More Google reviews, without chasing them.
The short answer: most trade businesses have hundreds of happy customers Google has never heard from. Waypoint fixes that end to end. First a paced invitation campaign to the customers you have already worked for, then an ongoing ask that fires when a job is marked complete or an invoice is paid, with replies handled for you. Every customer gets the same neutral invitation, because filtering who gets asked breaches Google's policy. Your office does nothing new.
Reviews decide who gets the call
When someone searches for a plumber or an electrician in your area, Google puts the businesses with the deepest and freshest review base at the top. Most people never scroll past them. The research is blunt about how they read them:
- 74%only trust reviews written in the last 3 months. Recency matters as much as rating.
- 68%will not consider a business under 4 stars, and nearly a third now expect 4.5 or better.
- 80%are more likely to choose a business that replies to its reviews.
Source: BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, a US consumer panel (n=1,002). Australian data on this is thinner, but the behaviour tracks closely.
How it works
- 01
Start with the customers you already have
A business that has been going a few years has hundreds of past customers who were never asked. We run a paced invitation campaign to that list, spread over the first weeks. Paced matters: a sudden flood looks like spam to Google, a steady climb looks like what it is.
- 02
Then ask every customer at the right moment
From there, every customer gets a neutral invitation at the moment they are most likely to act on it, triggered by the job being marked complete or the invoice being paid. If you run ServiceM8, Tradify or simPRO we connect to it. If you keep your customers in a spreadsheet, that works too.
- 03
We reply, you watch the numbers
Replying to reviews is a trust signal customers notice and most trade businesses never get around to. We draft and post the replies in your voice. You approve the tone once, then watch your count and rating on a simple page we set up for you.
Gating-proof by design, and we can prove it
Plenty of review tools quietly filter who gets asked, steering the happy customers to Google and the unhappy ones into a private form. Google prohibits that for every business in every industry, and it puts your profile at risk. Our process holds four lines that never move:
- ✓No gating. Every customer gets the same invitation. We never filter by who we think will be happy, and because every invitation is recorded we can show you exactly who was asked and when.
- ✓No incentives. No discounts, no prize draws, no donation per review. Google prohibits incentivised reviews, and the ACCC treats undisclosed incentivised reviews as misleading.
- ✓No quotas or scripts. We never ask your crew to chase a number, or prompt customers to mention someone by name. Both are against Google's policies and both are easy to spot.
- ✓No fake reviews, ever. Every review comes from a real customer who chose to leave it. Anything else is a short-term win and a long-term problem.
Every message identifies you as the sender, includes a working way to opt out, and only goes to people who have actually done business with you. That is the framework Australia's Spam Act sets for commercial messages. General information, not legal advice, and we are happy to walk your bookkeeper through exactly what gets sent.
When we are not the right fit
- Your rating is under 4.0. More reviews would amplify the problem, not fix it. Sort out the underlying experience first. Reviews come after, and they come easier.
- You do not keep track of your customers. If there is no list and no job software, there is nothing for the ask to fire from. Get that sorted first and we are happy to point you at what works, even if you never come back to us.
- You already have hundreds of recent reviews. You are winning this one. Your money is better spent elsewhere, and we will tell you that on the first call.
- You want only your happy customers asked. We will not do it. If another provider offers to, understand that is the thing that gets profiles penalised, and it will be your profile, not theirs.
Questions tradies actually ask
Can I choose which customers get asked for a review?
No, and that protects you. Picking only the customers you think are happy is called review gating. Google's policies prohibit it for every business in every industry, and profiles that do it can be penalised. Every customer gets the same neutral invitation. In practice this is not a problem: businesses that do good work see their rating hold or rise as the volume grows, because the quiet happy majority finally gets asked.
Does this work with ServiceM8, Tradify or simPRO?
Yes. Those are the systems we connect to first, because the ask works best when it fires straight off your own job records, usually when a job is marked complete or an invoice is paid. If you use something else, or you keep your customers in a spreadsheet, we can still run the whole service from a simple export. You are never blocked waiting on software.
How quickly do reviews start coming in?
The first lift comes from customers you have already worked for. A paced invitation campaign to that list usually produces a noticeable jump inside the first month. It is deliberately spread over weeks rather than sent in one hit, because a sudden flood of reviews looks like spam to Google and can get them filtered. After that, the ongoing asks keep a steady rhythm of new reviews arriving.
What does my office have to do?
Nothing new. You approve the wording once at the start. The invitations go out on their own, the reviews come in, and we write and post the replies for you. You get a short summary of what landed, and a simple page you can check any time. Nobody has to learn a new system or log in to anything daily.
Is it legal to message customers I have worked for before?
It depends on how it is done, which is why we build to the rules rather than around them. Australia's Spam Act requires a commercial message to clearly identify who sent it, to include a working way to unsubscribe, and to rest on a proper consent basis. Every message we send does all three, and we only ever contact people who have actually done business with you. This is general information rather than legal advice, and we are happy to walk your bookkeeper or accountant through exactly what gets sent.
Do you write or buy reviews?
Never. Fake or purchased reviews breach Google's policies and Australian Consumer Law, and they are the fastest way to lose a profile you have spent years building. Every review comes from a real customer who chose to leave it. Our job is making sure they get asked at the right moment, and that the ask is easy to act on.
Start with your review snapshot.
We put together a free one-page snapshot for your business: your real Google numbers next to the other trades working your area, and what closing the gap would look like. No obligation, and if we think you do not need us we will say so.