06/05/2026
Ran an audit on a handful of HVAC companies in the St. Louis suburbs last week. One company had 61 Google reviews. Their closest competitor in the same zip code had 214. Both have been in business for years. Both do good work.
They are not competing for the same customer. The 3-pack in most of those suburbs starts cutting off around 80 to 120 reviews for HVAC, and the algorithm weighs how recently reviews came in, not just the total number. A company sitting at 61 with nothing coming in for six weeks is invisible to a homeowner searching on a Tuesday in July.
One automated text sent 24 hours after a completed job converts somewhere between 28 and 35 percent. That means if your tech closes four calls a day and nothing gets triggered, you are walking away from at least one review per day. Every day. All summer.
The gap between 61 and 214 did not happen because one company has better service. It happened because one company built a simple habit and the other did not.