Your star rating isn't what's holding you back. Your review count is.
Across 148 Denver listings in 10 trades, average ratings sat between 4.73 and 4.96. Review counts ran from 14 to 17,946. Here's why the count is what customers compare, and how to grow yours without breaking Google's rules.
Stars are a tie
Look at the three listings Google shows for "plumber near me" in your town. They almost all have between 4.7 and 5 stars. In our Denver count, the lowest trade average was 4.73 and the highest was 4.96. A customer can't pick between 4.8 and 4.9, so they look at the number beside the stars.
That number is where businesses actually differ. A 4.9 with 40 reviews looks like a new shop. A 4.8 with 400 looks like the one everyone uses. Same stars, very different phone calls.
Find your real target
Don't measure yourself against the biggest name in the metro. The most-reviewed plumber we found in Denver has 17,946 reviews; nobody catches that. Measure yourself against the two or three listings that show up beside yours in your neighborhood. Beat them, and you're in the conversation.
As a starting point, here's the median in Denver for the trades we work with most:
| Trade | Median reviews, Denver | Most reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Chiropractor | 253 | 1,115 |
| Roofer | 224 | 984 |
| Electrician | 195 | 3,133 |
| Med spa | 173 | 2,398 |
| Landscaping | 82 | 369 |
From our Denver metro report, October 2026.
How to get more reviews, the legal way
Most happy customers never leave a review because nobody asked them at the right moment. The fix is boring and it works: ask every customer, every time, right after the job, with one tap to the review form.
Two rules keep you safe. Google doesn't allow paying or rewarding people for reviews, and it doesn't allow asking only your happy customers while steering unhappy ones away. In the US, the FTC's 2024 rule on fake reviews also bans buying reviews or writing them yourself, with fines per violation. Ask everyone, offer nothing, and answer what comes back.
- Text a review link the same day the job is done. A short, personal line with the customer's first name and a direct link.
- Send one reminder after 3 days, then stop. Two asks is polite; three is pestering.
- Reply to every review within a week, good or bad. Customers read the replies too.
- Mention the job in your reply ("glad the panel upgrade went smoothly"). It reads as real, because it is.
- Count your reviews every month against the two listings next to yours.
Make it automatic
The routine only works if it happens every time, and on a busy week it won't. That's why our Growth plans send the review request for you when a job is marked done, follow up once, and draft replies for you to approve. You keep doing the work. The asking happens on its own.