10.2% of HVAC companies have 500 or more reviews. What to do this week if you have 30
A small slice of HVAC companies hold hundreds of reviews while the median sits far lower. What that gap means in heating season and what to change this week.
Search "furnace repair" in almost any metro and the top of the map is held by two or three companies with review counts that look impossible. Five hundred, eight hundred, a thousand. If your company has a few dozen, it is easy to decide you cannot compete and stop trying. That would be the wrong read of the numbers.
Here is the number. Across 46,610 HVAC listings in our data, 10.2% have 500 or more reviews. The median company has 30. The top 10% start at 511. The average is 244.1, which tells you how much those big shops pull the mean up. Most of the field looks like you, not like them.
What the gap actually means
The companies above 500 are mostly not better technicians. They are companies that built asking into every ticket years ago and never stopped. At a busy shop running thousands of calls a year, asking on every one produces hundreds of reviews without anyone trying very hard.
That matters because you are not competing with them for every search. Google's local results weigh distance heavily. The 900-review company across town may not show for a homeowner three miles from your shop. Your real competition is the handful of companies near you, and most of them sit near the median.
There is also a middle band worth noticing. 28.5% of HVAC companies have passed 100 reviews. That is roughly the point where a company starts looking established to a stranger scrolling the map. If you are at the median, getting to 100 is a realistic goal for one heating season. Getting to 500 is a multi-year habit.
Why this week, specifically
Heating season is starting. Furnace tune-ups, the first no-heat calls, carbon monoxide checks. These are the highest-relief visits of the year. A family that had no heat on the first cold night and has it again by dinner is the most willing reviewer you will meet.
If the asking is not in place before the first cold snap, you miss the busiest stretch of review opportunities until next summer.
What to do this week
1. Look up your real number. Open your Google profile and write down your review count and the date of your newest review. Then check the three companies that show up next to you on the map for "furnace repair." That is your actual race, not the 900-review shop.
2. Put the ask on the ticket. Add one line to the tech's close-out checklist: "Asked for review, yes or no." The tech says it at the truck while writing up the ticket. One sentence: "If we took care of you today, a Google review helps us more than anything. I'll text you the link before I leave." The Google reviews guide has more versions for different job types.
3. Send the link from the driveway. Not that night, not with the invoice. A text with your review link, sent before the truck pulls away. The ask and the link should arrive within five minutes of each other.
4. Track it by tech. Every Friday, count asks and reviews per technician. Thank the top tech by name in the shop meeting. What gets counted gets done.
5. Reply to every review. Use the customer's first name and the tech's name. "Thanks, Linda. Glad Carlos got the furnace running before the cold night." It takes 30 seconds and shows future callers someone is paying attention.
A realistic target
Take a hypothetical company at the median running 60 heating calls a week. If techs ask on every one and one in six customers follows through, that is ten new reviews a week, and the company could pass 100 within a couple of months. Your follow-through rate will vary, but the math shows why asking on every ticket matters more than any clever tactic.
Do not chase the count with shortcuts
Buying reviews, offering discounts for reviews, or asking only happy customers through a survey filter all break Google's rules. Google can remove reviews and, in some cases, put a warning on the profile. A steady stream from real customers is the only version of this that lasts.
While you are on the profile
Two other numbers from the benchmark report worth checking this week. 28.1% of HVAC companies list no hours, and only 29.3% show as open 24 hours. If you take emergency calls at night, say so on the profile before the first cold snap. And if you do not have a website linked, companies with one carry a median of 47 reviews against 8 without. The Google Business Profile guide covers both.
If you want review requests sent automatically after every service call, any service is available as a free 14-day trial, no card. Text or call (385) 364-3875.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, HVAC companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor