When is the best time to ask for a review?
As close to a successfully completed job as practical, triggered by a real completion event rather than a fixed schedule. Satisfaction decays quickly, and a request weeks later reads as an afterthought.
Reviews, asked for properly.At the moment they mean something.
A request timed to the completed job, sent to the right person, through the channel they actually use, and a workflow for responding to what comes back.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Review Requests & Reputation in plain terms.
Automated review requests send a review invitation after a job is completed, timed to when satisfaction is highest. For local businesses, review volume and recency materially affect map visibility and conversion, which makes this one of the few automations with a direct, measurable visibility effect.
- 01
Requests happen only when someone remembers, so volume is inconsistent
- 02
Long gaps between jobs and requests, when the goodwill has faded
- 03
No process for responding to negative reviews, so they sit unanswered
- 04
Review volume drifts down while competitors accumulate
HOW IT WORKS
- 01
Trigger on completion
The request fires from a real completion event (job closed, invoice paid, appointment attended) not from a date guess.
- 02
Ask one person, once
Sent to the actual decision-maker on the job, through the channel they have already been using, with a direct link.
- 03
Route the response
Positive reviews get acknowledged. Anything negative alerts a human immediately, before it becomes a public thread nobody answered.
- 04
Report the trend
Volume, rating, recency, and response rate tracked over time, since recency matters as much as the average.
The guardrails.
Automation that touches customers needs limits built in from the start. These are not optional extras.
No incentives or gating: review platform policies prohibit it and it carries real risk
Never suppress or filter negative feedback before it reaches the platform
One request per job, with a hard suppression list
Human response to anything critical, never an automated reply
HOW YOU KNOW IT WORKED
What gets measured.
Agreed before launch, so the question of whether it was worth doing has an answer rather than an opinion.
Talk through your setup- 01
Requests sent versus reviews received
- 02
Review volume and recency trend
- 03
Average rating over time
- 04
Response rate and time on critical reviews
Common questions.
Can you filter out unhappy customers before they review?
No. Review gating (screening for satisfaction and only inviting happy customers) violates major review platform policies and risks penalties. The correct approach is to ask everyone and respond well to criticism.
Do reviews affect local search rankings?
Review volume, rating, and recency are among the factors influencing local map visibility, alongside proximity and profile completeness. They also affect click-through and conversion independently of ranking.
BUILT WITH
What this runs on.
The stack behind it, with full setup guides if you would rather build it yourself.
Worth doing in your business?
A systems review says whether this is your actual constraint or a distraction from a bigger one. Both answers are useful.
Request a systems review