How to get more Google reviews for an air duct cleaning company
The at-the-door script, the timing that works for duct and dryer vent jobs, what a healthy review pace looks like, and how to make each review answer the $49 ads.
A homeowner who just paid $450 to have their ducts cleaned has one question in the back of their mind: did I get taken. Your reviews are where they go to answer it before they call, and they are where the next homeowner goes to check if you are the $49 kind of company or the other kind. Across 9,915 duct cleaning listings on Google, the median company has 9 reviews and 21.7% have none. The bar is low. The reward for clearing it is most of the map pack calls in your town.
This guide is the ask, word for word, the timing that works for this trade specifically, and the pace you should expect.
Why duct cleaning reviews carry more weight than most
In plumbing or roofing, a review mostly says the crew was nice. In duct cleaning, a review says what the customer paid and whether the price held. That is the whole purchase decision in this trade. Homeowners read the text, not the stars, because 91.3% of companies are at 4.5 or higher and the stars no longer separate anyone.
So the goal is not just more reviews. It is reviews that say three things: the quote matched the invoice, the crew showed what came out, and it took a real amount of time. One review that says "quoted $395 over the phone, paid $395, they showed me the before and after on the camera and were here three hours" is worth ten that say "great service."
The ask at the door
Ask in person, at the end of the job, while the homeowner is still looking at the pile of debris on the drop cloth. The ask has three parts and takes 30 seconds.
Show the result first. Walk them to the vacuum canister or the drop cloth, or pull up the before-and-after photos on your phone. Let them react.
Then say this: "We get a lot of people who got burned by one of those $49 coupon companies, and they do not know who to trust. If you could take a minute and write a few words about what you paid and what we did, it really helps the next person. I can text you the link right now."
Then text the link while standing there. Not later from the office. The link should be your direct Google review link, which you can copy from your Business Profile under "Ask for reviews." A short domain redirect such as yourcompany.com/review is easier to say out loud.
Do not offer a discount or a gift card for a review. Google's policy prohibits it and the reviews read as bought. Do not ask them to leave five stars. Ask them to write what happened.
Timing for duct and dryer vent jobs
The window is the same day. By the next morning the homeowner has moved on and the response rate drops by more than half. Two timings work:
- At the door, before the truck leaves, which gets the highest response. Aim for this on every whole-house job.
- A text at 6 p.m. the same day for dryer vent jobs, which are short and often done while the homeowner is on a work call. "Hi Dana, Marcus from the crew today. Thanks again. If you have a minute, here is the link to leave a few words about the vent cleaning: [link]."
If you run a follow-up system, send one reminder two days later and then stop. A third message annoys people and the reviews it produces are short.
What a healthy pace looks like
Count jobs, not reviews. A two-truck company doing 40 to 60 jobs a month should ask on every one and land a review on 25% to 40% of asks when the ask is in person. That is 10 to 24 reviews a month. At that pace a company starting at the median of 9 passes the 75th percentile of 41 inside three months and reaches the 90th percentile of 139 within a year.
Steady beats bursts. Twenty reviews in one week after a year of silence looks bought to Google and to the homeowner. A few every week looks like a working company.
Rating should settle between 4.7 and 4.9. If you are at 5.0 with 150 reviews, that is fine, but do not chase it; a couple of honest 4-star reviews about scheduling make the rest more believable.
Reply to every review in a way that sells
Replies are read by the next homeowner, not the reviewer. Use them to restate what the job included and what it cost, without sounding like an ad.
For a good review: "Thanks, Dana. Your house was the 1998 two-story with the return in the hallway, and we cleared about two gallons of debris from the main trunk. Glad the price we quoted was the price you paid."
For a critical review: answer in two sentences, take responsibility for whatever is true, and invite a call. Never argue about price in public. A calm reply to a 2-star review does more for you than three new 5-star reviews.
Reply within 48 hours. Google shows "responds to reviews" signals in some markets and homeowners notice an owner who is present.
Mistakes specific to this trade
Asking the tenant instead of the owner on rentals. Property managers write reviews when asked directly and they mention volume, which is a strong signal for other property managers reading.
Only asking on big jobs. Dryer vent customers are often the easiest reviewers because the job was fast and cheap and they feel good about it. They also mention "dryer vent" in the text, which helps you show up for those searches.
Buying reviews from anyone. Google removes them in waves and the profile can be suspended. In a trade already fighting a trust problem, a suspended profile is close to fatal.
Leaving old reviews unanswered. A profile with 60 reviews and zero replies tells the homeowner nobody is watching the business.
Frequently asked
Should I put a QR code on the invoice? Yes, as a backup. It works for the office-managed follow-up and for customers who did not want to be texted. But the in-person ask with a text link still produces three to four times the reviews of a printed code.
What if a customer leaves a review on the wrong listing? It happens when a company has an old HVAC listing or a second location. Merge or close duplicates through Google Business Profile support, then point every ask at the one profile you want to grow.
How many reviews before ads make sense? There is no hard rule, but ads sent to a profile with fewer than 20 reviews convert poorly against competitors with 100. Spend the first 60 days on the ask, then run the Google Ads guide.
Review generation is one of the services in the free 14-day trial. We set up the links, the scripts and the follow-up texts in your name. Text or call (385) 486-5536.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, air duct cleaning companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor