✦ Reviews
Review Strategy for AEC Firms
AEC firms face a review collection challenge that consumer businesses don't: most clients are professional organisations rather than individuals, relationships are long-term rather than transactional, and the professional norms around asking for reviews are more formal. Despite these differences, a systematic review strategy works — it just requires different timing and framing than a plumber's post-job text message.
The AEC review collection challenge:
Who to ask: in a professional services context, the review request goes to the individual at the client organisation who has authority to speak to the project outcome and who experienced the working relationship directly. For a construction project, this is typically the owner or owner's representative. For an engineering mandate, the project manager or facilities director. Not the accounts payable contact or a junior team member who had limited exposure to the project.
When to ask: the optimal review request timing for AEC firms is at project close-out, when the scope is complete and the client is in receipt of the final deliverable. For long projects (12+ months), a mid-project check-in review request ('we're halfway through and wanted to share how the process is going') can generate interim reviews that reflect the experience to date.
How to frame the request: AEC clients respond better to review requests framed as professional feedback than as star ratings. 'Would you be willing to share a brief note on Google about your experience working with us? It helps other project owners understand what the process is like' is more effective than 'can you leave us a 5-star review?'
Where to collect: Google is primary for local visibility and AI recommendations. For architecture firms and interior designers, Houzz is important because it's industry-specific and AI-indexed. For firms pursuing commercial and institutional work, LinkedIn recommendations from client contacts serve as professional credibility signals even though they don't appear in Google or AI search the same way Google reviews do.
Volume targets for AEC firms: 20–40 Google reviews at 4.5+ is sufficient for most AEC categories to reach AI recommendation threshold. This is lower than for high-volume trades businesses because the query volume for AEC services is lower and there are typically fewer well-reviewed local competitors.
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