Automated review requests for contractors

The contractor outranking you is just better at asking.

They are not better at the trade. They ask every single customer, a few days after the job, while it is still fresh, and they never forget. That is automatable, and it is probably the highest-leverage thing a local contractor can fix. From $1,995, free audit first.

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Text me anytime: (218) 818-1023. Skip the email if you like. I read and answer every text myself.

Why this matters more than it looks

Reviews are the local search battle

For a contractor, the map results are the search results. And what decides who shows up in them is not how clever your website copy is.

Two things drive the local pack: how many reviews you have, and how recently they arrived. A business with sixty reviews where the newest is from 2023 looks abandoned. One with twenty where three landed this month looks busy, and busy is what a homeowner is trying to find out.

The second thing reviews do is close the sale after the search. Your quote is $400 more than the other one. The homeowner reads eleven recent reviews saying you turned up when you said you would and cleaned up after yourself. That is the $400, right there.

And almost every happy customer will leave one if asked. They just never get asked, because you finished the job, got paid, and moved to the next one, which is exactly what you should have been doing.

How it works

Ask every time, at the right moment, in your voice

A job gets marked done

However you already do it: the invoice is paid, a box is ticked, a text is sent. No new process to remember.

It waits a few days

Long enough that the mess is gone and the thing is working. Short enough that they still remember your name. Usually two to four days, and it is yours to set.

A short, personal message goes out

Text or email, in your wording, naming the actual job. Two sentences and a direct link straight to your Google review box, not a form to fill in first.

One reminder, then it stops

About a week later, if nothing arrived. One. Then the customer is left alone, because a third ask costs you the goodwill the job earned.

You see what came in

New reviews collected in one place, so you know what landed without checking your profile every morning.

Replies get drafted for you

Optional, and worth it. A reply to each review in your voice, for you to check and post. Replying is a ranking signal and almost nobody does it.

One thing I will not build

No review gating, and you should not want it

Plenty of review tools offer a feature where you survey the customer first, then only send the Google link to the ones who said something nice, and quietly route the unhappy ones to a private complaints form. It is called review gating.

Google's policy prohibits it, and businesses do lose their review content over it. It is also, more simply, a lie about your own reputation, and it is fragile: the customer you diverted still has hands and a phone.

So every customer gets the same ask. What I will build instead is the honest version of the same goal: ask everyone, ask at the right moment, make it effortless, and reply well to whatever arrives. A handful of four-star reviews with a thoughtful reply underneath reads more trustworthy than fifty flawless fives, and buyers know it.

If a genuinely bad review turns up, that is information about the job, and worth more to you than a filter would have been.

What it costs

One fixed price, agreed in writing first

Review request automation

from $1,995

An Automation Starter build. One fixed price, in writing, before work starts.

Triggered off how you already close jobs, with no new process
A delay you set, so the ask lands at the right moment
Your wording, naming the real job, approved before anything sends
A direct link to your Google review box, no form in the way
One reminder, then it stops
Optional drafted replies to reviews, for you to check and post
No gating, because it is against Google's policy and it is dishonest

Get my free audit first

Before you pay for anything

The audit is free and it comes first.

Twenty to thirty minutes on how your week actually runs. You leave knowing whether this is the right first build for your business, what it would cost, and what the monthly running cost really is.

If your volume will not pay the build back, I will say so and point you at something cheaper. That has happened and it will happen again.

This works best once the jobs are flowing. If you are still losing calls, fix that first and come back to reviews.

The full automation price list →

Third-party costs, the phone line, texts, email sending and the AI's own usage, are billed at cost with the provider's invoice shown, or run on your own account. Nothing here means unlimited integrations, revisions or usage.

Questions

Review automation questions

How do I get more Google reviews as a contractor?

Ask every customer, a few days after the job, with a direct link, and ask once more if nothing arrives. That is genuinely the whole method, and it beats every clever tactic. The reason it works is that most contractors do not do it consistently, because remembering after every single job is exactly the kind of thing humans are bad at and software is good at.

When is the best time to ask for a review?

Two to four days after the job is finished and paid. Same day is too soon: the customer is still living with the disruption and has not seen whether the fix held. Two weeks is too late: they have moved on and your name has faded. The exact number is yours to set and worth testing.

Is it against the rules to automate review requests?

Asking is fine and encouraged. What is not allowed is review gating: surveying customers first and only sending the review link to the happy ones. Google's policy prohibits it and businesses have lost review content over it. Nothing I build does that. Everyone gets the same ask.

What do I do about a bad review?

Reply to it, publicly, calmly, once, without arguing the details. Prospective customers read the reply more carefully than the review, and a measured response to an unfair one sells better than an unbroken wall of fives. The drafted-replies option exists for exactly this, because the reply you write while annoyed is never the right one.

How much does review automation cost?

From $1,995 to build, test and hand over, fixed in writing. Running cost is the texting or email sending, which is cents per message and billed at cost or on your own account. The audit is free and will tell you whether this or something else is your best first build.

Can it ask for reviews on somewhere other than Google?

Yes, though for most contractors Google is the one that matters and splitting the ask across several sites reduces how many you get anywhere. If Facebook or a trade directory genuinely drives your work, it can point there instead, or alternate.

Start here

Get your free automation audit

Tell me roughly how many reviews you have now and how you close jobs out. I will come back within 24 hours with what this would cost and what it is likely to be worth against the contractors you are competing with.

Business name

Trade and crew One line: the trade, roughly how many of you, and where you work.

Your website (if you have one)

Email address

Tell me what is happening now Rough numbers are fine. Put a phone number in here if you would rather I texted you.

No card, no call to book, no mailing list. I reply within 24 hours.

What you get back

Where you stand against the contractors outranking you
A fixed price, from the published list
A timing and wording plan for your trade
The honest monthly sending cost

Rather call or text?

Easier from the truck between jobs.

Call (218) 818-1023

Text (218) 818-1023

Straight answer guarantee

If this is not the right first build for your business, the audit ends with me saying so and telling you what I would do instead.

The rest of the system

What else I automate for contractors

Each of these is a build on its own, and they compound: answering fast is worth more when the follow-up is running, and both are worth more when the reviews keep coming. Start at the contractor hub if you would rather see the whole picture.

Ask every customer. Every time. Without remembering.

Tell me how many reviews you have and how jobs get closed out. Within 24 hours you will know what this costs and what it is worth where you are competing.

Get my free automation audit Text (218) 818-1023