Key takeaways
- The final walkthrough is the best moment to ask; satisfaction peaks and the homeowner has their phone in hand.
- Send the review link by text, not email. A text with a direct link gets opened; an email mostly does not.
- A decade of past customers who were happy and never asked is a roofer's biggest untapped source; one campaign can produce 20-40 reviews.
- Ask customers to attach a photo of the finished roof; reviews with photos stand out in the Map Pack.
- Never gate, filter, or pay for reviews. Google bans it and a flagged profile can lose reviews it earned honestly.
Why roofers have so few reviews compared to their job count
Most roofing companies in Los Angeles County have done hundreds of jobs and have somewhere between 15 and 60 Google reviews. The math does not add up, and the reason is simple: nobody asked, or they asked by email three weeks later.
A roof replacement is a big-ticket, emotional purchase. The homeowner has worried about leaks for months, paid $15,000 to $40,000, and lived through three days of nail guns. When the dumpster leaves and the roof looks great, that homeowner is genuinely grateful. The feeling fades fast. By the time someone in the office remembers to send a follow-up, the roof is just a roof again.
A plumber sees the same customer four times a year. A roofer gets one shot, often one every 20 years. If the ask does not happen on completion day, it usually never happens.
The fix is not software. It is a habit tied to a moment that already exists in your process: the final walkthrough.
The final-walkthrough moment
Every finished roof should end with a walkthrough. The owner, project manager, or crew lead walks the property with the homeowner, points out the ridge vent, the new flashing at the chimney, the drip edge, and the magnet sweep for nails. Then they hand over the warranty paperwork and manufacturer registration.
That is the moment. Right after the warranty handoff, say something like: Reviews on Google are how most of our new customers find us. If you were happy with how this went, I am going to text you a link right now. It takes about a minute.
Send the text while you are standing there. Do not hand them a card with a QR code and hope.
- The person asking should be someone the homeowner talked to during the job, not a stranger from the office.
- Ask once, clearly, and let it go. Pressure turns a five-star review into a four.
- If there was a problem on the job, fix it first. Asking before a punch-list item is handled is how you get a public complaint.
The review text that gets opened
Keep the text short and send it from a number the homeowner recognizes. Use your direct Google review link, which you can copy from the Google Business Profile dashboard under the option to ask for reviews. It opens straight to the star rating box.
A version that works for roofers:
Hi Maria, this is Dave from [Company]. Thanks again for trusting us with your roof in Torrance. If you have a minute, a Google review would mean a lot to our crew: [link]. A photo of the finished roof is a great addition if you have one.
Notice what is not in there. No ask for five stars specifically, no mention of a discount, no survey asking how they feel before showing the link. All three violate Google's review policies, and the first two are the kind of thing a competitor will happily report.
If the homeowner has not posted after a week, one polite follow-up text is fine. After that, stop.
The past-customer campaign: mining your job history
This is where roofers have an edge other trades do not. A roofing company that has been around ten years has a file cabinet, a QuickBooks list, or a CRM full of customers who got a new roof, were happy, and were never asked for anything.
Build a list going back five to eight years: name, phone, city, and roughly what was done. Drop anyone who had a dispute, a bad callback, or an open warranty claim.
Send a personal text, not a blast from a marketing platform: Hi Tom, this is Dave from [Company]. We replaced your roof in Whittier back in 2021 and I hope it has held up through the rain. We are trying to build our Google reviews this year and a short review from a past customer would really help: [link].
Send 30 to 50 a day over two or three weeks so you can reply to responses. From a list of 400 past customers, 20 to 40 new reviews is realistic. Run it once. Running it every quarter to the same list looks like what it is.
Ask for photos, then reply to every review
Google lets reviewers attach photos, and a review with a picture of the finished roof is worth more than one without. It shows larger in the reviews feed, it gives a prospective customer proof the job was real. If you took a drone photo at the end of the job, text it to the homeowner the same day so they have something to upload.
Then reply to every review within a day or two. A reply from the owner that mentions the city and the work, something like Thanks Maria, the new cool roof in Torrance came out great, does three things. It shows prospective customers you pay attention. It gives Google more text about where you work and what you do. And it tells the next homeowner that you will still be reachable after the check clears.
Reply to the negative ones too, briefly and without arguing. Prospective customers read those replies more carefully than the five-star ones.
Staying inside Google's rules, and what 90 days looks like
Google's review policies are short and worth reading once. The parts that trip up contractors:
- No gating. You cannot ask how customers feel first and only send the link to the happy ones. Everyone gets the same ask.
- No incentives. No gift cards, no discounts, no raffle entries.
- No fake or bulk reviews. Reviews from employees, family, or a paid vendor get real reviews removed alongside the fake ones.
- No review stations. Customers post from their own phones, not a tablet in your office.
If you have done any of this, stop and let the profile settle first. Rung Media sees profiles every month that lost 40 reviews in a week because someone bought 15 fake ones in 2023.
Done honestly, a roofer doing 8 to 15 jobs a month who asks at every walkthrough converts roughly a third to half of those asks. Add the past-customer campaign in month one and going from 30 reviews to 70 or 80 by day 90 is a reasonable expectation.
Questions roofers ask
Should I ask for the review before or after the final payment?
After the walkthrough and warranty handoff, but it does not need to wait for the check to clear. The moment that matters is the homeowner seeing the finished roof and feeling relieved. If you collect final payment on site, ask right after. If payment comes later by mail, do not wait for it.
Is it okay to text past customers from years ago asking for a review?
Yes, as long as the text is personal, honest, and you are not offering anything in return. Keep it to people who were satisfied, send it from a real phone number, and make it easy to ignore. One campaign to your full job history is reasonable. Repeated campaigns to the same people are not.
What if the homeowner leaves four stars instead of five?
Thank them and move on. A profile with nothing but five-star reviews looks less believable than one with a 4.8 average and honest detail. Reply publicly, mention something specific about the job, and never ask them to change the rating. A natural mix and a high reply rate is what homeowners trust.
Can I use a review management app to automate the ask?
You can, and the good ones simply send the same text you would send by hand. The risk is that automation replaces the in-person ask instead of backing it up. The walkthrough text from a real person converts far better. Use software for the follow-up reminder and the past-customer campaign, not as the only touch.
