Most tradespeople have done enough good work to have fifty reviews and have got about six. It is almost never because the work was not good enough. It is because nobody ever asked.
Reviews are the closest thing you have to somebody standing next to a stranger saying “use this one, they were brilliant”. They are worth more than any advert you could pay for, and they cost nothing but a bit of nerve.
Why they matter more than people realise
They do three separate jobs, and most people only think about the first.
They decide who gets the call. Somebody looking at three plumbers on a map does not read all three websites. They glance at the star rating and the number next to it. Four reviews at five stars loses to forty reviews at 4.7, every time, because the second one looks like a real, busy business.
They help you show up at all. Reviews are one of the strongest factors in whether you appear in the little map box at the top of local results. If you are not in there yet, start with getting your business onto Google Maps — reviews are what move you up it afterwards.
They now get read by AI. When someone asks an assistant for a good electrician nearby, it is pulling from what other people have written about you. As we covered in your customers are asking AI, not Google, reviews have quietly become part of how you get recommended by a machine as well as a person.
The only reason you have not got more
You are not asking. That is genuinely it.
People are happy to leave a review. They simply do not think of it, because they are getting on with their day and the job is done. The ones who leave reviews unprompted are usually either delighted beyond expectation or annoyed. Everyone in the middle — which is most of your customers — needs a nudge.
Ask at the right moment
The moment matters more than the wording. Ask when the job is finished, the customer can see it works, and they are still standing there pleased with it. That is the peak. A week later they have moved on.
The exception is a job with a bit of drama in it — the boiler that died on a Sunday, the leak you caught before it came through the ceiling. Ask those customers. They are the ones who write something worth reading.
How to ask without feeling awkward
The awkwardness comes from thinking you are asking for a favour. You are not. You have just fixed something for them and they are usually glad of a way to say thanks.
Keep it short and give them a reason. Something like:
“Glad that is sorted. If you have got a minute, a quick Google review really does help a small business like mine — I will text you the link now if that is alright.”
Then actually send it, while you are still stood there. Say it, send it, leave. The follow-up text can be equally plain:
“Thanks again for today. Here is that review link if you get a moment — takes about thirty seconds. Cheers, Dave.”
No apologising, no long explanation, no chasing twice. Ask everyone, not just the ones you are confident about. Filtering out customers you think might be less positive is against Google’s rules, and it also gives you a rating nobody believes.
Make it one tap
Every extra step loses people. “Search for us on Google and leave a review” will not happen. A link they tap that opens the review box will.
Google gives you a short review link inside your Business Profile — there is a “Ask for reviews” option that hands you a URL to copy. Save it in your phone so you can paste it in seconds. Then put it where it will get used:
In a text after the job. In your email signature. On the bottom of your invoice. As a QR code on a card you hand over, or on the van — the same thinking as what to put on your van, where the whole point is that somebody has four seconds and no pen.
Never pay for them
You will see offers to sell you reviews. Do not touch them. Google is good at spotting bought reviews, and the outcome is your rating wiped or your profile suspended — the thing your phone calls depend on.
Offering a discount or a prize draw in exchange for a review is against the rules too, even when it feels harmless. You can ask as many people as you like. You just cannot pay them, in money or in kind.
When a bad one lands
It will happen eventually, and it feels worse than it is. Some of it will be fair. Some of it will be from somebody having a bad week.
Do not reply the same day. Nothing good has ever been typed into a review box while angry.
Reply for the next customer, not for the reviewer. This is the bit that changes everything. The person who left it has made their mind up. The people who matter are the dozens who will read your reply afterwards and judge what sort of business you are. A calm, specific, unbothered reply does more for you than the review does against you.
Something like:
“Sorry to hear this, John. We were out on the Tuesday and again on the Thursday to sort the valve, and I thought we had left it working. Give me a ring on 07700 900123 and I will come and look at it.”
Short, no arguing, no blaming, a real offer to fix it. A reader takes from that: they turn up, they respond, they sound reasonable.
Know what Google will actually remove. It removes reviews that break its policies — fake or spam, from someone who was never a customer, off-topic rants, personal abuse, or anything with personal details in it. You can report those from the review itself in your Business Profile, and they do get taken down.
What it will not do is remove a review for being negative, or because you disagree with it. If somebody genuinely was not happy, that one is staying, and your reply is your answer to it.
One last thing worth knowing: a perfect five with no exceptions makes people suspicious. A 4.8 with one grumpy review and a gracious reply underneath reads as real.
Put them where they do some work
Reviews sat on Google are doing half a job. The other half is on your own website, where somebody is deciding whether to ring you.
Put the best ones on the page as words — the quote, the first name, the town, the job. Not a plugin that pulls in a live feed, for the reasons in should you embed your social media feed: real text on the page loads instantly and can be read by search engines and AI. A widget usually cannot.
Best of all, put a review next to the service it relates to. A line from a happy customer about a rewire, sat on your rewiring page, is worth more than twenty reviews on a testimonials page nobody clicks.
The bit worth thinking about
Plenty of trades pay a directory every month largely for reviews and the trust that comes with them. We went through what that really costs in is Checkatrade worth it.
Autumn is the right moment to ask, for reasons we set out in how to get work in winter.
Your Google reviews cost nothing, show up in the exact place people search, feed the map listing that gets you calls, and stay yours whatever you decide to stop paying for. If you do one thing this week, ask the next three customers. You will have more reviews by Friday than you got all last year.