Ask for reviews after every job

Overview#

After a job is completed, TradesWork can ask the customer how the visit went. The customer first gives a private 1–5 star rating and an optional comment. Your public review links (Google, Facebook, Yelp and others) are offered to every customer, whatever they rate. TradesWork never steers only happy customers to public sites, because rating-based gating breaks Google's rules. A low rating opens an office task so someone can call the customer.

Every request is tied to the job's technicians and business unit. The Reviews page shows ratings by technician and by business unit, and the ratings feed the technician coaching scorecards.

Before you start#

• Turning review requests on and editing review links needs the portal.manage permission. Owners and admins have it.

• Seeing the Reviews page needs reviews.read. Owners, admins, dispatchers, customer service, accounting and viewers have it. Technicians don't.

• Sending a request by hand ("Ask now") needs portal.share. Owners, admins, dispatchers and customer service have it.

• Texts need texting connected and a texting number (see Settings › Phones › Phone Numbers, Call Recording & Texting). In the US, texting from your own numbers also needs an approved texting registration.

• Emails need email set up in Settings › Communications › Email Domains, and an email address on the customer.

• The customer portal must be on. Automatic requests only go out when both Customer portal is on and Ask for a review after every completed job are checked.

Steps#

Turn on automatic review requests#

1. Go to Settings › Marketing › Customer Portal & Reputation. The page is titled "Customer portal, reviews and referrals".

2. In the Customer portal card, make sure Customer portal is on is checked.

3. In the Review requests card, check Ask for a review after every completed job.

4. Choose When: Right away, 1 hour after, 2 hours after (the default), 4 hours after, Next day or 2 days after. The wait starts when the job is completed.

5. Choose How: Text (the default), Email, or Text and email.

6. Choose Open a task at or below: 1 to 4 stars. The default is 3 stars.

7. Under Public review links, add up to six links:

   1. Pick the site: Google, Facebook, Yelp, BBB, Nextdoor, Angi or Other.

   2. Paste the full link. It must start with https://.

   3. Pick All jobs, or a business unit (shown as "<name> only"). A business unit's own link, for example a second location's Google profile, is shown first on that business unit's jobs.

8. Optional: in Your brand on customer pages, add an Accent color and a Logo URL. They are used on the review page.

9. Click Save.

To get your Google link: search your business name in Google, choose Ask for reviews (or open Business Profile Manager and choose Get more reviews), and copy the link.

What the customer gets#

• Text: "<Company>: Hi <name>, thanks for choosing us! How did <technician> do? Rate your visit (takes 10 seconds): <link> Reply STOP to opt out."

• Email: subject "How did we do? <Company>", with a Rate your visit button.

The link opens the review page. It shows "How did <technician first names> do?" and the job summary. The customer taps the stars, can fill in Tell us more (optional), and taps Send to <Company>. Under Prefer to review us publicly? they can go straight to your public sites without rating. After rating, they see "Would you share it publicly?" with the same links. At the bottom, Don't ask me for reviews again opts them out of future review requests. Customers can also rate from the customer portal.

Send a request by hand#

1. Open Marketing › Reputation › Reviews.

2. Scroll to Completed jobs not asked yet. It lists jobs completed in the last 14 days that have no review request yet.

3. Click Ask now on the job. This skips the wait. Quiet hours and opt-outs still apply.

You will see "Review request sent." or "Queued: it goes out when quiet hours end."

Read the Reviews dashboard#

1. Open Marketing › Reputation › Reviews.

2. Pick a period at the top: 30 days, 90 days (the default) or 12 months.

3. Read the cards: Average rating, Ratings, Requests sent, Response rate, Unhappy (≤N★) and Opened a public site. A card shows a dash when there is no data yet, not zero.

4. By technician: every technician on the job's visits shares its rating.

5. By business unit: average, requests sent and ratings per business unit.

6. Recent requests and ratings: each request with its status, rating and comment. Statuses are Scheduled, Sent, Not sent (with the reason underneath), Opted out and Rated. A low rating shows a Follow-up task link. "Opened Google" (or another site) means the customer clicked through to that site.

The same page also lists Open portal requests (reschedule, cancel, renewal and recommended-work requests from the customer portal). People with jobs.write close them with Done or Decline.

Settings that change this#

• Settings › Marketing › Customer Portal & Reputation: on/off, timing, channel, the low-rating threshold, review links and brand.

• Settings › Communications › Customer Notifications: quiet hours. A text that falls in quiet hours waits until morning and stays Scheduled until it goes.

• Settings › Communications › Email Domains: needed for email requests.

• Settings › Phones › Phone Numbers, Call Recording & Texting: texting number and texting registration.

Tips#

• Send texts 1 to 2 hours after the job. The visit is fresh and the technician has left.

• Add a link per location if you have more than one Google profile, and set the business unit on each one.

• Pair this with the automation templates Low rating: manager calls the customer and Tag 5-star customers as promoters in Marketing › Campaigns › Campaign Library.

• Ratings show on technician scorecards as Customer rating. Use them in coaching.

Troubleshooting#

• No requests are going out → The portal is off, or review requests are off. → Check both Customer portal is on and Ask for a review after every completed job, then save.

• Status "Not sent: The customer replied STOP" → The customer opted out of texts. → Only the customer can opt back in, by texting START.

• Status "Not sent: Email isn't set up" → Email isn't configured. → Set it up in Settings › Communications › Email Domains, or switch How to Text.

• Status "Not sent: There's no email address on file" or no mobile number → Add the contact detail to the customer.

• Status "Opted out" → The customer chose Don't ask me for reviews again. → No more requests go to them.

• "Ask now" says the request is waiting for quiet hours → It goes out automatically when quiet hours end.

• A yellow banner says "No public review links yet" → Customers can only rate privately. → Add at least one link and save.

• A job is missing from "Completed jobs not asked yet" → It already has a request (any status), was completed more than 14 days ago, or is canceled. A request that ended as Not sent can't be re-sent from this page today. Fix the cause (contact details, email setup) for future jobs.

FAQ#

Can I send only happy customers to Google? No. Public links are offered to everyone, before and after rating. This keeps you inside Google's and the FTC's rules.

Does a customer get more than one request per job? No. There is one request per job, and a second rating attempt keeps the first answer.

Can I see and reply to Google reviews in TradesWork? Not yet. Pulling in and replying to Google reviews is coming soon. See What's coming for marketing.

Who gets credit when two technicians worked the job? Both. Every technician on the job's completed visits shares the rating.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

• Same idea: ServiceTitan's Review Generation (Marketing Pro) sends a survey after the job and links to Google and Yelp. TradesWork does this in the core product at Marketing › Reputation › Reviews.

• Different: there is no rating gate. Everyone sees your public links. Low ratings open a task on the Tasks page instead of an alert email.

• Not here yet: the Reviews inbox for Google reviews, auto-responder, listings management and social publishing. See What's coming for marketing.