A homeowner is about to let a stranger into their house with a sprayer, around their kids and their dog. Before they call anyone, they read reviews. Not one. All of them. They look at the count, the stars, how recent they are, and whether anyone said “the ants came back” or “they never showed up.” Then they call the one that feels safest.
Most pest control companies know this and still have 25 reviews from three years ago. Not because customers are unhappy. Because nobody asked at the right moment.
The right moment is the follow-up, not the visit
Here is where pest control is different from other trades. On the day of the treatment, the customer has not seen the result yet. The ants are still there. If you ask that day, you get a polite “sure” and no review. The moment is a few days later, when the ants are gone and they notice.
So the routine is a text, three or four days after the visit: “Just checking in. Are the ants gone? If so, would you mind leaving us a quick review? It is how the next family finds us.” Then the link. If the answer is “not yet,” you just caught a callback before it became a bad review.
For quarterly customers, ask once a year
Plan customers do not have a “finished” moment, so you make one. After the fourth visit of the year, send: “That is a full year without a pest problem. If you have a minute, a review would mean a lot.” The relief is real, even if they stopped noticing it.
Make the link one tap
Go into your Google Business Profile and copy the “ask for reviews” link. Save it as a text template on every tech's phone and in the office. Print it as a QR code on the door hanger you leave after a visit. The fewer taps between “sure” and the review box, the more reviews you get.
Ask them to say the pest and the town
A review that says “great service” helps a little. A review that says “got rid of the roaches in our Riverview kitchen in one visit, no smell, safe for the dog” helps a lot, because Google reads the words. You do not write it for them. You just say: “If you can mention what we treated and your neighborhood, it really helps.”
Reply to every one
A short reply under each review, with the customer's first name and the pest, shows the next reader that a real person runs the company. It also gives Google more pest words tied to your listing. Two sentences is plenty.
The bad review
You will get one, and in pest control it is usually “they came back.” Reply the same day, calmly, with an offer to re-treat for free under your guarantee. Never argue. Readers are not judging the complaint. They are judging how you handled it. A company with 100 reviews and three calm replies looks more trustworthy than one with 20 perfect ones.
Make it part of the job, not an extra
The reason most pest control companies do not get reviews is that the follow-up text depends on someone remembering. Put it in the route software or on the office calendar instead. Every one-time treatment gets a flag three days out. Every quarterly customer gets a flag after visit four. The office sends the text that morning. It takes ten seconds, it happens every time, and nobody has to remember anything.
Then look at the numbers once a month. How many treatments did you do? How many reviews came in? If it is fewer than one in four, the link is too many taps away or the text is going out at the wrong time.
Put them on your website too
Pull your best reviews onto your website, next to the pest they talk about: ant reviews on the ant page, termite reviews on the termite page, as the website pages guide lays out. It is the easiest content you will ever add, and homeowners read it more than anything you write yourself.
Want this done for you?
Reviews are the biggest lever in the map box, and this follow-up text is what I set up for every pest control client. If you want to see where your listing stands, the audit is free.