Referral and reputation systems for firms that already do excellent work

What it is and who it suits

Answer first: this service suits established firms with a strong body of finished work and a reputation that travels by word of mouth, but no deliberate way to ask for or track introductions.

In a town of detached houses, neighbours see your trucks, your site protection and the finished result. A well-run project on a quiet crescent can lead to two more on the same street. The aim is to make that happen more often, and to know when it does.

It suits less well if you are new and have few completed projects. In that case start with portfolio websites and one acquisition channel.

What's included

• Project close-out sequence. A short set of messages from your firm at handover, at 30 days and at one year, each with a specific, low-effort request: a review, a photo visit, an introduction.
• Review habit. A simple way for your project lead to ask in person, followed by a text with a direct link. No incentives and no gating of unhappy clients.
• Case pages from every project. Written with the client's permission, describing the problem, scope, area of town and outcome without naming them unless they agree.
• Professional relationships. A plan for staying useful to interior designers, architects and realtors: project updates, honest scheduling information, and quick answers when their clients ask.
• Neighbour courtesy notes. Templates your crews can leave before work begins, which explain timing and give a way to reach the office. Courtesy first; the marketing value follows.
• Referral tracking. A field in your job records for "who introduced this client", reported monthly.

A note on honesty and the law

Answer first: reviews must be real, unpaid and unfiltered. The Competition Bureau's guidance on misleading representations explains that the Competition Act treats endorsements as representations, so a made-up or distorted one is a legal risk, not just a reputational one. Platform rules go further and penalise review gating, which means asking only happy clients.

That is why we design for volume of genuine reviews rather than perfection. A profile with sixty real reviews and a few honest four-star comments reads as more trustworthy to a careful buyer than twelve flawless ones.

Timeline

1. Weeks 1–2: review your last 24 months of projects, map where referrals came from, agree templates and timing.
2. Weeks 3–6: close-out sequence live for new handovers; past-client check-ins sent in small batches.
3. Months 2–4: case pages published for willing clients; first designer and realtor touchpoints.
4. Ongoing: monthly report on reviews, introductions and signed work from referrals.

How results are measured

We count three things: new reviews per completed project, introductions received per completed project, and contracts signed from introductions. A worked check: if you finish 30 projects a year and each produces 0.3 introductions, that's nine warm conversations. At a 50% close rate on $90,000 average work, it's four or five signed projects that cost almost nothing to acquire.

Raising that rate from 0.3 to 0.5 per project adds roughly three more signed jobs a year. For many firms that is worth more than any ad campaign. The results page shows similar tracking discipline from our HVAC work.

Mistakes to avoid

• Asking too late. The right moment is at handover, when the client is happiest, not three months on.
• Asking too vaguely. "Tell your friends" produces nothing. "Would you be comfortable if we showed [Neighbour name] your finished kitchen?" sometimes does.
• Offering gifts for reviews. It can breach platform rules and damages trust if noticed.
• Not tracking. Without a "who referred you" field, you can't tell which relationships to invest in.

For costs, see pricing. For how referrals fit into a full year of marketing, read our seasonal calendar.