When to ask for the review — the ninety-minute window most trades miss

There's a window right after you finish a job where the review ask almost always works. It's about ninety minutes.

During that window, the customer is still standing in the feeling of the job being done. The problem that was keeping them up at night is solved. The mess is cleaned up. They can see the work. If you did a good job, they feel grateful — specifically, actively grateful, in the way people only feel when the relief is fresh.

That feeling closes fast. Life fills back in. By the time you send them a review request a week later, they've moved on to the next thing. They mean to write it. They just don't.

What kills the ask.

Most tradespeople know they should ask. They don't do it for two reasons.

First: the moment feels awkward. You've been in someone's house or on someone's roof all day, you're tired, you want to get to the next job or get home. Asking for something feels like it changes the tone of an ending that's been going well. So you don't.

Second: the plan is to send something later. You'll text them the link tonight. Or you'll send an invoice with a review request attached. By then the window is gone.

The ninety minutes isn't flexible. It's ninety minutes because that's when they still have the feeling. After that, they have a memory. Memories don't generate reviews at the same rate.

How to ask without it being awkward.

The ask works best when it's framed as a favour, not a transaction — and when you make it easy.

While you're standing there, while you can still see them looking at the work:

"I'm going to send you a quick text in a minute. If you have two minutes to leave a Google review, it makes a real difference for an operation this size. Just a couple of sentences about what we did — whatever felt honest to you."

That's it. Then, before you drive away, send the text with the direct link to your Google review page. Not a link to your website. Not "search for us on Google." The specific link that opens the review box.

If they're going to do it, they'll do it in the next hour. If they don't, a gentle follow-up text the next morning ("hope everything's holding up — here's that review link if you get a moment") catches a few more.

What to say in the text.

Short. First name, what you did, the link:

"Hi [Name] — it's [your name]. Great working with you today on the [job]. If you get a minute: [direct review link]. Even a few words helps. Thanks."

No pressure. No "please don't forget." No three-paragraph explanation of why reviews matter. The shorter the ask, the more likely it gets done.

The number you're aiming for.

Twenty reviews is the threshold where your listing starts to look like a real business rather than a man with a van. Below twenty, some customers will look you up after getting a referral and decide against you anyway — not because of anything you did, but because the listing looks thin.

Twenty reviews at three to five jobs a week means you could have them inside a month, if you ask every single job for a month. Most people ask sporadically — good weeks only, confident moods only — and it takes a year to get to twenty.

The moment doesn't have to be perfect. Ask on the mediocre jobs too, not just the ones where everything went smoothly. An honest, detailed review from a happy customer is worth more than a late-arriving perfect-five.

The one who's going to leave the bad review.

The fear, for a lot of trades, is that asking will remind the unhappy customer to leave their review. It won't. The unhappy customer doesn't need to be reminded. They've already thought about it.

What asking does is tilt the ratio. If you ask every satisfied customer and zero unsatisfied ones ask on their own, you end up with a page that reflects your actual work rather than your worst day.

Ask on the next job. Today, if you have one.