The average service business converts maybe 2-3% of happy customers into reviewers. The best convert 50-70%. The difference isn't luck. It's process.
Satisfied customers don't leave reviews on their own. They mean to, but they get busy, they forget, and the moment passes. By the time your follow-up email arrives, they've moved on. The goodwill is still there, but the motivation to act on it is gone.
Important
The solution is to capture reviews at the moment of service, when satisfaction is highest and friction is lowest. This requires building review requests into your service process, not treating them as an afterthought.
The moment that matters
There's a specific window when customers are most likely to leave a positive review: immediately after a job well done, when they're still feeling good about the experience.
For field service businesses, this is right after the technician finishes. The customer is happy, the problem is solved, and the technician is standing there having just delivered value. This is the moment.
"If you wait until after the technician leaves, conversion drops. If you wait 24 hours for a follow-up email, it drops further. Every hour that passes between service delivery and review request erodes your conversion rate."
The businesses winning at review collection aren't sending more emails. They're capturing reviews before the technician walks out the door.
Making the ask
Most technicians hate asking for reviews. It feels awkward, salesy, like they're begging. This is a training problem.
The frame shift that works: technicians aren't asking for a favor. They're inviting customers to share their experience in a way that helps other homeowners make good decisions.
Pro Tip
Here's a natural script: "I'm glad we could get this fixed for you. If you have a minute, I'd really appreciate it if you could share your experience in a quick review. It helps other people in the area find good service."
That's it. No begging, no pressure. Just a genuine invitation tied to helping others. Most customers are happy to do it.
The key is making it easy. Don't ask someone to remember to leave a review later. Don't give them a card with a URL they'll lose. Make it possible to leave the review right there, in 60 seconds, before the technician leaves.
The technology layer
This is where NFC badges, QR codes, and mobile-first review flows come in.
An NFC badge lets customers tap their phone and go directly to a review form. No searching for your business, no navigating Google's interface, no friction. Tap, write, done.
QR codes work too, though they add a step. The customer has to open their camera, scan the code, and follow the link. It's still better than typing a URL, but NFC is faster.
"Every step you add between 'I'd love a review' and 'review submitted' costs you conversions. The easier you make it, the more reviews you get."
Attribution makes it sustainable
Here's something most businesses miss: if you can't tie reviews to individual employees, you can't create accountability or incentives.
When every review is just attributed to "the company," nobody owns it. Technicians don't feel personal responsibility for building the review profile, and there's no way to identify who's great at collecting reviews versus who's not asking at all.
Important
Attribution changes the game. When technicians know their reviews are tracked individually, they take ownership. When top performers get recognized, everyone else is motivated to improve.
This turns review collection from a vague corporate priority into a personal performance metric. And things that get measured get done.
The compliance piece
Google's policies are clear: you can't pay customers for reviews, and you can't selectively ask only happy customers. Violating these rules can get your reviews removed or your listing penalized.
What you can do:
- Ask every customer for reviews (not just happy ones)
- Make it easy to leave reviews
- Respond to all reviews
- Train your team on how to ask
What you can't do:
- Offer discounts or rewards for reviews
- Gate customers through a satisfaction survey first
- Only ask customers you think will leave positive reviews
- Post fake reviews or have employees post as customers
Pro Tip
If you're delivering good service, asking everyone actually works in your favor. Happy customers are more likely to follow through, and your authentic review profile will reflect your actual customer satisfaction.
Building the habit
Review collection has to become part of your service process, not an add-on. This means training, accountability, and measurement.
Train every technician on how to make the ask naturally. Role-play it. Make it part of onboarding. Don't assume people know how to do this; teach them.
Build accountability by tracking who's collecting reviews and who isn't. Weekly leaderboards work well. So do conversations with underperformers. If someone consistently isn't asking, figure out why.
Measure obsessively. Review velocity by technician, by location, by service type. Look for patterns. When velocity drops, investigate. When it spikes, understand what's working and replicate it.
The compounding effect
Review velocity compounds. The more reviews you collect this month, the better your search visibility, which drives more business, which creates more opportunities for reviews.
"Businesses that nail point-of-service review collection see 5-10x improvements in review velocity within 90 days. That velocity advantage is very hard for competitors to overcome."
The businesses losing this game are the ones still relying on follow-up emails and hoping customers remember to leave feedback. That strategy worked in 2015. It doesn't anymore.
If you're not capturing reviews at point of service, you're leaving the most valuable marketing asset on the table. Fix it.
Further Reading
- Google's Review Request Feature — Google's official tools for creating shareable review links and QR codes
- Google Business Profile Policies — What you can and can't do when collecting reviews
- Local Consumer Review Survey 2025 — Data on how consumers interact with review requests
Dylan Allen is the CEO of Cheers, the GEO platform for local service businesses.