What I won't do
A lot of this work can be done in ways that get a business penalized six months later, after the person who set it up has stopped answering. Here's where I draw the line, in writing, before you hire me.
I won't filter your reviews
Every customer gets the same link, happy or not. Some outfits route unhappy people to a private feedback form so only the good ones reach Google. That's review gating, Google has been removing those reviews, and I won't build it for you.
I won't fake stars in search results
There's a piece of code that makes a star rating appear under your listing in Google's results. It's against the rules for the kind of reviews a local business collects, and it draws manual penalties. It doesn't go on your site.
I won't have you stand over the customer
No handing them your phone in the driveway, no tablet at the counter, no tech watching while they type. Their phone, their time, their words. Your crew gets trained on exactly that.
I won't take ownership of your profile
I ask for manager access, never owner. It stays your profile. If we part ways, my access comes off within five business days and I confirm it to you in writing.
I won't promise you a number
No guaranteed rankings, review counts, phone calls or revenue — from Google or from an AI. I'll show you what moved every month and let you decide whether it's worth the money.
I won't hold your website hostage
You can buy it out and take it with you — your own account, your own domain, yours outright. That offer stands whether you're happy with me or not.
Why any of this matters to you
None of it is a preference. Google's rules on how reviews can be collected tightened through 2026, and enforcement moved from "somebody complains" to automated sweeps. The businesses getting hurt aren't the ones who set out to cheat — they're the ones whose marketing company installed something clever and never explained what it did.
When a review funnel gets flagged, the reviews come off the profile. Not the marketing company's profile. Yours.
The specific things that are now off-limits
These changed recently enough that plenty of tools still ship with them turned on:
- Screening customers by sentiment before showing them the review link
- Review kiosks, shared tablets, or a phone at the counter that customers are handed
- Offering anything in exchange for a review — a discount, a gift card, entry into a drawing
- Asking customers to mention a staff member by name or to include particular words
- Pressuring somebody to review while they're still on your premises
What that leaves, and it's plenty
A tag on a card you hand over at the end of the job. A sticker on the invoice. A magnet on the fridge, a decal on the truck, a follow-up message a day later. The customer takes it home and decides on their own time, on their own phone. That's compliant, it's what I set up, and it works — the reason it works is that people who are genuinely happy will leave a review if you make it easy and don't make it weird.
The tag makes it easy. It doesn't make it positive. Positive is your crew's job, and no amount of what I do substitutes for that.
If a competitor's review profile looks too clean
An unusually spotless review history on a business that does volume work is sometimes a filtered funnel rather than a flawless record. I'm not going to name anybody, and I'm not going to build you one. I'd rather you knew what you were looking at.
How the review sequence actually works · How the tap tools are set up and verified
Let me show you where you stand. Then you decide.
Tell me your business name and I'll run your Maps snapshot — free, nothing to sign. You'll see exactly where you show up, who's ahead of you, and why.
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