In the Google map pack, your star rating and review count sit right beside your name, and people compare them before they ever open a website. In October 2026, the three web design studios in Saskatoon's map pack each had between 34 and 64 reviews. You do not need hundreds. You need a steady trickle of recent, genuine ones.
Ask at the moment the job goes well
The best time to ask is the moment a customer says thank you - when the truck is unloaded, the furnace is running, or the haircut is done. A request a week later gets a fraction of the replies. Make asking part of finishing the job, the same as handing over the invoice.
Make it one tap
In your Business Profile, choose Ask for reviews to get a short link straight to your review form, and on most profiles a QR code as well. Then put it where customers already are:
- A text or email the same day, with one sentence and the link.
- The footer of your invoices and receipts.
- A small QR card at the counter or in the job folder.
- Your email signature.
Reply to every review
Thank people by name and mention the job. For a bad review, stay calm, own what went wrong, and offer to sort it out by phone. Future customers read your replies as closely as the reviews - a thoughtful answer to a one-star review can win more trust than another five-star one.
The shortcuts that backfire
- No incentives. Discounts, draws or gifts in exchange for reviews break Google's rules, and Google can remove the reviews.
- Don't only ask the happy ones. Google prohibits selectively asking for positive reviews, including tools that send unhappy customers somewhere else first.
- No reviews from staff or family, and none bought. In Canada, the Competition Bureau treats fake or paid-for reviews as deceptive marketing.
- Check your profession's rules. Some regulated professions restrict asking for testimonials at all - social workers and counsellors, for example, under their codes of ethics.
- Protect privacy in replies. Health practices should never confirm in a public reply that someone was a client or patient. In Saskatchewan that is health information under HIPA.
A simple weekly routine
Monday, send the review link to everyone you finished work for last week. Friday, reply to every new review. That is it. Ten minutes a week, kept up for a year, is what puts a business in the map pack's top three.
Your profile needs to be set up right first - our step-by-step Google Business Profile guide covers it. If you would rather we handled it, reviews and profile upkeep are part of our local SEO work.
