A free resource
Word-for-word scripts for text, email, and the doorstep. A truck card you can print. And a one-page list of what you are not allowed to do, which is the part most guides leave out.
What is in the pack
This is the doorstep ask, the one that matters most. It happens while the technician is still in the house, right after he has explained what he did.
"If you have a minute, would you leave us a review? It genuinely helps people find us. I'll text you the link before I pull off."
Then stop talking. No second sentence, no mention of stars, and no second ask if the answer is no.
The rest of the pack works the same way.
The part most guides skip
One of them carries federal penalties. This page is in the pack, and here it is in full, because you should not need to give us an email address to find out you are breaking a rule.
| Do not | Why |
|---|---|
| Offer a discount, gift card, prize drawing, or anything else in exchange for a review | Google prohibits it. Since October 21, 2024 the FTC's Consumer Review Rule also covers incentives tied to a review expressing a particular sentiment, with civil penalties up to $53,088 per violation |
| Ask only customers you expect to be happy, or route unhappy ones to a private form instead | Review gating. Google prohibits discouraging negative reviews or selectively soliciting positive ones |
| Ask a customer to mention a technician by name, or to include any specific content | Google's policy prohibits merchants requesting that specific content be included, and names staff-identifying content directly |
| Set review quotas for staff, or run a contest on review counts | Google's policy prohibits merchants requesting that staff solicit a certain number of reviews |
| Hand a customer a tablet to review you on while they are standing in your office | Google prohibits pressuring customers to leave a review on the premises |
| Have employees, family, or vendors post reviews | Conflict of interest under Google's policy. Undisclosed insider reviews are separately covered by the FTC rule |
| Offer anything to get a bad review changed or removed | Prohibited by both |
| Send forty requests in one day | Volume spikes get flagged as manipulation regardless of intent. Three to five a day is the safe range |
What happens if Google decides you did. Their published restrictions include blocking your profile from receiving new reviews for a period, unpublishing the reviews you already have, and displaying a notice on your profile telling customers that fake reviews were removed. Twenty years of real reviews can go dark over a $25 gift card.
Verified August 2026. Platform policies and federal rules change, and the penalties here are federal rather than a slap on the wrist. Confirm current terms before you build a program around any of it. We are not attorneys.
Marilyn Ehm, who has spent 14+ years building content and search programs, including at Pearson, Johns Hopkins University, and Aerotek. She now runs Your Path Marketing with her husband Mark, working with one independent HVAC company per service area across Maryland, DC, Northern Virginia, and Southern PA. More about Marilyn
Yes. No credit card, no trial, no catch. It costs an email address and you can unsubscribe the same day.
That is who they were written for. The reason most technicians skip the ask is that nobody gave them the words, so every ask gets improvised in front of a customer. One sentence on a card fixes most of it.
You get the download link immediately, plus a copy by email so you can find it later. After that, one note a month for HVAC owners. Unsubscribe any time.
Please do. They are written to be pasted into your field software and your technicians' phones. The only lines worth keeping word for word are the ones on the rules page.
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