where the reviews you collect are worth putting.
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The whole answer is: ask, on the job
A client who's delighted with your work is not going to go home and write about it. They'll mean to. They won't. Reviews come from being asked, and the moment you ask matters more than how you ask.
The best moment is the one where they've just seen the finished work and said something nice about it. That's your cue, and it lasts about thirty seconds.
- Ask in person, then send the link. Saying it out loud gets the agreement; the text gives them the one-tap way to do it.
- Have the link ready. Get the short review link out of your Google Business Profile and keep it in a text template on your phone. Fumbling for it is why the ask doesn't happen.
- Make it one sentence. Something like: if you're happy with how it turned out, a quick review would help me a lot — I'll text you the link now.
- Send it the same day. A link that arrives while the job is still fresh converts. One that arrives a fortnight later doesn't.
Build the ask into the end of a job the same way you build in the clean-up. Anything that depends on remembering happens on quiet weeks and not on busy ones, which is exactly when you need it most.
What to do and what to avoid
| Do | Don't |
|---|---|
| Ask every client who's visibly happy | Ask a client who's clearly not — fix the problem first |
| Follow up once if they said yes and nothing appeared | Chase more than twice. Two asks is the limit before it turns people off |
| Put your review link in your email signature and on your invoices | Make people search for where to leave it |
| Let it build steadily, job by job | Collect a big batch all at once — platforms filter for that pattern |
| Reply to every review you get | Offer discounts or gifts in exchange for reviews |
| Ask on the platform your clients actually use | Write your own, or pay anyone to write them |
That last one is worth being blunt about. Fake reviews are easy to spot, they get listings suspended, and a suspended listing costs you the whole channel. It is never worth it.
Where the reviews should go
Don't spread yourself across six review sites. Pick one primary and one backup, and send everyone to the primary unless they'd rather use something else.
- Your Google Business Profile is the primary for almost every Australian trade business, because it's what appears in the map result the next person searches.
- Facebook is a reasonable second if you have an active page — reviews there are visible to the reviewer's own network, which is a referral of sorts.
- Trade directories and marketplaces carry their own review systems. Those reviews stay on the platform, so they help you win work there but nowhere else.
- Your own website testimonials aren't reviews — they're marketing copy, because you chose them. Useful, but not a substitute.
A concentrated run of reviews on one platform is worth more than a scattering across four. Twenty on Google reads as an established business. Five each on four sites reads as nothing at all.
When a bad one lands
You'll get one eventually, and sometimes it'll be unfair. The reply you write isn't for the person who wrote it — it's for every future client who reads the thread. Write it with them in mind.
- Wait until you're not annoyed. A few hours. Nothing good has ever been written into a review reply box in the first ten minutes.
- Reply publicly, briefly and specifically. Acknowledge the issue, state what happened in plain terms, and say what you're doing about it. Don't argue the detail line by line — a long defensive reply reads as guilt even when you're right.
- Take it offline. Offer a phone number and a name. The public reply shows you're reachable; the actual resolution happens on the phone.
- Fix it if they're right. If the same complaint has come up twice, it's not a difficult client, it's a process problem. That's worth more than the review costs you.
- Report it only if it breaks the rules. Platforms will remove reviews that are fake, abusive or from someone who was never a client. They won't remove one just because you disagree with it.
A profile with nothing but perfect scores reads as suspicious. One considered response to a critical review, handled well, tends to build more trust than the review costs — it shows a real business run by someone who fronts up.
Getting more out of the ones you have
A review sitting on a profile is doing one job. The same review can do three or four.
- Pull the best lines onto your website, next to the service they're about rather than all together on a testimonials page.
- Put one in a quote. A short client quote about a similar job, on the page where someone is deciding, is well placed.
- Share the occasional one on social media with a photo of the job it refers to.
- Use the recurring words. If four clients independently say you turned up when you said you would, that's your point of difference, and it belongs on your signage and your listing.
ServiceYak marks a job as complete and invoices it from the same record, which is the natural point to fire off the review request — so asking becomes part of closing the job rather than something you get to on the weekend.
Frequently asked questions
How do I ask for a review without feeling pushy?
Ask once, in person, at the moment the client has just said they're happy with the work, and keep it to a sentence. Then text the link the same day. Most people are glad to help someone who did a good job; what feels pushy is asking repeatedly or asking someone who hasn't seen the finished work yet.
How many reviews do I need?
Enough that you don't look new, and recent enough that you don't look gone. A steady trickle beats a big batch — a run of reviews from the past few months tells a prospective client the business is active, which a hundred reviews from four years ago does not.
Can I get a bad review removed?
Only if it breaks the platform's rules — fake, abusive, or from someone who was never your client. Disagreeing with it isn't grounds. Reply calmly instead; the reply is read by everyone who reads the review, and a good one limits the damage far better than a removal request that gets declined.
Should I offer a discount in exchange for a review?
No. Most platforms prohibit incentivised reviews and will remove them, and clients who spot it lose trust in every other review you have. If you want more reviews, ask more consistently rather than paying for them.