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Asking HVAC customers for reviews when they see you twice a year

HVAC customers come back: a repair in July, a tune-up in October, a new system years later. This page covers when to ask after each, which review sites matter, a sample email, and the rules on incentives.

For your trade › HVAC · Facts checked October 16, 2026

When to ask after a repair, an install or a plan visit

HVAC work comes in three kinds. A no-heat or no-cool call is usually over in an evening. A replacement can take days and may involve a permit and an inspection. A maintenance-plan visit comes around again. Give each kind its own moment, and apply it to every customer of that kind.

  1. Repair: the same evening

    Add the customer once heating or cooling is confirmed running. After 8pm, the email waits for 8am.

  2. Replacement or install: one to two days later

    A new system's result is a house at temperature and a quiet unit, and neither shows when the crew drives off. Wait until it has run a full cycle and any inspection has passed.

  3. Plan visit: after the first one, then at most every six months

    Ask after a customer's first visit, then at most once every six months. Jobber, a field-service app, sends a given client at most one review request every six months (read 16 October 2026) [1]. Housecall Pro's follow-up guide gives a tune-up reminder six months after the last service as its HVAC example for rebooking, which is about rebooking, not reviews [2]. Our advice is the same ceiling.

  4. Reminder: 72 hours later

    One reminder follows three days after the first email and stops when the customer clicks or unsubscribes.

The six-month rule is yours to apply. A repeat customer is already in your contacts, and a second request is a deliberate click on Ask again. If you send jobs in automatically, from a Housecall Pro webhook or a Google Sheet, every new job number is asked once, so a plan customer would be asked after each visit. To keep to six months, leave plan visits out of the automatic feed and add those customers yourself when they are due.

Review sites for HVAC, and where we ask

Google comes first. Google lists HVAC as a Local Services Ads category [3].

SiteWhat to knowDo we ask there?
GoogleYour Business Profile reviews.Yes. This is the main ask.
FacebookMeta's Community Feedback policy covers ratings and reviews on Marketplace and Shops, and says they must not be directly or indirectly incentivized unless disclosed under its branded content policies. It does not mention Page recommendations, and says nothing on whether a business may ask [4].Yes, once you paste your page's review link.
Better Business BureauBBB will not accept a review from someone who received or was offered compensation [5].Yes.
YelpYelp's guidelines say “Businesses should never ask customers to write reviews” [6].Never. Your review page can link to Yelp. No email asks for a Yelp review.
AngiAngi asks pros to provide the homeowner's name and contact information so it can verify the project [7].No. We do not ask on Angi.
NextdoorNextdoor's business blog says to ask neighbors who have already done business with you to like your Business Page or leave a recommendation [8].No. We do not ask on Nextdoor.

One email for every kind of HVAC job

Plan customers, repair calls and new installs all get the same email, so it picks out none of them. “Whether it was a repair, a tune-up or a new system” covers every one.

An email after any HVAC visit

Subject: Thank you from [Your business]

Hi [First name],

Whether it was a repair, a tune-up or a new system, thank you for choosing [Your business] for your heating and cooling.

A short Google review helps other homeowners choose an HVAC company. If you have a minute, you can leave one here:

Leave a review on Google

Thank you,[Your business]

Square brackets mark what GossipGarden fills in for each customer. You can write wording like this in Settings › Templates; the link is the button GossipGarden adds under your words.

Nothing in it asks about the visit, offers anything or names a technician. Your postal address and a one-click unsubscribe link go in the footer automatically. Every request goes by email today; texting is not switched on yet.

The incentive rules, and the one about picking who to ask

Google's help center says you can ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code [9], so asking is not the problem. In HVAC the risk is the offer that comes with the ask, such as a free tune-up, a free part or money off a plan renewal. Everything below was read on 16 October 2026.

  • Google's Maps content policy prohibits offering incentives for a review, including payment and free goods or services [10].
  • The FTC's consumer reviews rule (16 CFR 465.4, as read in the eCFR on 16 October 2026) makes it an unfair or deceptive practice to give “compensation or other incentives in exchange for, or conditioned expressly or by implication on, the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, whether positive or negative” [11].
  • BBB's policy “goes beyond FTC's legal requirements and prohibits customer reviews that are incentivized even if a disclosure is made” [5].

A plan renewal is a natural place for this to slip in, because the customer is about to pay you. Keep the two apart. GossipGarden's template editor rejects common incentive words, but it is a word list, so the rule is still yours to keep.

Picking who to ask is the other line. Google lists “selectively solicit positive reviews from customers” as prohibited [10]. Skipping a plan customer because you asked them in March is a rule about time. Skipping one because their last job went badly is selection. Only the first fits asking everyone, and it must apply to every plan customer the same way.

Questions from HVAC owners

My plan customers see me twice a year. Do I ask every time?
No. Ask after the first visit, then at most once every six months. Jobber limits its own requests the same way [1]. That ceiling is our advice, not a legal rule. A second request in GossipGarden is a deliberate click on Ask again, so keeping the cycle is up to you. It has to be a rule about time, never about how the last visit went.
Do reviews help my Local Services Ads?
Google says “Star ratings and number of reviews affect how your business is ranked within Local Services Ads” and “Customers are more likely to leave a review if the request comes from you directly” [12]. Reviews are managed in your Google Business Profile, not the ads account. Google gives no number and promises no ranking.
Can I offer a free tune-up for a review?
No. Google and BBB rule out incentives for reviews, and the FTC's rule bars incentives tied to a particular sentiment [10][5][11]. The ask has to stand on its own.
It is July and I have a week of jobs to enter. What happens?
GossipGarden has a daily limit on emails to protect delivery, 200 a day to begin with, reminders included. If you add more than is left today, it spreads the rest over the next days, and the app says how many go out today and when the rest start. So enter each day's finished jobs that evening rather than a week's at once.

Sources

Each number in the text points to the source it came from, as read on the date shown. Rules and prices change; check the source before you rely on one.

  1. Jobber Help Center: reviews and marketing tools (read October 16, 2026)
  2. Housecall Pro: how to automate customer follow-ups for home services (read October 16, 2026)
  3. Google Local Services Ads Help: business categories supported in the US (read October 16, 2026)
  4. Meta: Community Feedback policy (read October 16, 2026)
  5. BBB: Customer Review Acceptance Policy (paid customer reviews) (read October 16, 2026)
  6. Yelp: Content Guidelines (Conflicts of Interest) (read October 16, 2026)
  7. Angi help center: how to have success with reviews (read October 16, 2026)
  8. Nextdoor for Business: how businesses can get more recommendations on Nextdoor (read October 16, 2026)
  9. Google Business Profile Help: ask customers for reviews (read October 16, 2026)
  10. Google Maps User Generated Content Policy: prohibited and restricted content (read October 16, 2026)
  11. eCFR: 16 CFR Part 465, FTC rule on consumer reviews (current text; last amended 21 October 2024) (read October 16, 2026)
  12. Google Ads Help: Local Services Ads reviews (read October 16, 2026)

Every customer gets the same ask. GossipGarden never filters, screens or routes anyone by rating or sentiment. Why that matters.

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