What Happens in the 48 Hours Before Your Reputation Engine Goes Live

Most setup processes ask you to learn software, configure settings, and figure it out yourself. This one does not. Before we build anything, we need three things from you — that's the entire client checklist.

1. Access to your job management system or calendar. We connect to wherever your jobs live — a scheduling app, a dispatch board, or a Google Calendar — to detect when a job is marked complete. That completion event is the trigger that fires the review request. No manual logging from you.

2. Your Google Business Profile login. You hand it over once and never touch it again. We post AI-drafted review responses directly to your GBP so your profile looks actively managed. That matters for local search ranking on "plumber near me" and similar searches.

3. Your service list. "How was your experience?" is a generic message that gets ignored. "How did we do on your water heater install?" gets clicked. We build message templates that name the actual work — HVAC tune-up, drain cleaning, panel replacement — so your customers respond at higher rates and your reviews reflect real jobs.

No dashboard to learn. No settings to configure. No training call to book. You send us those three things and we handle everything from hour one.

The moment we have your three inputs, the build starts. Here is what the first twelve hours look like.

Job completion trigger mapping. We trace the exact event in your job management system that signals a job is done — not "appointment set" or "invoice sent," but the completion event. If your system flags this differently from the default, we configure the mapping to match before we write a single message.

Trade-specific message templates. We do not use a generic review link blast. We write templates that reference the specific service category — HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door — with the customer's first name and job type pulled in automatically. Personalized, service-specific messages outperform blank links every time.

Google Business Profile connection. We authenticate and link your GBP so the system can post review responses on your behalf without manual copy-paste from you after every new review.

Opt-out and compliance configuration. Every message sequence includes compliant opt-out language, suppression lists, and quiet-hours settings. A customer who opts out is removed immediately and never messaged again.

By hour 12 the core system is built and staged. Hour 13 starts QA.

A system that sends review requests to the wrong person, at the wrong time, or without a proper opt-out is a liability. We QA everything before a single real customer receives a message.

Test job completions. We fire simulated completion events to confirm the trigger works and the correct message template fires for each service type.

Internal message delivery tests. Review request messages go to internal numbers first. We verify delivery, formatting, link function, and send timing.

Opt-out path confirmation. A team member opts out through each test message to confirm suppression fires instantly and the contact is removed from the active list.

Negative review triage verification. If a customer leaves a 1-star or 2-star review, a separate escalation protocol fires — not a follow-up message, but an immediate alert to you. We test that routing to confirm it works before going live.

You receive an email update during this phase with a QA summary. If a test fails, we fix it before hour 24, not after. Nothing goes live with a known defect.

The system does not go from QA to full volume overnight. We run a monitored soft launch first.

For the first 24 hours after QA clears, review requests fire only on a tracked subset of completed jobs. We watch delivery rates, open rates, and error signals in real time. Most builds run clean. Occasionally a calendar sync behaves differently with live data than with test data — the soft launch catches that before it affects a large batch of customers.

You get two notifications during this phase:

1. When your first real review request sends to a real customer.
2. When your first review posts to your Google Business Profile.

Both land in your email. No action required — they are confirmational only. By hour 48, the system is running at full volume and we shift from active monitoring to routine oversight.

If anything delays the soft launch — a calendar integration that needs an extra credential, a GBP permission level that requires adjustment — we tell you immediately and extend the clock. We do not rush a launch that is not clean.

Day 3 results depend almost entirely on your job volume in the prior 48 hours. If you ran 10 completed jobs, you might see 1 to 3 new reviews. If you ran 2 jobs, you might see zero yet — a review posts when the customer clicks the link, not when we send the request. That is normal and expected.

What is not normal at day 3: zero delivery confirmations across multiple jobs. If review request messages show no opens or clicks at all, that is a flag we investigate — usually a template link issue or a carrier filtering problem, both fixable within 24 hours.

Day 7 is where the velocity pattern establishes itself. By this point enough completed jobs have cycled through the system to establish your response rate baseline. A home-service business running this setup consistently converts 15 to 30% of review requests into posted reviews. If you are below that range at day 7, we audit the message templates and send timing and adjust before the 60-day performance guarantee window is more than a week old.

Slow starts are recoverable. Ignored slow starts are not — which is why we flag them proactively rather than waiting for you to notice.

Going live is not the end of the engagement — it is the start of the work that actually builds your reputation on Google.

Review response drafting. Every new review — 5-star or otherwise — gets an AI-drafted response within 24 hours. We finalize and post it to your GBP. Your profile looks actively managed because it is.

Monthly velocity check. At the 30-day and 60-day marks, we pull your review count, response rate, and star rating movement and compare them against the targets tied to your performance guarantee. If you are behind, we adjust message timing, template language, or trigger logic before the guarantee window closes.

1-star escalation. When a 1-star or 2-star review posts, we flag it to you within the hour. Those are not reviews to auto-respond — they are conversations that need your input. We draft a response and wait for your approval before posting.

You own the reputation. We operate the system that builds it. Review the full Reputation Engine offer and pricing to confirm cost and terms, then book your reputation engine setup call to start your 48-hour clock.