Reviews are the strongest converter a trade business has, and almost every trade business under-collects them. Not because asking is hard, but because it is asked at the wrong moment, in the wrong way, through the wrong channel. Fixing those three things is most of the job.
When to ask
While you are packing up and the customer is visibly pleased. Not that evening, not next week, and certainly not in an email a fortnight later. The gap between the feeling and the asking is what kills the conversion rate, and it is entirely within your control.
The one exception is a job with a settling-in period — a new boiler, a new bathroom. Ask at the end anyway, then follow up a week later to check everything is fine, which is a second natural moment.
How to ask
Out loud, in plain words, with a reason: "If you’ve got two minutes, a Google review really helps a small business like mine." That is it. Tradespeople expect this to be awkward and it is not — asked at the right moment by someone who has just done a good job, most people say yes gladly.
Then make it trivial. Before you drive off, text them the direct link to your review form. Google Business Profile gives you a short link for exactly this; save it in your phone’s text shortcuts so it takes four seconds. A customer who has to search for you, find the right listing and scroll to the review button will mostly not bother, and that is not about willingness.
What never to do
- Offer anything in exchange. No discounts, no prize draws, no free call-outs. Incentivised reviews breach Google’s policies, and the penalty can be removal of the reviews you already have or restriction of the profile. The entire risk is on your side.
- Write them yourself, or ask family to. They read as fake to customers, and Google is good at spotting patterns from a single location or device.
- Ask only the customers you expect to be positive. Filtering who gets asked is against the guidelines, and a page of uninterrupted five stars reads as suspicious anyway.
- Chase. Ask once, send the link once. A reminder is a favour asked twice.
Where the reviews should go
Google first, and by some distance. Google reviews feed the local results that decide most trade searches, they appear next to your business when someone looks you up, and they belong to a profile you control rather than to a platform you rent. Reviews on a lead platform build that platform’s reputation and do not move with you.
Once you have a steady flow, pull the best ones onto your website next to the enquiry form — that is where they do the converting.
Handling a bad one
You will get one eventually, and it is not the disaster it feels like at seven in the morning. Readers weigh the reply at least as heavily as the complaint.
- Wait until you are not angry. A day is fine. A week is too long.
- Reply publicly, calmly, and specifically. Acknowledge what happened, state what you did or offered, and leave it there. No sarcasm, no legal threats, no relitigating.
- Take the argument offline. "I’d rather sort this out properly — please call me on the number above."
- Then go and collect three good ones. Volume is the real remedy. A single one-star among forty reads as a bad day; among four, it reads as a pattern.
And when the reviews are there, put them where decisions happen. If your site does not currently do that, we’ll rebuild your homepage free in 48 hours with your reviews next to the calls to action, so you can see the difference on your own business.