Is Your Reputation Costing You Paving Jobs?
You’ve built a solid paving company. Your crews show up on time, you use quality materials, and you stand behind your work. But when property managers Google your company name before signing that $45,000 parking lot contract, what do they find?
If the answer is a handful of outdated reviews or worse, a 3.2-star rating with complaints about communication, you’re losing jobs before you even submit a bid. Your online reputation isn’t just about looking good on the internet. It’s about whether you get to compete for the work at all.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Property managers and facility directors do their homework. Before they spend tens of thousands on asphalt work, they’re checking you out online. Here’s what the data shows about how they’re making decisions:
75% of consumers regularly read online reviews when researching local businesses. That number hasn’t budged in three years, which tells you this isn’t a trend that’s fading. It’s how business gets done now.
81% of people check Google reviews specifically before visiting or hiring a business. Not Yelp, not Facebook—Google. When someone searches for paving contractors in their area, Google is showing your star rating right next to your company name in the results.
Only 9% of consumers would even consider doing business with a company that has a 1-2 star rating. You’re not just fighting for attention with a weak reputation. You’re eliminated from consideration entirely.
The financial impact is even more direct. 58% of consumers are willing to pay more for services from businesses with strong reviews. Translation: A contractor with a 4.8-star rating and 60+ reviews can charge more for the same parking lot reseal than you can with three reviews and a 3.5 rating.
Think about that. Same quality work, same materials, same equipment. But the contractor who’s figured out reputation management gets to charge 10-15% more and still wins the bid because the property manager trusts them.
What a Strong Reputation Actually Does for Your Business
A good online reputation isn’t just about feeling good when you Google yourself. It directly affects three things that matter to your bottom line:
It determines who even considers you. Most commercial property managers have a shortlist of 3-5 contractors they’ll call for quotes. If you don’t have the reviews to get on that list, your phone never rings. You can’t sell what you can’t bid.
It affects your close rate. When you’re competing against another contractor with similar pricing, the one with 75 positive reviews talking about clean job sites and responsive project managers wins. Every time.
It lets you charge what you’re worth. The data shows that consumers will pay 17% more for excellent service. But they only know you provide excellent service if other customers have said so publicly.
Why Most Contractors Don’t Have Good Reviews (And What You Can Do About It)
Here’s the thing about reviews: most satisfied customers won’t leave one unless you ask. It’s not that they didn’t like your work. They’re just busy running their own businesses, dealing with their own headaches, and moving on to the next thing.
Meanwhile, the customer who had an issue with tack on their driveway apron? They’ll find time to leave a review. That’s how you end up with three total reviews, two of which mention problems, even though you’ve completed 200 jobs in the last two years.
The solution isn’t complicated, but it does require a system.
Step 1: Fix Issues Before They Become Reviews
The best review strategy starts before anyone touches a keyboard. At project completion, have someone from your office—ideally a project manager or the owner—reach out to confirm the customer is satisfied.
“Hey [Property Manager Name], wanted to check in now that we’ve wrapped up the parking lot work at [Property Name]. Everything looking good on your end? Any concerns we should address?”
If there’s an issue, you handle it immediately. Broken sprinkler head from the mill? Fixed within 24 hours. Some tack on the entrance apron? Crew is back out that afternoon to clean it up.
This does two things. First, you actually resolve the problem. Second, you turn a potential negative review into a positive one because now the story isn’t “they left my property a mess”—it’s “they took care of a small issue immediately without me having to ask twice.”
Step 2: Ask Happy Customers for Reviews
Once you’ve confirmed the customer is satisfied, ask for a review. Not in a pushy way, but direct: “Would you be willing to share your experience on Google? It really helps us when we’re competing for projects.”
68% of people will leave a review if you ask them directly. That’s two out of every three satisfied customers. But most contractors never ask, so they never get the reviews.
The timing matters. Ask too early, and the customer might not have had time to see how the asphalt is performing. Ask too late, and they’ve moved on mentally to other priorities. The sweet spot is typically 2-7 days after completion for residential work, and 7-14 days for commercial projects.
Step 3: Make It Stupidly Easy
Nobody wants to search for your business on Google, figure out how to leave a review, and type out their thoughts on a mobile keyboard while standing in line at the grocery store.
Send them a direct link that takes them straight to the review page. Here’s how:
- Find your business on Google Maps
- Click on “Share”
- Copy the review link that appears
- Save that link somewhere accessible
Then when you email or text the customer asking for a review, include that link. “Here’s a direct link that makes it easy: [your review link]”
This small step dramatically increases the percentage of people who follow through. You’re removing friction, and in a world where everyone’s attention span is measured in seconds, friction kills completion rates.
Step 4: Know Which Platforms Actually Matter
You can spend months trying to get reviews on every platform that exists, or you can focus on the ones that actually move the needle. For paving contractors, here’s what matters:
Google Business Profile is non-negotiable. This is where 81% of people are checking first. If you only maintain reviews on one platform, make it Google.
Better Business Bureau still carries weight with commercial property managers and facility directors, especially for larger projects. Having a solid BBB profile with reviews adds credibility.
Facebook matters for residential work. Homeowners often check Facebook reviews, particularly in local community groups where people share recommendations.
Yelp is less relevant for paving contractors than other industries, but if you’re doing a lot of residential driveways, it’s worth monitoring. Don’t stress about getting tons of Yelp reviews, but respond to any that appear.
Focus on Google first, BBB second, and Facebook third. Everything else is bonus.
Step 5: Respond to Every Review (Yes, Even the Bad Ones)
88% of consumers say a business’s response to reviews is important when they’re evaluating that company. They’re not just reading what customers said—they’re reading how you handled it.
For positive reviews, keep your responses short and genuine:
“Thanks for trusting us with your parking lot project, [Name]. Glad we could get it done on schedule before winter hit. Let us know if you need anything down the road.”
For negative reviews, the stakes are higher. 75% of businesses don’t respond to negative reviews at all, which is a massive missed opportunity. Here’s why: 97% of people who read reviews also read your responses.
When someone leaves a negative review, they’re frustrated. Your response isn’t really for them—it’s for everyone else reading it. You want potential customers to see that you:
- Take complaints seriously
- Try to understand what happened
- Make reasonable efforts to fix problems
- Act professionally even when the review seems unfair
Here’s a framework that works:
“We appreciate you taking the time to share this feedback. I’m sorry your experience didn’t meet your expectations, especially regarding [specific issue mentioned]. This isn’t typical of how we run projects, and I’d like the chance to learn more about what happened. Could you contact me directly at [phone/email] so we can discuss this?”
Notice what’s NOT in that response: defensiveness, excuses, attacking the reviewer, or detailed explanations of why they’re wrong. Even if the review is completely unfair, your response needs to be measured and professional.
The reality is, most people reading reviews understand that some customers are unreasonable. What they’re evaluating is whether you’re reasonable in how you respond.
Step 6: Build Volume Over Time
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: one or two great reviews don’t move the needle much. Consumers expect businesses to have 20-99 reviews before they consider the average rating reliable.
This is why asking for reviews needs to become part of your standard process, not something you do occasionally when you remember. Every completed project should trigger a review request in your system.
If you’re completing 50 projects a year and asking each customer for a review with a 68% conversion rate, you’re looking at about 34 new reviews annually. Within 18-24 months, you’ve built a strong enough review profile that new customers feel confident choosing you.
The contractors who figure this out aren’t doing anything magical. They’re just consistent. Every job gets a follow-up call. Every satisfied customer gets asked. Every review gets responded to. Month after month, year after year.
What About Negative Reviews?
Let’s address the elephant in the room. What do you do when someone leaves a legitimately bad review about a job where things went sideways?
First, acknowledge that it’s going to happen. Even great contractors occasionally have projects go wrong. Weather delays, miscommunication, material issues, crew mistakes—it’s construction. Problems happen.
The goal isn’t to have zero negative reviews. The goal is to handle them in a way that actually strengthens your reputation.
Respond publicly with a professional acknowledgment and an offer to fix the problem. This shows everyone else reading that you stand behind your work.
Take the conversation private to actually resolve the issue. Exchange contact information publicly, then handle the details offline.
Follow through on whatever solution you propose. If you offer to come back and address a concern, actually do it. 70% of consumers will leave a better review after a business responds to and resolves their complaint.
Sometimes the negative review is from someone who was unreasonable from the start, had unrealistic expectations, or is just impossible to satisfy. That happens too. Your response still needs to be professional, but other readers can usually tell when a customer was the problem.
Don’t let negative reviews paralyze you. A profile with 60 reviews averaging 4.7 stars (including a few negative ones) looks more authentic and trustworthy than a profile with 12 reviews all at 5 stars.
The Long-Term Payoff
Building a strong online reputation isn’t a quick fix. You can’t buy your way out of having three reviews and a 3.2-star rating. You have to earn it, one satisfied customer at a time, over months and years.
But here’s what makes it worth the effort:
Your close rate goes up because property managers trust you before the first conversation. Your average project size increases because larger clients do more due diligence—and strong reviews pass that scrutiny. Your pricing flexibility improves because customers expect to pay more for contractors with proven track records.
And maybe most importantly, you stop competing primarily on price. When you’re one of three contractors bidding on a project and the other two have minimal online presence, your reviews become the differentiator that lets you charge what you’re actually worth.
The paving contractors who understand this aren’t spending more time on it than their competitors. They’ve just systematized it. Review request goes out after every job. Reviews get responded to within 48 hours. Issues get handled immediately. It becomes part of how they operate, not something they think about separately.
Your reputation isn’t just about your company’s image. It’s about whether you get invited to bid on the best projects, whether you close at the rates you need to be profitable, and whether you’re building a business that’s worth more every year.
Start asking for reviews. Every job, every time. Respond to what you get. Fix problems before they become bad reviews. Do this consistently, and six months from now, your online reputation becomes one of your biggest competitive advantages.
The property managers are already Googling you. Make sure they like what they find.