Guide
How to ask customers for Google reviews within Google’s rules
For owners asking customers to review them on Google
Home Services
Bahamian home services lead on WhatsApp
The 2026 Bahamas Digital Readiness Index checked 253 home services firms on Google Business Profile, website, Facebook Page (not a personal profile) and WhatsApp.
Share of 253 businesses with each door open
- Google Business Profile : 38.7%. Country 60.5%.
- Website : 27.7%. Country 38.2%.
- Facebook Page : 20.2%. Country 33.2%.
- WhatsApp : 37.2%. Country 22.7%, highest of 8 industries.
Average score 30.4 of 100 · rank 7 of 8
The 2026 index
A Google Business Profile is next for most home services.
38.7%
Nearly every home services business lists a phone number, but a homeowner who needs someone for the first time finds them through a nearby search. A Google Business Profile is what that search shows. Claiming one is free, Google’s check takes days to a week or more, and filling it in is an evening if the photos and hours are to hand.
The Google Business Profile and WhatsApp count most for home services.
Homeowners find someone on Google and send a photo of the job on WhatsApp.
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Google Business Profile
Required · 34 points
A homeowner with a leak searches for someone nearby and calls from the Google result. With no Google Business Profile you are not seen at the moment they need you.
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Website
Recommended · 19 points
A website can show licensing, services and pricing, though an urgent homeowner tends to scan the reviews and call before reading it.
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Facebook Page
Optional · 13 points
A homeowner looks for a plumber when the leak starts, so a Facebook Page does little of the finding here.
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WhatsApp
Required · 34 points
Whether a homeowner found you on Google or already had your number, the photo of the problem, the quote and the booked visit all pass through your WhatsApp Business number.
Required: central to how this industry’s customers find, trust and contact a business, so it carries the most points.
Recommended: useful, but customers can still find and contact the business through its other open doors.
Optional: this industry’s customers rarely use it to find or choose a business, so it carries the fewest points.
The points on the four cards add up to 100, the most any business can score in any industry.
How home services businesses compare with the country, door by door.
The Facebook Page has room too: the index found one for 20.2%, against 33.2% across the country.
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Home Services open share by door · the 2026 index All eight industries, compared
Among industries with a published figure, home services had the largest share of website addresses that did not load.
A website link that fails turns away a customer who had already decided to try the business.
That address can still sit on your Google Business Profile or Facebook Page, where a homeowner meets it first. Open it on a phone, then fix it or take the address down.
Whether your website still loads, on the Website door webpage
AI assistants answer homeowners from what is published about each business.
The quote conversation is already on WhatsApp for many home services businesses here, so what an assistant needs first is a listing it can read, with a service area and current hours. Google’s AI Mode works in The Bahamas, and Google names an up-to-date Business Profile among the basics that still matter for its AI answers. In a BrightLocal study of local AI answers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, Google’s AI cited the Business Profile more than any other single source.
Sources: Google Search Help, AI Mode, read 26 September 2026 · Google Search Central, AI features, read 26 September 2026 · BrightLocal, AI directory sources, read 26 September 2026
Of the Four Digital Doors, home services open the Google Business Profile first.
A homeowner with no number to call starts with a search, and the listing it shows hands the job to your WhatsApp.
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Google Business Profile
Required
Homeowners find you here. A search for the work they need shows your service area, hours and reviews.
Short to start, days to a week or more for Google’s check, an evening to fill in
- Set it up properly
- Claim and verify it. Search your business on Google and complete the check Google asks for, then set the service area and hours. Claiming is free.
Make it work harder
List each job as a service, such as a leak repair, where Google offers services for your category. Ask every customer for a review and answer each one. Add photos of finished work. Once a month, read its count of calls and website clicks.
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WhatsApp Business
Required
Homeowners talk to you here. A photo or short video of the leak comes in, and a first quote and a visit time go back.
Short to register, an evening or more to set up
- Set it up properly
- Register WhatsApp Business on a number of its own. Fill in the business profile with hours, the service area and the jobs you take. The app is free.
Make it work harder
Write a quick reply asking for a photo and the address. Confirm the visit the day before from a quick reply. Send a payment link from your bank or a payment app after the job. Put your business name beside the number everywhere.
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Website
Recommended
This is the one door you own. Your services, the area you cover, before-and-after photos and a quote request sit here in full.
A few evenings with a builder, weeks with a professional
- Set it up properly
- One webpage is enough to start: name, licence, service area, services, a WhatsApp link. A website builder or a professional. Domain and hosting carry a yearly cost.
Make it work harder
Put the WhatsApp link and a call button on every webpage. Show the licence number and the service area on the first webpage. Check every few months that it loads on a phone with the padlock.
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Facebook Page
Optional
A Facebook Page does little of the finding here, but a before-and-after post, or an answer in a local group, reaches neighbours who were not looking today.
An evening if the photos are to hand, longer from nothing
- Set it up properly
- Create a Facebook Page for the business. Do not run the business from a personal profile. Fill in the category, About section, service area and hours. Post a finished job.
Make it work harder
Post finished jobs often, a before-and-after where it shows, with the WhatsApp number in the post. Answer as the Page in local groups that allow Pages. Add the WhatsApp button. Answer messages daily. Read Meta Business Suite monthly.
After the doors are open
Open doors need a weekly habit: the same hours, prices and contact number on every door, and every message answered. A homeowner can find you on your Google Business Profile, send the photo in WhatsApp Business and check your services and area on your website. Your WhatsApp chats show which neighbourhoods call and which jobs come back, and a claimed Google Business Profile shows the searches that found you.
Need help opening these doors or getting more from them? DDigiLeads does this work for Bahamian businesses. Talk to us
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The Bahamas Digital Readiness Index found that Bahamian home services businesses publish WhatsApp numbers more often than any other industry.