Automatic feedback surveys after every job
Short answer: Trigger a two- or three-question survey from the moment a job is marked complete in your job app or CRM, send it by SMS or email within a day, and route any low score straight to a named person who calls the customer back. Ask for a Google review in a separate step that goes to every customer, not only the happy ones, because Google's policy does not allow businesses to selectively solicit positive reviews. Then close the loop by telling customers what you changed.
Why "after every job" beats the annual survey
A plumber, cleaner, electrician or mobile mechanic finds out about a bad job in one of three ways: a complaint, a one-star review, or silence and a customer who never books again. A short survey after each job adds a fourth, earlier signal. The customer still remembers the visit, the technician can be identified, and a problem can often be fixed while it is still small.
The automation matters because nobody will remember to send forty surveys a week by hand, and a survey sent only "when it went well" tells you nothing.
The workflow, step by step
Here is the flow in words. Most job-management apps, CRMs and automation platforms can do each step; the names of the buttons differ.
- Trigger: a job's status changes to "Completed" (or an invoice is marked paid, if completion isn't tracked reliably).
- Wait: a delay of a few hours to one day. Same-day works for quick services; for bigger jobs give the customer a night to see the result.
- Check: skip the send if the customer was surveyed in the last 30 days, opted out, or the job was a warranty call-back you are already handling.
- Send: an SMS or email with the customer's first name, the job, and one link to the survey. Include the technician's first name if you have it; responses are more honest when they're about a person, not a brand.
- Receive: survey answers land back in your system against the job, not in a separate spreadsheet nobody opens.
- Route: apply the rules below.
- Review request: a separate message, sent to every completed job regardless of the survey answer.
- Report: a weekly summary of scores by technician and service type.
If your job app can't send surveys itself, connect it to a form tool through an automation platform: "job completed" as the trigger, "send SMS/email with form link" as the action, and the job ID passed along as a hidden field so the answer can be matched back.
The question set: keep it to three
Every extra question loses respondents. This set works for most trades and home services:
- "How did we go today?" A 1–5 scale or five faces. This is your headline score.
- "What's one thing we could have done better?" Optional free text. Ask for one thing, not everything.
- "Can we contact you about your answer?" Yes/No, with the phone number pre-filled if you already have it.
Branching keeps it short for people who are happy. Google Forms lets you send respondents to a different section depending on their answer ("Go to section based on answer" in the question menu), and Typeform's branching logic does the same by sending people to a specific question or ending based on what they chose. Use it so someone who gave a 5 sees question 2 as optional and finishes in seconds, while someone who gave a 2 sees the contact question straight away.
Avoid long rating grids, "how likely are you to recommend us" plus five follow-ups, and anything that feels like homework.
Routing rules
Routing is where most of the value is. Write the rules down and set them up once:
| Answer | What happens automatically | Who acts | By when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Score 1–2 | Alert by SMS/email to the owner or service manager with the job, technician and comment | Owner or manager calls the customer | Same business day |
| Score 3 | Task created in the job app or CRM | Office team follows up by phone or email | Within two business days |
| Score 4–5 with a comment | Comment forwarded to the technician | Technician reads, manager notes patterns | Weekly |
| Score 4–5, no comment | Logged only | Nobody | — |
| No response after 3 days | One reminder, then stop | — | — |
Two cautions. First, the person who calls back an unhappy customer should be able to fix things: re-book a visit, refund a call-out, apologise properly. Second, don't route complaints only to the technician involved. They should hear about it, but the customer needs someone with authority.
Asking for reviews without "gating"
This is where many survey tools lead businesses astray. A common pattern sends happy scorers to Google and keeps unhappy scorers on a private form. Google's Maps user-generated content policy (checked November 2026) says merchants must not "discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers". It also prohibits offering incentives such as discounts or free services for posting, changing or removing a review. Profiles that break these rules can have reviews removed and face restrictions.
The safe pattern is simple:
- Send the review request to everyone, as its own message, not as a reward for a high score. Google Business Profile lets you create a review link or QR code for exactly this.
- Don't make the review link conditional on survey answers, and don't tell staff to chase a quota of reviews.
- Keep the survey private and useful for your own improvement, and let the review be the customer's own choice.
In practice: survey on day one, review request on day two or three, to every customer whose job was completed.
Closing the loop
A survey that changes nothing is worse than none, because customers notice. Three habits make it pay off:
- Reply personally to every low score, even if it is only a phone call to listen.
- Once a month, look at the free-text answers for repeating themes: late arrivals, mess left behind, unclear quotes. Fix the most common one.
- Tell customers what changed, for example in your newsletter or on your website's "how we work" page: "You told us arrival windows were too vague, so we now text when the technician is 30 minutes away."
FAQ
SMS or email for the survey?
For home services, SMS usually suits better because customers read texts quickly and the job is fresh. Email works for business clients and larger jobs. Use whichever channel you already use for booking confirmations so the message looks expected.
Should I offer a prize draw for completing the survey?
For a private feedback survey, a small thank-you is your call. Never tie any incentive to leaving a public review, which Google's policy prohibits.
How do I stop customers getting the same survey twice?
Add a rule that skips anyone surveyed in the last 30 days, and record the send date against the customer record, not just the job.
What score should worry me?
Watch trends rather than single scores. A technician whose average slides over a month, or a service type with repeated comments about the same issue, is more useful to act on than one grumpy reply.
If you'd like the "job completed" status in your app to trigger surveys, alerts and review requests on its own, send us a note about the tools you run jobs in.