The vast majority of people have no HVAC expertise, which makes trying to evaluate HVAC companies difficult. If you don’t know anything about the HVAC industry, how can you choose which company you want to use to install, service or repair your system? For these reasons, people turn to review sites to check out the experiences of actual customers that have already gone through the same decision process. Unfortunately, there are false reviews online for contractors and HVAC equipment posted by deceptive businesses. So, how do you separate the fake reviews from the genuine ones? This will be the focus of this article, let’s look at five ways that you can evaluate HVAC reviews.
- Only Use Trustworthy Review Sources
This is the very best way to avoid being deceived by fake online HVAC reviews. The reputable reviews sites, such as the Better Business Bureau and Yelp, are extremely good at identifying the fake reviews and removing them quickly. There may be exceptions to this rule that you need to spot for yourself, so be sure to apply the other methods we’re going to detail below.
- Pay Attention to the Review Dates
Sometimes, you will check out an HVAC company, and you may notice that they have very few reviews. This may make sense for a small service provider, but if you notice a cluster of reviews posted in a short space of time, be suspicious. There is a good chance that those posted reviews are fake.
- Details are Important
When you read a genuine review written by a real customer, they will include details about their entire experience. Typically, a customer would mention names of technicians that carried out the work and how they acted. They may talk in detail about the problem they had and the actions that the technician took to resolve them. These details should be written by a someone with no real knowledge about the HVAC industry. The terminology used should be general at best, and there will be a conversational tone. Read the review and ask yourself the question, is this how a real person would talk about their experience with you in person?
- Be Cautious if you Read a Glowing Review
A small number of reviews could mean that the HVAC company is small or maybe it’s a new business. Perhaps the customers have had a very average experience and don’t have a great reason to post a review. If you read reviews that are extremely positive, this can be a cause for concern. Look out for reviews that are too good to be true, they often use incredibly emotional language and lack any subtlety.
- Watch Out for Marketing Speak
When you read the review, does it read like an ad rather than an organic experience? It’s hard to write about an event and make it sound like the experiences of a genuine customer. Does this review go out of the way to mention the HVAC company name more times than necessary? Check out the reviewer that wrote the review, are they overly positive all the time, do they write like this for every product or service they use? These are sure signs that the person is writing fake reviews as part of a marketing effort.