Reviews are where a homeowner checks whether the company they found is actually good. For most trades, a recent, steady stream of genuine reviews does more for calls than any single ad. Reputation work has two halves: asking every happy customer at the right moment, and responding well when something goes wrong.
What the service involves
Making reviews a routine instead of an afterthought. That breaks down into:
- The ask. A short text or email sent right after the job, while the customer is pleased, with a direct link to your review page.
- Timing rules. Who sends it, when, and what triggers it: invoice paid, job closed, or a follow-up call.
- Replies. A response to every review, positive or negative, in your company's voice.
- Negative review plan. A written process for complaints, so nobody replies angrily from a truck at 9 p.m.
- Monitoring of Google and the other sites that matter for your trade and province.
Who it is for
Companies that do good work but have fewer or older reviews than their competitors. It's also urgent for any company that has had one bad review sit unanswered at the top of its profile for months. Our HVAC work shows the effect of doing this consistently: GasBoilers.ca, a gas-boiler division built for CANRO Heat, holds 5.0★ from 76+ Google reviews.
The rules that keep you safe
Review programs go wrong when they cut corners. Stay within these lines:
- Ask everyone, not only customers you expect to be happy. Filtering who gets asked ("review gating") runs against Google's policies.
- No incentives: no discounts, draws or gift cards in exchange for reviews.
- No staff or family reviews, and no reviews written on a customer's behalf.
- Get consent before texting or emailing customers. Canada's anti-spam law, CASL, requires consent for commercial electronic messages and expects you to be able to prove it, so check with your adviser how it applies to your review requests.
- Never invent or edit reviews on your website. The Competition Bureau treats misleading representations seriously.
This is general information, not legal advice; check your own situation with a lawyer if you're unsure.
Timeline
Most companies see new reviews within the first couple of weeks once the routine starts. The real benefit builds over months, as a steady flow keeps your profile recent and lifts it in local search.
How results are measured
- New reviews per month, and the average age of your latest ten.
- Share of completed jobs that receive a review request.
- Response rate and response time on every review.
- Profile calls and website clicks, which reviews influence directly.
A worked example: if you complete 60 jobs a month and ask every customer, a 10% review rate gives six new reviews monthly, or 72 a year. Without a routine, the same company might collect a handful a year, mostly from customers who were already going to write one.
A reply template that works
Replies are read by future customers more than by the reviewer. A good reply to a complaint has four parts: thank the person, acknowledge the specific problem without arguing, say what you've done or offered, and invite them to call the office directly. Keep it short, sign it with a real role such as "the owner" or "the service manager," and never reveal private job details. For positive reviews, mention the job type and town briefly; it reads naturally and reminds the next reader what you do and where.
Who on your team should send the ask
The right person is whoever the customer last spoke to. For many trades that's the technician on site, who can mention it at handover and let the office send the link the same afternoon. For larger jobs it may be the project manager at the final walk-through. What matters is that it's someone's named job, written into the close-out checklist, so it happens every time.
Mistakes to avoid
- Asking in a batch every few months instead of after each job.
- Copy-pasting the same reply to every review.
- Arguing with an upset customer in public.
- Showing star ratings on your website that can't be verified.
The FAQ covers what we can and can't promise on reviews, and the contact page explains how to start.
Frequently asked questions
Can you remove a bad review?
Only Google can remove a review, and only if it breaks Google's policies, for example if it's spam or from someone who was never a customer. We can help you flag those. For genuine complaints, a calm public reply usually does more good than removal would.
Can we offer a discount for a review?
No. Google's policies prohibit incentivised reviews, and the Competition Bureau treats misleading reviews as a deceptive marketing practice. We ask every customer, without conditions.
How many reviews do we need?
There's no magic number. What matters is how you compare with the competitors customers see next to you, and how recent your reviews are. A steady few each month beats a burst followed by silence.