When should we ask after a storm removal?
After the debris is loaded and the homeowner has walked the yard with your foreman. That is the moment relief is highest. If the job runs multiple days or waits on an adjuster, send the request when the last chip truck leaves, not at the first day's end.
Can we ask on insurance-paid jobs?
Yes. The homeowner is still your customer even when the carrier pays. Those reviews are valuable because they mention photos, documentation and working with the adjuster, which is exactly what the next storm caller is worried about. Ask the homeowner, not the insurance contact.
A customer's lawn got torn up. Do we still ask?
Yes. You ask everyone the same way. If they leave something critical, reply with what happened, what you repaired or credited, and a direct number. Readers looking at a tree company expect equipment to be heavy. They are watching how you handle it, not whether it happened.
Can we offer a discount on stump grinding for a review?
No. Incentives of any kind break platform rules and can get your reviews removed. We never set that up. The request itself, sent at the right moment with one tap, gets responses without anything attached to it.
Should we only ask customers who seemed happy?
No. Screening people before you ask is review gating and it is against platform rules. Everyone gets the same request. In practice, asking everyone gives you a review profile that looks real, with enough recent volume that one bad week does not define you.
How many reviews do we need to rank in the map pack?
There is no number, and nobody can guarantee a ranking. Reviews are one signal alongside your profile categories, service pages, photos and proximity. What we can control is that you ask consistently, reply to everything, and that your site backs up what reviewers say.
Can we tell customers what to write?
You can ask them to describe the work in their own words, which often means naming the tree, the service and their town. You cannot write it, edit it, or hand them a script. We keep the request simple so people say what actually happened.
How do reviews show up on the website?
We pull real reviews onto the pages they match, so crane removal comments sit on the crane page and storm comments sit on the emergency page. Text stays as the customer wrote it. SEO Ranker refreshes the selection weekly as new ones come in.