There's a real point where a thin review count starts costing you customers, not just looking sparse. BrightLocal's 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults found that 47% won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews. That's not a nice-to-have threshold. Under 20, you're being ruled out by nearly half the people who check.
The number and the rating both matter, but not equally
The same survey found 31% will only use businesses rated 4.5 stars or higher, up from 17% the year before, and 68% require at least 4 stars. But research into how homeowners actually choose contractors adds a twist: in survey data on home repair decisions, homeowners said they'd rather pick a company with more reviews and a lower rating (68%) than one with fewer reviews and a higher rating. Quantity, recency and rating work together. A page of 80 reviews averaging 4.7 stars reads as more trustworthy than 15 perfect ones from two years ago.
Recency is catching up to volume
Reviews are also being judged on how fresh they are. The same 2026 survey found that 32% of consumers want to see reviews from the last two weeks, up from 20% the year before, and 18% will only trust reviews from the last week. A contractor's-eye reading of that: the review you get today does more work than the five-star review sitting on your profile from 2023.
Where your own trade stands
A September 2024 survey of 400 homeowners, run by Clear Seas Research for ACHR News, found 91% rated online reviews as important when choosing an HVAC contractor, and 56% look for them on Google specifically, ahead of the 51% who check the contractor's own website. The same survey flagged something worth knowing if you're a small operator: contractors with 1 to 10 employees were the least likely to display reviews on their own sites or respond to them. That's a gap you can close for the cost of copying a few reviews onto a page.
Rules for asking, so you don't cross a line
The FTC's 2024 rule on fake and compensated reviews is specific about what you can't do:
- You can't pay or offer a discount conditioned on a customer writing a positive review, or on writing any review with a particular sentiment.
- You can't have an employee, officer or their close relatives post a review without clearly disclosing the connection.
- You can't use threats or false claims to get a negative review taken down.
- You can't claim a review site you control is independent if it isn't.
What you can do, plainly: ask every customer for an honest review after the job, make it easy with a direct link, and respond to what comes back, good or bad.
A simple system that works
- Ask right after the job, while the work is still fresh and the customer is relieved it's done.
- Send a direct link to your Google review page. Fewer steps means more people follow through.
- Don't filter who you ask. Asking only customers you think are happy (sometimes called review gating) risks the same trust problem as a fake review, even without technically faking anything.
- Reply to every review. It shows up on the page, and it answers the 43% to 45% of contractors in the ACHR survey who don't respond at all.
- Put your rating and count where the first-time visitor sees it, not buried on a separate page. See what to put on a contractor's homepage.
Questions
Is 20 reviews really a hard line?
It's a survey finding about how consumers describe their own behavior, not a technical cutoff. Treat it as a signal: below 20, you're likely losing people who'd otherwise consider you.
Should I respond to negative reviews?
Yes. A calm, specific response often does more for a stranger reading it later than the review itself. It also directly contradicts a business trying to hide criticism, which is one of the practices regulators are targeting.
Can I offer a small thank-you gift after someone leaves a review, unprompted?
The FTC rule targets incentives conditioned on the review's content or on leaving a review at all. A general thank-you unconnected to whether or what they wrote is a different situation, but the safest path is not to tie any reward to reviews at all.