Using Google to choose a heating and cooling company

Reading through the reviews

It’s hard to know who to call when you’re in the middle of a heating or cooling problem or emergency. After all, if most people are like you, being prepared for a heating and cooling problem is not on your top 10 list. So what’s going through your brain in the midst of your heating and cooling crisis is likely to be “Get the phone book!” Oops wait, we threw it in the recycle bin 3 months ago. Ummm, what was the name of the TV commercial I saw last week? Ugh, I can’t remember. I bet Google knows who I should call, Google knows everything! So write Tacoma Heating and Cooling and hope for the best.

Reality check please.
Yes, Google is packed with information and gathers information from other websites loaded with consumer information and serves it up in a nice little package known as the Google 7 package, a list of local businesses in your area with reviews and contact information. The problem is that simply choosing a 5-star reviewed business can lead to buyers regretting it later. So who you gonna call? (not Ghostbusters)

1. Take a closer look at the number of reviews each business has.
2. Click on the listing reviews, this will take you to a page with more information about the business.
3. Scroll down to the reviews section.

Taking a closer look.

Analyzing a review.

1. look at the reviews there are 4 or 5 of them all on the same day? That’s suspicious if you’re not a high-volume type of business with hundreds of customers per day.
2. Are there a mix of reviews from consumer sites like City Search, Insider Pages, Yelp, Kudzu, Judy’sBook, or are they all from maps.google.com? Again, I suspect it’s too easy to set up a google account and fake reviews. It’s also bad for businesses I’ve seen when reviewers notice fake reviews and report a business, that’s worse than no reviews or bad reviews as it kills a business’s credibility.
3. Are there details about the job, the service people involved, in the comments left by the reviewer? Details about the people involved, the locations, and the specific issues are a bit more difficult to fake quickly.
4. Is there more than just 5 star reviews? Don’t get me wrong. 5-star reviews are great, but every business has a bad day or finds themselves dealing with a difficult customer who will never be satisfied or worse, shaking a business for a discount. with the threat of a bad review (business owner, please don’t reward this kind of behavior, it’s hard on everyone).
5. Click on the link to a third party review site such as Insider Pages; you may find more reviews that Google hasn’t picked up yet.
6. Check with Bing and Yahoo using the discerning eye.

Of course you can use this technique and still have a bad experience, but it is much more likely that you have eliminated bad players.