Writing a review about a customer feels strange the first time you do it. Most tradies have been reviewing jobs in their own heads for years, but putting it down for other businesses to read is a different thing. You’re not venting and you’re not writing a character reference. You’re leaving a record of how the job actually went, so the next tradie who gets a quote request from the same person can decide with their eyes open.
Getting this right matters. A good review helps other businesses. A bad review, one written in heat or exaggerated for effect, gets disputed, gets adjusted, and makes you look unreliable. Here’s how to write one that holds up.
Wait until the job is closed
Don’t write the review when the fight is hot. The best reviews are written a few days after the last invoice has been settled, when you can look back at the whole job rather than the last argument about the tiles. If you’re still annoyed, leave it for a week. The review will be sharper, more specific, and more useful when you’re not writing it with your neck veins out.
Stick to what happened, not how it felt
The strongest reviews are factual. They describe events, not feelings. “Invoice was paid fourteen days overdue after three reminders” is useful. “Nightmare customer, avoid” is not. The first gives the next tradie information they can act on. The second tells them you had a bad day. If you want to note that the customer was difficult to deal with, give the evidence. “Changed the scope three times after the job started and resisted paying for the variations” tells a story that another tradie can recognise.
Cover the things that matter to other tradies
A useful customer review covers payment, scope, communication, and site conduct. Did they pay on time? Did they stick to the scope, or did they keep adding things without agreeing the cost? Did they reply in a reasonable time, or did you have to chase every decision? Were they around when you needed access, and were they decent to be on site with? You don’t need to comment on every one of these. Pick the ones that actually applied to this job and write about those.
Call out the good as well as the bad
It’s easy to only write reviews when you’re frustrated. Don’t. The Good Customer Passport only works if the good customers are as visible as the difficult ones. If someone paid on the day, didn’t hassle you for extras, and was pleasant to have around, that’s worth three sentences. It helps them, and it helps every tradie who gets a lead from them in the future. Good customers are who most tradies are trying to build a business around, and a quiet “this one was easy” review is genuinely valuable.
Know when to skip the review
Sometimes the right call is not to leave a review at all. If the disagreement was genuinely two-sided, if you could have handled your end better, if the customer has a legitimate grievance you haven’t fully resolved, hold off. A review written while the dispute is still live isn’t fair to either side and will probably get taken down. If you’ve taken the customer to a tribunal, wait until the decision. If the problem was really between you and your apprentice or you and the builder and the customer got caught in the middle, it isn’t their review to wear.
Leaving no review is a legitimate option. The Passport is for patterns, and a pattern forms across many reviews. If you can’t bring yourself to write something honest and specific, write nothing.
Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to their face
A customer review isn’t anonymous. Your business name is on it. The customer can read it. They can respond to it publicly, and they can dispute it. If you’re writing something you wouldn’t say to the customer in person on the driveway, you’re writing the wrong review. Rewrite it until you could.
Keep it short
Three or four tight sentences is usually enough. Other tradies are reading dozens of these when they look at a customer. They don’t need the saga. They need the signal. “Job went straight, scope was clear, invoice paid the same week, would happily quote again” does more work than six paragraphs about how great it was.
Leave the review while the memory is fresh
The longer you leave it, the less useful the review becomes. Details fade. Dates blur. Get into the habit of reviewing customers the week the job wraps up, the same week you invoice. Make it part of closing the job, alongside cleaning the van and filing the paperwork. A review written in the moment, while the details are still sharp, is the one that carries weight.
Reviewey only works if the record is honest on both sides. Writing a fair customer review is how you hold up your end of that deal.