Most tradies we audit have done hundreds of great jobs and have a handful of reviews to show for it. The work is not the problem. The asking is. Here is how to fix it without feeling pushy.
Ask every time, while you are still there
The best moment is the second the job is done and the customer is happy: face to face, or a quick text that same afternoon. Leave it a week and they have moved on. Make "ask for the review" the last step of every job, the same as packing up your tools.
Make it one tap
Do not say "look us up on Google." Send the direct review link so it is a single tap. Every extra step between a happy customer and the review box loses people. You can get your link from your Google Business Profile (here is how to set that up properly).
The wording that works
Thanks again [name], glad that is all sorted. If you have got 30 seconds, a quick Google review genuinely helps a small business like mine: [link]. No worries either way.
Warm, short, easy to say yes to, and it does not beg. That is the whole trick.
Then put them to work
Reviews sitting on Google are only half the job. Get them onto your own website so they sell for you, and reply to every one, good or bad, so the next customer sees a business that is switched on.
The honest bit
Doing this by hand means remembering after every single job, sending the right link, and chasing the ones who forget. That discipline is exactly what slips when you are flat out on the tools. BizEdge asks for the review automatically after each job and puts the good ones straight on your site, kept current. It is built in from $89 a month, which is cheaper than the jobs you lose to a competitor whose reviews are easy to find and yours are not.