Google reviews for lawn care come down to one thing. Asking. Most lawn care businesses have three reviews and a good excuse. The excuse is that customers do not leave reviews. They do. You have to ask, and keep asking.
My own round is Gecko Lawns in Hamilton, New Zealand. Search “lawn mowing hamilton” and my listing is first in the map pack with 4.9 stars from 87 reviews. The two listings under it were on 37 and 35 last time I looked. Mine is also the only one showing 20 plus years in business, because the reviews go back that far.
I did not buy one of them, and I do not run software to collect them. I asked one customer at a time, by text, from my own phone, for years. I have been in lawn care since 1992, built three lawn businesses from scratch, and I look after more than 50 websites and Google Business Profiles for other operators. The ones that get leads all have reviews.
Setting the profile up is covered in my Google Business Profile guide for lawn care. This post is the part most people skip. Getting Google reviews for lawn care, week after week, until the listing cannot be shifted.
Here are the nine things, in the order they matter.
1. Get the first three this week
A listing with no reviews looks like a business nobody has used. A listing with three looks real. In my experience the ranking starts to move once you have three reviews over 3.5 stars. That is the first target, and it should take a week, not a season.
Brand new with no customers? Mow for family and friends, free if you have to, and ask every one of them for a review the same day. That is how I tell every new operator to start.
Already have customers? Pick the three who tell you the lawn looks great every time. Text them today.
More: 9 Ways to Get New Lawn Care Customers Fast and Google Business Profile Guide for Lawn Care
Do today: write down the names of three people who would leave you a five star review if you asked. Then ask.
2. Ask by text, with the link, from your own phone
Every software company selling to lawn care says you need their review tool. You do not. You need the review link out of your Google Business Profile dashboard and the messaging app already on your phone.
Here is how I do it. When a job is done I text the customer that day, the same text that tells them payment is due. The review ask rides on that message. Roughly 90% of my customers pay within 24 hours, so this text is one they already open and act on.
The message needs three things. Their name. A thank you. The link. Something like:
Hi Sue, lawns done. Thanks for having us. If you are happy with the job, a quick Google review helps a small business like mine a lot. Here is the link.
Two taps and they are on the review screen. Email gets buried. A paper card gets binned. A text gets done while they are standing in the kitchen looking at the fresh lawn.
More: Do You Need Lawn Care Software to Run Your Business? and How to Communicate With Your Lawn Care Customers
Do today: open your Google Business Profile, copy the review link, and save it in your phone notes so it is one paste away.
3. Ask one or two a week, forever
This is where the 87 comes from, and it is the part nobody wants to hear. No campaign. No mass email. One or two asks a week, every week, for years.
One a week is 50 a year. A blanket email to the whole list gets you a burst of five reviews and then nothing, and a lump of reviews in one week looks odd to Google. A steady trickle looks like what it is, a business customers keep using.
It is the same rhythm I use for raising one price a week. Small, constant, invisible. You never have a big review push. You just never stop.
On my round the ask is built into the payment text, a job I already do. If you would rather keep it separate, make it Friday. Two texts, two links, done before you unhook the trailer.
Do today: put a repeating reminder in your phone for the same day every week that says “ask two for a review”.
4. Google reviews for lawn care are earned before you ask
Nobody writes a review about a mow. They write about whether you turned up.
I have 15 five star reviews on Yellow, the old NZ directory, dated 2014 to 2020. I read them all before writing this. Not one mentions stripes or the height of cut. Here is what they say:
“As a family we have had Gecko Lawns maintain the property for many years… efficient, reliable and a great value for money service.” (Yellow review, December 2016)
“Stuart is particularly good at communicating and always does a fantastic job at a reasonable price.” (Yellow review, October 2015)
“For myself having the text communication to organise payment made everything easy.” (Yellow review, March 2016)
Reliable. Communicates. Easy to pay. Fair price. That is the whole list. My formula has been the same for 30 years: show up on time, do the job you said you would do, follow up if something needs following up. Do that and the review writes itself.
The text before you are late matters more than the mow. We text ten minutes before if we are running behind. Missed calls get called back from the van. Those are the things that turn up in reviews.
More: Keep Your Lawn Care Customers Happy Even on Bad Days and Seven Ways to Make Your Lawn Mowing Business Sticky
Do today: look at your last week. Did you turn up on the day you said, every time? If not, fix that before you send another review link.
5. The small extras are what get written about
Read the reviews again and a second pattern shows up. Customers rave about the small things they did not expect.
“The removal of the cuttings was an added bonus we had not had from any other business.” (Yellow review, April 2016)
“They attend in the early mornings so we’re not disturbed by the sound of the mower or edger working outside our windows which is really appreciated.” (Yellow review, October 2015, a commercial customer)
“Recently I asked, if he was able, to water blast the paths. I got home from work today and what a superb job.” (Yellow review, September 2015)
Clippings taken away. A commercial site mowed before the office opens. A yes to a one-off job. None of that costs much, and all of it is still sitting on the internet a decade later.
I once won a customer whose previous lawn guy refused to trim the small garden strip beside her path, because it was “not his job”. Well, he was right. It is definitely not his job now.
The day you do one of these extras is the day to send the review link. The customer already has the sentence in their head.
More: Upselling Lawn Care Customers Can Unlock More Profits and The Perfect Lawn Care Service List
Do today: pick one extra you can do on every lawn for free. Blow the path. Take the clippings. Do it tomorrow and ask that customer for a review.
6. Reply to every review, including the bad ones
Every review gets a reply. Short, polite, their name, thanks. It takes 20 seconds. It tells Google the listing is looked after, and it tells the next homeowner that you are the kind of person who answers.
The bad review gets a reply too, and this is where most operators blow it. Do not argue. Do not explain the weather. Do not tell the internet what a nightmare the customer was, even if they were. Say you are sorry the job fell short, say what you are doing about it, and stop. The reply is not for that customer. It is for the 50 people who read it next.
My rules for angry customers work just as well in a review reply. Stay calm. Listen without arguing. Say what happens next. Then fix it, redo it, waive it or refund it.
More: How to Effectively Handle Difficult Lawn Care Customers
Do today: open your profile and reply to every review that does not have a reply. Start with the oldest.
7. Head the bad review off before it is written
Most one star reviews for lawn care start with a surprise. The customer comes home and finds the tap broken or the new plant flattened, and nobody told them.
My rule is simple. If we damage something, the customer hears it from us before they see it. A text from the driveway with a photo, what happened, and what we are doing about it. Then we fix it, and on a bigger one I send a gift card. I have never had a review about damage, because nobody has ever discovered it on their own.
The other bad review that never needs to happen is the cancellation. When a customer cancels, ask why and offer a free redo before you accept it. Half the time it is something you did not know about and can fix in one visit.
And the customer who complains about everything and tells you how bad the last lawn guy was? They will say the same about you in six months. Do not chase that review.
More: Spot a Bad Lawn Care Customer: 11 Red Flags and Lawn Care Customer Slippage
Do today: find the last thing you broke on a job and the text you sent about it. If there is no text, you know what to change.
8. Never pay for a review, never trade one
You will be offered them. Fifty reviews for a couple of hundred dollars, or a mate with a plumbing business who will do a swap. Say no to both.
Google bans paying for reviews, offering a discount for one, or having family write them by the dozen. Listings get their reviews stripped for it, and sometimes the whole profile goes. Years of work is not worth risking for ten fake five stars.
There is a fair version of the incentive, and it is for referrals, not reviews. When a customer refers someone and the new customer reaches their third mow, the referrer gets a $10 to $20 gift voucher. That rewards what I actually want, a new regular customer, and it stays inside the rules.
One more waste of time. Do not put “leave us a review” on the invoice and hope. Nobody has ever left a review because of a line on an invoice. Ask a person, by name, with the link.
Do today: if you have ever been tempted to buy reviews, delete the email. Then text one real customer instead.
9. Put the reviews to work
Ranking is not the prize. Leads are. My listing brings in two to three leads a week, all year round, and that is the reviews doing their job while I am mowing.
They work in two places. In the map pack, where a homeowner sees three listings and rings the one with 87 reviews instead of the one with 12. And on searches you never expected. My own profile data shows people searching my competitors’ business names and landing on my listing, because mine is the one that ranks.
Once the reviews are stacking up:
- Put the star rating and two or three real review quotes on your website. It is the first thing a new visitor looks for
- On Google Business Profile posts use the Call Now button, unless you are sending them to your site. Someone reading reviews already has the phone in their hand
- Screenshot the listing every few months. When you sell lawns or the whole round, a page of reviews is worth real money to the buyer
More: Lawn Care Marketing Plan and How to Value and Sell a Lawn Care Business
Do today: copy your best review, word for word, onto the front page of your website.
The pattern behind all nine
Every one of these comes back to the same thing, and it is why Google reviews for lawn care are simpler than the software people make out. A review is a customer describing what it was like to have you around. Make that boring and good, then ask, one at a time, for years.
The operators stuck on three reviews set up the profile, put the line on the invoice, and wait. Or they blast the whole list once a year and get five reviews. Neither is asking.
The operators with a hundred reviews are not doing anything clever. They turn up when they said. They text before they are late. They take the clippings. And they send one link a week from their own phone, on the day the customer is standing in the kitchen looking at the lawn.
That is all 87 is.
Frequently asked questions
How do I ask a lawn care customer for a Google review? By text, on the day the job is done, with the review link in the message. Use their name, say thanks, say a review helps a small business, paste the link. Do not ask by email or with a line on the invoice. Both get ignored.
How many Google reviews do I need to rank in the map pack? In my experience the listing starts to move once it has three reviews over 3.5 stars. After that it is volume against the other listings in your town. Mine has 87 and the two below it have 37 and 35. You do not need hundreds. You need more than the next guy, arriving steadily.
Can I offer a discount or a free mow for a review? No. Google bans paid or incentivised reviews and can strip every review off the listing for it. If you want to reward customers, reward referrals instead. I give a $10 to $20 voucher once a referred customer reaches their third mow.
What should I do about a bad review? Reply once, politely. Say you are sorry the job fell short and what you are doing about it. Do not argue. The reply is for the next 50 people who read it, not the customer who wrote it. Then fix the problem if it is fixable.
Do I need review software for my lawn care business? No. Every review on my listing came from a text sent from my own phone. Software is not what gets you reviews. Asking is.
How often should I ask for reviews? One or two a week, every week, and never stop. That is 50 to 100 a year. A steady trickle beats a burst, for Google and for the homeowner reading the dates.
Do Facebook or directory reviews count for Google? Not for the map pack. Google ranks on Google reviews. Facebook and directory reviews still help because people read them, and they are handy to quote on your website. If you only ask for one, ask for Google.
What do lawn care customers actually write about in reviews? Read a page of Google reviews for lawn care and it is the same four things. Turning up, communicating, being easy to pay, and a fair price. Then the small extras they did not expect, like clippings taken away. Almost nobody writes about the quality of the cut.
Next step
Do one thing today. Copy your Google review link into your phone notes and text it to the last customer who told you the lawn looked great.
Then come and tell us what they wrote back. I run a free community of lawn care business owners and I am in there daily. I also run a Facebook group of more than 180,000 lawn care businesses worldwide, so whatever you get stuck on, someone has already been stuck on it.
