More reviews, coming in steady — and shown where they close jobs.
Reviews are the closest thing to word of mouth that Google can measure — and it measures them constantly. Most drain shops have a decent pile of old ones and nothing coming in this month, which reads to Google as a shop that's gone quiet. Fixing that is less about begging for stars and more about making the ask part of how you already finish a job.
Velocity beats total count
Everybody stares at their total. Google pays more attention to pace — how many reviews came in this month versus last, and versus the shop across town. A shop with 60 reviews adding four a month will out-rank a shop sitting on 400 that hasn't gotten one since last spring, because the second shop looks stale.
Recency matters to homeowners too. A five-star average built entirely in 2022 doesn't reassure anybody in 2026. Fresh reviews are proof you're still good, not just that you used to be.
Make the ask part of the job
The reason shops don't get reviews isn't that customers won't leave them — it's that nobody asks, or the ask happens three days later by email and gets buried. The fix is a same-day text with a link that goes straight to the review box, no login hunting, no five-step path.
Ask every happy customer, the same way, every time. Even at an ordinary response rate, a shop running a steady service schedule can realistically land 8-15 reviews a month. That's the shop Google puts in the map pack.
Put the reviews where the decision happens
Reviews shouldn't only live on your Google profile. They belong on your homepage, on your service pages, and on your city pages — right where a homeowner is deciding whether to call you or the next listing. Two reviews from customers in the specific town a city page is about will do more for conversion than another paragraph of sales copy.
That's the part most shops miss: earning the reviews and never using them. They're the strongest sales asset you own and they're sitting on a page most visitors never open.
Bad reviews, handled
You're going to get one. A calm, specific, public reply does more good than the bad review does harm — future customers read the response, not just the complaint. A shop that answers every review, good and bad, reads as a real business paying attention.
What we won't do is buy reviews, filter customers to screen out unhappy ones, or run any of the schemes that get profiles suspended. Google catches it, and the penalty is worse than the reviews were ever worth.
What this won't do
Review work can't fix bad work. If the crew's leaving messes or missing windows, asking harder just surfaces it faster. This assumes you're doing right by customers and simply aren't getting credit for it — which is the situation almost every shop we talk to is actually in.
It also isn't instant. Velocity compounds over months. The first month feels slow, the sixth month is a different business.
The stuff guys ask Justin on the first call.
See how your review pace stacks up against your competition.
Free audit — we'll show you your review velocity next to the other shops in your town, and exactly where you're losing ground.