How to get Google reviews from customers whose house just flooded
The walkthrough ask, the text that follows it, timing around the insurance claim, and what a healthy review pace looks like for a restoration company.
A restoration customer is not a happy customer. They are a relieved one, briefly, at the moment the last dehumidifier leaves the house. That window is where almost every review in this trade comes from, and most companies miss it because the tech is loading the truck and the office is thinking about the invoice.
The median restoration company on Google has 16 reviews. 41.3% have fewer than 10. 15.4% have none. The companies winning the emergency map pack in a real metro are usually past 100, and only 13.7% of the trade is there. The gap is not about quality of work. It is about who asks, when, and how.
Why this trade is harder than most
A plumber fixes a problem and leaves. A restoration company spends four to ten days in the house, tears out a kitchen, and ends the job with a deductible conversation or a dispute with an adjuster about whether the cabinets were salvageable. The customer's lasting memory is the claim, not the drying.
That means two things. The ask has to happen before the claim conversation, not after. And the ask has to be about the work and the people, not about the company. "Would you say a few words about how Marcus and the crew handled this week" gets a review. "Please review our company" gets a shrug.
Reviews also carry more weight here than in most trades because of Local Services Ads. Where Google offers the category, the review count is printed on the ad itself, next to the Google Guaranteed badge. A company with 12 reviews next to one with 180 loses that comparison before the homeowner reads a word.
The ask at the final walkthrough
The final walkthrough is the moment. The equipment is out, the readings are dry, the homeowner is walking the rooms with the lead tech. Here is the script, said in person, phone in the tech's hand:
"Everything reads dry and the paperwork is going to your adjuster today. One thing that helps us a lot: a Google review that mentions what we did here, the water heater leak, the drying, whatever stood out. I can text you the link right now so you do not have to search for it. Is that okay?"
Then the tech sends the link from the company number while standing there. Not later. The text is two lines:
"Thanks for trusting us with the water heater leak this week. Here is the direct link to leave a review: [link]. Mentioning the job type helps other homeowners find us."
The job type in the text matters. Reviews that say "burst pipe", "sewage backup" or "attic mold" help your profile show for those exact searches, and they help AI answer engines connect your name to the specific problem. A review that says "great company" does neither.
The 72-hour follow-up and the one-review-per-job rule
About a third of customers who say yes do not do it that day. Send one reminder 72 hours later, from the same number, no pressure: "No rush at all, just resending the review link from Tuesday in case it got buried." Then stop. A third message annoys people and gets flagged.
Track the ask per technician. A simple column on the job sheet, asked yes or no, link sent yes or no. Crews that know the count is visible ask more. Pay a small bonus per review that names the tech. $20 per named review is cheaper than any lead source you will ever buy, and it turns the crew into the marketing department.
The target is one review per completed job. You will not hit it. A realistic conversion is 30% to 40% of jobs where the ask happens, and the ask only happens on about 70% of jobs even with a process. For a company closing 18 jobs a month that is 4 to 5 reviews a month, or about 55 a year. Starting from the median of 16, that puts you past the 75th percentile at 54 within a year and at the 90th percentile of 128 inside two.
Timing around the claim
Never ask after the final invoice if there is a balance owed. Never ask while a supplement is pending with the carrier. If the job runs into a dispute, do not ask at all; get three more reviews from clean jobs instead.
For a job with a rebuild phase, ask twice. Once at the end of mitigation when the house is dry, and once at the end of the rebuild when the kitchen is back. Two separate moments, two separate crews, and often a different family member doing each review.
For a commercial or property-management loss, ask the on-site contact, not the owner. The property manager's review reads as a professional endorsement and carries weight with other managers who look you up.
Replying, and the review from the renter
Reply to every review within a day. Short, specific, naming the job type again: "Thank you. That slab leak was a tough one and we are glad the kitchen is back in use." Replies are read by the next homeowner choosing a company and they are also text that search engines index.
Every restoration company eventually gets the one-star from a tenant whose landlord refused to pay, or a homeowner whose carrier denied the claim. Reply once, calmly, with facts and no argument: you documented the loss, submitted it, and the coverage decision belonged to the carrier. Offer a phone number. Do not reply a second time. Then get three new reviews behind it. A one-star surrounded by thirty recent five-stars is background noise. A one-star sitting at the top of a profile with four reviews is the whole story.
What a healthy pace looks like
Google weighs recency along with count. A profile with 90 reviews and nothing in the last six months reads as a company that stopped working. Aim for at least two reviews a month in a slow season and four or more in freeze and storm season. If you want to see where you sit against your state, the benchmark report has the percentiles by state.
Do not buy reviews. Do not have the office write them. Do not run a gated system that only asks happy customers; Google's policy prohibits it and the pattern is easy to detect. One honest ask per job, at the right moment, beats every shortcut.
Frequently asked
Can I offer a discount for a review? No. Google prohibits incentives for reviews and will remove them. Paying your technician a bonus for asking is fine; paying the customer is not.
What if the homeowner does not have a Google account? Most do, through Gmail or an Android phone. If they truly do not, thank them and move on. Do not walk them through creating one on the spot.
Should I respond to reviews from years ago? Yes, briefly. A page of unanswered reviews reads as an owner who is not paying attention. Spend an hour answering the backlog once, then keep up daily.
If you would rather have the request process, the tech script and the replies set up and run for you, the free 14-day trial includes review generation. No card, text or call.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, restoration companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor