HVAC reputation management and review generation
For emergency work, reviews are close to decisive. A homeowner with no heat is choosing between three map results, and the one with three hundred recent reviews gets the call.
Reviews are a system problem, not a marketing problem
Contractors who get lots of reviews are rarely the ones with the best service. They are the ones who ask every single time.
Volume matters, but recency matters more than most people think. Two hundred reviews with nothing in the last eight months reads worse to a homeowner than sixty reviews with four from this month. Velocity is the metric to manage.
The ask has to happen at the right moment. Not three days later by email. At the truck, job finished, homeowner relieved, technician holding a phone. Everything else is a fallback.
Negative reviews are not the emergency they feel like. A perfect five-star profile reads as fake. What matters is how you respond, and whether the pattern of complaints suggests something real that needs fixing.
Some reviews can be removed, most cannot. Reviews that breach policy — a competitor, someone who was never a customer, personal abuse — can be reported with evidence. A genuine unhappy customer cannot be deleted, only answered well.
What is included
Everything below is included. If something is not on this list, we will tell you before we invoice for it.
- Review audit across Google, Yelp and trade directories
- Review generation system built around your job workflow
- Technician scripts and request templates
- SMS and email request sequences
- QR codes and truck or invoice collateral
- Response templates for positive reviews
- Escalation process for negative reviews
- Policy-violation reporting where reviews qualify
- Monitoring and alerts across platforms
- Review schema on the website, where legitimate
- Competitor review benchmarking
- Monthly velocity and rating reporting
How we build the system
The goal is a process that keeps working when we are not looking.
Audit and benchmark
Your volume, rating and velocity against the contractors ranking above you. This usually explains the ranking gap on its own.
Design the ask
Where in your job workflow the request fits, who makes it, and what they say. Built around how your technicians actually work, not an ideal version of it.
Tooling and collateral
Request sequences, QR codes, invoice links, and whatever integrates with the field software you already use.
Response policy
Templates and a rule for who answers what within how long. Every review gets a reply, including the good ones.
Monitor and defend
Alerts on new reviews, reporting on anything that breaches policy, and a monthly read on velocity.
Questions about Reputation management
Can you remove a bad review?
Only if it breaches platform policy — it is from a competitor, from someone who was never a customer, contains personal information, or is abusive. Genuine criticism cannot be removed by anyone, and we would not try. The response is the strategy.
Should I offer a discount for a review?
No. Incentivised reviews breach Google's policy and can result in review removal or profile action. Ask well, ask consistently, and ask at the right moment instead.
Is review gating allowed?
No. Filtering unhappy customers away from the review link breaches platform policy. We will not build one, and if you already have one we will recommend removing it.
How many reviews do I need?
Enough to be credible next to the two contractors beside you in the map pack. In most markets that is a moving target, which is why we benchmark against your actual competitors rather than a fixed number.
What about Yelp, Angi and the trade directories?
It depends on your market. In some metros Yelp carries real weight; in others it is nearly irrelevant. We look at where your prospective customers actually are before spending effort there.