Why You Have so Few Google Reviews
You did the work, the customer was happy, and your Google page still shows eleven reviews. Here is how to get more Google reviews: ask every customer, right after the job, with a link that opens the review box in one tap. Most small shops get few reviews because nobody asks, not because nobody would write one.
Here are the four usual reasons you are not getting more, how to check each in five minutes, and what to do.
You Only Ask Sometimes
Look at your last ten closed jobs. For how many did you or your tech actually send a review request? If the honest answer is "when I remembered", that is the cause. Asking when you remember means asking on slow days, a week late, and only the customers you feel good about.
Do this: make asking part of closing the job. The job is not closed until the ask is sent. Write it as one line in your close-out routine, next to collecting the money.
You Ask Too Late
A customer is happiest the hour the cold air comes back or the water stops dripping. By next month they have forgotten your tech's name. Check your habit: how many days pass between the job and the ask? If it is a monthly batch, it is too late.
Do this: send the ask the same day, or the next morning. Not while the tech is still on the driveway, and not in a week.
The Link Is Hard to Find
"Please leave us a Google review" makes the customer search for you, find the wrong listing, and give up. Test it on your own phone: from your message, how many taps until you see the star box? More than two is too many.
Do this: use your direct review link. In your Google Business Profile, Google gives you a link that opens the review box. See Google's help page on asking customers for reviews: support.google.com/business/answer/3474122. Put the link in a text, and save the text on your phone so you can paste it in two seconds.
You Only Ask the Happy Ones
It is tempting to ask only the customers who thanked you. Do not. Choosing who to ask by how they feel is called review gating, and Google's policy lists "selectively soliciting positive reviews from customers" as fake engagement: Google Maps user-generated content policy (checked 9 November 2026). Reviews that break it can be removed, and a profile can be restricted. The United States FTC also finalized a rule in 2024 against fake reviews and some forms of suppressing honest ones. Read it at ftc.gov and ask a lawyer if you are unsure.
Do this: send the same ask to everyone, in the same words. A mixed honest page, with a few 4-star reviews among the 5-star ones, also reads as more trustworthy than a perfect one. See Review Gating.
What to Say
Keep it short and plain. Name the tech. Make one ask. Make it easy. For example:
Hi Maria, this is Dan from Dan's AC. Thanks for having us out today. If you have 30 seconds, a Google review helps a small shop like ours more than you know: [link]. Thank you.
Do not offer a discount or a gift for a review, and do not ask the customer to say anything specific. Both can break the platform's rules.
If you reply to every review, good and bad, in a calm voice, the next customer reading the page sees a business that shows up.
What to Do With a Bad Review
It will happen. Do not argue. Thank them, say what you will do about it, and give a phone number. Keep it short. People reading the page care less about the complaint than about how you answered it. Never ask the customer to take the review down in exchange for money. If a review is fake or breaks Google's rules, you can flag it for removal.
Check Where You Stand First
Open your Google Business Profile on your phone and look at three things. How many reviews do you have? When was the newest one? Do you answer them? Then search for your trade in your city and look at the two shops above you. You are not trying to match their number tomorrow. You are looking for a gap you can close by asking steadily. A shop with 40 reviews and one from last week looks alive. A shop with 40 reviews and nothing for a year looks closed.
How to Get More Google Reviews: The by-Hand Routine
- Close the job and collect the money.
- Paste your saved review message and send it to the customer, by text.
- Write “asked” in the job notes, so you do not ask twice.
- Once a week, reply to the new reviews.
If you do this for every job for a month, you will see the count move. Nothing clever is needed. Reviews are one of the places your ad money pays back: a better page makes the same ads convert more calls into jobs. For how to tell whether your marketing is working at all, read Is My Marketing Working?
A Note on Texting Customers
Texting customers in the United States has carrier rules of its own, including registration and an opt-out line. See A2P 10DLC. Sending the occasional text from your own phone is different from sending a stream from a business platform, so check the rules for whatever tool you use.