Two tradies in the same suburb, same prices, same quality of work. One has fourteen Google reviews. The other has a hundred and six. Guess who gets the call. Reviews are the closest thing a local business has to free advertising, and they quietly influence both where you rank in Google's local results and whether anyone bothers clicking through when they find you. Yet most Perth business owners we talk to have never once asked a happy customer to leave one. Here's how to fix that properly.
The short answer
Ask every satisfied customer, ask them at the moment they're happiest, and make leaving the review take under thirty seconds. That's the whole system. The businesses with hundreds of reviews aren't lucky and they're not buying them — they've simply built the ask into their normal workflow so it happens every single time instead of whenever someone remembers. Reviews compound: the more you have, the more credible each new one makes you look, and the easier the next customer's decision becomes.
Ask at the peak, not weeks later
Timing matters more than wording. There's a short window right after you've delivered — the job's finished, the space is clean, the client is visibly pleased — where a request feels natural rather than needy. Wait a fortnight and that goodwill has cooled into indifference, and your message lands as one more admin task in a busy inbox.
Practically, that means asking in person or on the same day wherever you can. A verbal heads-up followed by a text is far more effective than a text alone: "Really glad you're happy with it. Would you mind leaving us a quick Google review? I'll text you the link now." You've got a yes before the link arrives, which is most of the battle.
If your work has a longer tail — a website, a renovation, an accounting engagement — pick a defined milestone instead. Handover day. First month's results. The moment they say something nice unprompted. That last one is the strongest signal you'll ever get, and it should trigger an ask every time.
Make it one tap, not a task
Every extra step you leave in place costs you reviews. Telling someone to "look us up on Google and leave a review" means they have to search, find the right listing, scroll to the review section, sign in, and remember what they were going to say. Most people simply won't.
Instead, grab your direct review link from your Google Business Profile — Google generates a short URL that opens the review box on the customer's phone with the star rating ready to go. Save it in your phone as a text shortcut, put it in your email signature, print it as a QR code on your invoices, receipts, or a small card you leave behind. The goal is that the customer taps once and starts typing.
Keep the message itself short and human. Two sentences, first name, no marketing polish. A note that reads like it came from a person gets answered; one that reads like it came from a CRM gets ignored.
Build it into your process, not your good intentions
The reason most businesses have twelve reviews instead of a hundred isn't reluctance — it's that asking depends on someone remembering during a busy week. It never survives contact with a full job list.
So attach the ask to something that already happens automatically. Add it as a line item on your job completion checklist. Trigger it from your invoicing software when an invoice is marked paid. Make it the last step in your onboarding or handover email sequence. If you use a booking system, most will send a follow-up message a day after the appointment — that's the slot. Once the request is a step in a process rather than a favour to yourself, the numbers take care of themselves.
One follow-up is fine if the first message goes unanswered. Two is pushing it. Three and you're the business people mute.
Reply to everything, especially the bad ones
Replying to reviews is public evidence of how you treat people, and it's read far more often than owners assume. A short, specific thank-you on a good review takes fifteen seconds and shows you're paying attention.
Negative reviews are where the real opportunity sits. Prospective customers actively look for them — a perfect five-star record with no dissent reads as suspicious. What they're assessing is how you respond when something goes wrong. Reply calmly, acknowledge the specific issue, avoid arguing the facts in public, and offer to sort it out directly. A measured reply to a two-star review has convinced more people to call than a dozen glowing ones. Don't get defensive, don't mention legal action, and never post a customer's private details.
What not to do
Google's policies are clear on a few things, and breaching them can get reviews stripped or your listing suspended. Don't offer discounts, vouchers, entries into a draw, or anything else of value in exchange for a review. Don't buy reviews from a service — they're detectable, and they'll disappear along with your credibility. Don't ask staff, family, or mates who've never used you to write one. Don't filter your requests so only customers you expect to be positive get asked, and don't set up a kiosk or single device to collect reviews in bulk from one IP.
The honest version works better anyway. Ask everyone, fix the problems the negative feedback exposes, and let the average settle where it deserves to.
Frequently asked questions
How many Google reviews do I actually need?
There's no magic threshold, but the practical goal is to have more than the competitors appearing next to you in the local results. Look up your main search terms, see what the businesses in the map pack have, and aim past it. Being on par is invisible; being clearly ahead is what wins the click.
Can I ask customers to remove or change a bad review?
You can't demand it, and pressuring someone tends to make things worse. What you can do is fix the underlying problem and let them know it's been resolved. Customers reasonably often update a review on their own once they've been looked after properly. If a review is fake or breaches Google's policies, you can report it — though outcomes vary and it can take time.
Do Google reviews help my SEO?
Google has publicly stated that review quantity, quality and recency factor into local search rankings. They also affect click-through rate, which matters just as much in practice — a listing with a strong rating and recent reviews gets chosen over a sparse one even when both appear on the page.
What about reviews on other platforms?
Google is where most Perth customers look first, so it's the priority. Industry-specific platforms are worth attention if your customers genuinely use them — hipages or Oneflare for trades, for instance. Spreading yourself across six platforms usually leaves you looking thin on all of them.
Should I put reviews on my website too?
Yes. Pull your best Google reviews onto your site with the customer's first name and suburb, and place them near the points where people decide — service pages, pricing sections, and just above your contact form. Real, specific reviews outperform generic testimonials by a wide margin.
What if someone leaves a review and never used our business?
Report it to Google as a policy violation and reply publicly with a brief, neutral note saying you can't locate them in your records and would like to help if there's been a mix-up. Keep the tone flat. Anyone reading it later will draw the right conclusion.