Getting reviews as a builder: the handover routine that works, and what the law forbids

A builder gets Google reviews by asking at the final walk-round, when the client is pleased and standing in the new room, with a card that has the link and a text that evening that repeats it. Ask every client, mention what to include (the job and the town), reply to every review within a day, and never pay, filter or write them. A firm finishing four jobs a month has forty-eight reviews a year waiting for that routine.

Why reviews decide the map

The three firms in the map pack for a town usually have the same categories and services. What separates them is the reviews: how many, how recent, how steady, and what they say. A review that says "rear extension in Mold, done in nine weeks, tidy site" tells Google the job and the town; "great guys" tells it nothing. The count matters, the pace matters more, and the content matters most.

The moment

Not the invoice email. Not a month later. The final walk-round, keys or remote in hand, when the client is looking at the finished room and saying so. That is when a review is easy to ask for and most likely to mention the job. The line is one sentence: "If you are happy with it, a Google review with a line about the job and the town helps us more than anything. Here is the link."

The card and the text

A card with the QR code and the short link, left with the paperwork. A text that evening with the same link and a thank-you. Two nudges, one day, no third. Most clients who are going to leave a review do it within forty-eight hours of the ask; a reminder a week later brings a few more and annoys nobody.

Replying

Every review, within a day, in two sentences, from you. Thank them, name the job, no marketing. The bad ones especially: a calm, specific reply to a one-star review does more for the next homeowner reading the profile than five more five-stars, because it shows how you handle a problem.

What the law and Google forbid

• Paying, discounting or gifting for a review. Incentivised reviews are an offence under UK consumer law since 2025, and Google removes them.
• Gating: asking only the clients you know are happy, or screening with a 'were you satisfied?' step before showing the link. Against Google's policy.
• Staff, family, or your own reviews. Removed, and the profile flagged.
• Bursts: ten reviews in a week from an evening of texting old clients. Google's filter treats a burst as suspicious and drops some; the profile can lose the lot.
• Reviews for one profile posted from the same device or wifi. Filtered.

Steady beats big. Two or three reviews a month, every month, from the handover routine, is the pattern Google rewards and the pattern that reads as a firm doing good work regularly.

Photos with the review

Clients can add photos to a Google review, and a photo of the finished extension in a review is worth several without. Mention it in the ask when the job photographs well: "a photo of the room would be brilliant". The same photo, with permission, goes on the project page.

The routine on one page

1. Final walk-round: the one-sentence ask, with what to mention.
2. Card with the QR code and short link, left with the paperwork.
3. Text that evening: thank-you and the link.
4. Reply to every review within a day, naming the job.
5. One reminder a week later if nothing arrived. Then stop.
6. Never pay, gate, write, or ask in bursts.