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How trades businesses actually get more Google reviews
For a local trade, reviews are doing two jobs at once. They influence whether you appear in the map results at all, and they decide who gets called out of the businesses that do appear.
Most contractors we film with are excellent at the first half of this and do nothing about the second. The work is good, the customer is happy, and nobody ever asks.
Ask at handover, not later
The best moment is the one most people walk past. You are standing in the finished bathroom with the customer, they are pleased, and they are telling you so. That is the peak.
Ask right there. Something as plain as saying it genuinely helps and asking whether they would mind leaving a quick review is enough. Then send the link the same day, because a request without a link is a task you have handed them.
By the following week the feeling has faded and you are competing with their actual life.
Make the link one tap
Google gives every profile a short review link. Get yours, save it, and have it ready to send by text before you leave the driveway.
The gap between asking and the customer being on the review screen is where almost all of this is lost.
Ask everyone, not just the big jobs
Contractors tend to only ask after large projects, which is backwards. A small callout that went smoothly is an easier ask and produces a review just as valid.
Consistency matters more than size. A steady trickle reads as a working business. Six reviews in one week and nothing for a year reads as a campaign.
Reply to all of them
Reply to the good ones briefly and specifically, mentioning the actual job rather than pasting the same thank you under each.
Reply to bad ones carefully. Do not argue the facts in public. Acknowledge, state plainly what you did or offered to do, and leave it. Everyone reading is judging your temperament, not the dispute.
What not to do
Do not offer anything in exchange. Do not have staff or family post. Do not buy them. Beyond the policy risk, fake reviews read as fake to customers, who have got noticeably better at spotting them.
Where reviews sit in the bigger picture
Reviews feed the profile, and for local trades the profile outranks the website for the searches that actually turn into calls. If you only do one marketing thing this month, this is a stronger candidate than a redesign.
Common questions
How do I ask a customer for a Google review without being awkward?
Ask in person at the moment the job is finished and they are visibly pleased, then follow up with a direct link the same day. The awkwardness almost always comes from asking cold by text days later, with no link, to someone who has moved on.
When is the best time to ask for a review?
At handover, while you are still standing in front of the finished work. That is the peak of how positive the customer will ever feel about the job, and it drops steadily from there.
Can I offer a discount for a review?
No. Paying for reviews in any form, including discounts, breaches Google's policies and can get reviews removed or the profile penalised. It also produces reviews that read as bought, which does more harm than having fewer.
What should I do about a bad review?
Reply calmly, in public, without relitigating the job. Future customers are not reading to work out who was right. They are reading to see how you behave when something goes wrong, and a measured reply under a harsh review can be more persuasive than the good ones above it.