Reviews & reputation
Your customer compares 2 numbers before he rings anyone.
The star average and the review count, sitting next to your name in the map. He reads both at a glance and never calls it a decision. We measure the distance between your two numbers and the ones above you, and set up a way of asking that doesn’t breach Google’s policy.
Work out your catch-up in 30 seconds
Free, no email. Four sliders and your own numbers.
Free check
See where you turn up when a customer searches your trade in your suburb.
You’re not being outworked. You’re being out-asked.
The business above you on the map may be no better at the trade than you are.
He asks. Every job, the same sentence, for years. You ask when a job goes especially well and you remember.
Three years of that is the entire difference between 84 reviews and 31.
The gap never feels urgent because nothing breaks. You quote a bit more and win a bit less. There is no line in your accounting software called reviews.
His total isn’t beating you. His rate is.
If he adds two a month and you add one, the gap widens by 12 a year. You can be the better tradie and lose ground every single month.
It is the only competitive problem in your business that gets worse while you sleep and never sends you an invoice.
Before you spend a dollar, with anyone
Put your two numbers against his and see how long the gap takes to close
Four sliders: your count, his count, how many you each add a month. It gives you the catch-up in months — and sometimes it gives you never, which is worth being told before you buy anything.
30 seconds. No email, nothing to fill in but numbers you already have.
Free. We email you what we find within a business day. No call unless you ask for one.
We never share or sell your details, and we do not add you to a mailing list.
3 ways to close that gap this month. All 3 can get your profile suspended.
Ask anyone selling “reputation management” which of these they do. They work until the morning they don’t.
Writing them yourself
You, your brother-in-law, or a seller offshore doing them in bulk. Google’s policy calls this fake engagement. The reviews come off, and the profile can go with them.
Coaching what they say
Handing the customer a sentence to paste, or a list of words to work in. It’s a real person, so it feels fine. It isn’t. Supply the wording and you have crossed from asking for a review to producing one.
Gating who gets asked
The form that sends five-star taps to your Google link and everyone else to a private inbox. Sold as a feedback funnel. Filtering or discouraging negative reviews is prohibited outright, and a website plugin can set it up without you knowing.
Here is the part to weigh up. The profile that gets suspended is the same one holding every review you already earned. You don’t go back to where you started. You go to nothing, plus a reinstatement queue, while Thursday’s jobs still need doing.
What it does for you
Four things a bigger number on the map buys you
You stop being the obvious third choice
Nobody needs to be top. What costs you the call is being visibly the lowest of the three names he is looking at. Closing that gap changes the comparison he makes at a glance.
You find out if it’s even winnable
The catch-up figure sometimes comes back as never, because he is gaining faster than you. That is worth knowing before you spend anything, and we’ll tell you.
You keep the profile you already built
Everything here stays inside Google’s policy. No writing, no wording, no filtering. The reviews you have already earned are the thing at risk, and they are the thing being protected.
Asking stops depending on you remembering
One message, same point of the job, every customer. The bottleneck was never the customer — it was you being on the tools when the moment passed.
What we do instead
Step 01
We count the gap and put a date on it
We run the three or four searches your customers actually type, note which businesses hold the map slots that day, and record their review count and star average alongside yours. Dated, because it moves — and if a number is ever corrected you get both, dated, rather than a quietly edited figure.
Step 02
We work out the rate, not the total
The gap divided by the difference between his monthly rate and yours. Say the gap is 53: at two net a month it is 27 months, at six net a month it is nine. Both rates get re-counted each month, not just yours.
Step 03
One ask, every customer, no exceptions
The same message, at the same point of the job, to every single person — not the ones you think will be kind. That is what keeps it inside policy, and it is what moves the rate.
Step 04
We draft it. You send it. We draft the replies too.
We write the follow-up in your words and hand it over — we never take your customer list or a login to your job software, so sending is genuinely your job. Every review that lands, we write the reply for, and a person publishes it on your profile.
Straight up, before the quote
When this is worth paying for, and when it isn’t
Here is where we would tell you not to bother.
Worth it
- You do the work well and the number next to your name doesn’t say so.
- You ask when you remember, which is not most jobs.
- The calculator says the gap closes in a number of months you can live with.
- You want it done without risking the profile you already have.
Run the calculator first. It costs nothing and it answers most of this.
Where we’d say no
The calculator says never. If he is gaining faster than you can, more asking does not fix it, and we’ll say so.
You want us to write them, word them, or filter them. We don’t, ever. Written, worded or filtered reviews can cost you the profile.
You’re running a gating form and won’t turn it off. That has to go first. There is no version of this that works around it.
You want a promise about the map. Nobody outside Google can measure what weight reviews carry in that ordering, so nobody outside Google should charge for it.
What arrives, and what it costs
What arrives: a dated baseline of the map slots and their review counts · the catch-up figure in months · one follow-up message in your voice to send after every job · a drafted reply for every review that lands · a monthly re-count carrying both rates, his and yours.
The calculator is free and asks for nothing. Ongoing, the review work sits in Stay Found at $1,297 a month — a drafted reply for every review that lands, and your count re-measured against whoever is beating you — alongside a page a month on your site and the monthly report. Hold Your Patch at $1,997 makes the writing fortnightly and holds your patch. If we built the site, the first months of this come with the build — one month on Regional, two on Suburban, three on Metro, from the day it goes live.
There is no per-review fee. A business paid by the review has a reason to want more of them than the policy safely allows.
Not registered for GST. The price you see is the price you pay.
Free. If you’re already ahead of everyone on that map, we’ll say so.
Who posts the replies. We write every reply, and a person publishes it on your profile.
What we won’t claim.
That reviews will move you up the map. Nobody outside Google can measure how much weight they carry in that ordering. What we will stand behind is the comparison on the screen your customer is already looking at — your count against the ones either side of you — and how long it takes to change.
Take these to whoever else is quoting you
Five questions that sort review work from review trouble
Here is what to ask — of us and of everyone else.
01
“Will you write any of them?”
Ours: none, ever. If the answer is yes — or “just a few to get you started” — walk. Those come off, and the profile can go with them.
02
“Does every customer get asked, or only the happy ones?”
Ours: every one, same message, same point of the job. Anything that routes unhappy customers somewhere else is gating, and it is prohibited outright.
03
“Do you need my customer list?”
Ours: no, and we don’t want it. We hand you the message and you send it from whatever you already use. If someone else wants them, ask exactly where they go.
04
“What happens if it’s not winnable?”
Ours: we tell you. The catch-up sometimes comes back as never, because he is gaining faster than you.
05
“Am I paying per review?”
Ours: no. A business paid by the review has a reason to want more than the policy safely allows — and it is your profile that carries the risk, not theirs.
If someone answers four of these well and is honest about the fifth, they are probably worth talking to — even if it isn’t us.
What tradies ask us about Google reviews
How many reviews do I actually need?
Can you just write me a few to get me started?
What about a form that only sends the happy ones to Google?
A mate offered to leave me one. He’s a real person.
Someone left me a 1-star and it isn’t even true. What do I do?
Do you reply to my Google reviews for me?
Can I offer a discount or a free service call for a review?
How long before I catch the bloke above me?
I do about 40 jobs a month and get 2 reviews. Is that normal?
Do you need my customer list or my phone?
Will more reviews put me in the top three on the map?
What does the review work cost?
Keep reading
Three pieces on asking, replying, and staying inside the rules.
6 min read
The 5-star filter form is a suspension waiting to happen
The form that hides your Google link from unhappy customers is prohibited.
6 min read
The 40-second ask that breaches nothing
Ten seconds at the door, 30 seconds that evening.
7 min read
What to write underneath a 1-star review
The reply is for the next reader, not the reviewer.
Start here
Find out how far behind you actually are.
The free audit shows who holds the map slots for your trade and your suburb, and their review counts next to yours. If you’d rather run the numbers yourself, the catch-up calculator takes 30 seconds. No call either way.
If you’re already ahead of everyone on that map, we’ll say so and you can get back to work.