Trades agent system
Ask everyone for a review, and route the unhappy ones to you
Two hours after the job is done or the invoice is paid, every customer gets a 1–5 text. High scores get the Google review link, then a referral offer. Low scores alert the owner and do not ask for a public review.
- Difficulty
- The brief scores this 2–3 of 5.
- Setup time
- Estimate, not from the brief: about a day to a weekend, including the owner-approval step for public replies.
The pain
Homeowners use reviews to pick a contractor, and a lot of shops never show the reviews they have. Asking only the happy customers is the trap. The brief says to ask everyone, and to send the unhappy reply to the owner first.
92% of homeowners say reviews are important when choosing an HVAC contractor, but only 61% of contractors show reviews on their site.
Source type · Trade press
Job completed or invoice paid
Two hours later: one SMS, score 1 to 5
On the score
4 or 5
Send the Google review link. Three days later, a referral offer with a unique code.
1 to 3
Alert the owner immediately, open a recovery task, and do not ask for a review.
Separate loop: a new Google review is drafted for the owner to approve before it posts
The public reply names the tech and the city, and only goes out after a person says yes
Trigger
job.completed or invoice.paid in the FSM.
Data sources
- The completed job or the paid invoice, including the tech's name and the city
- The customer's mobile number
- Your Google review link
- New Google Business Profile reviews, if API access is approved
Build it
- 1
Start from the completed job, two hours later
job.completed or invoice.paid starts a single satisfaction text. The ask goes to every customer, not a hand-picked list.
- 2
Split on the score
A 4 or a 5 gets the Google review link. Three days after that, send a referral offer with a unique code. A 1, 2, or 3 alerts the owner immediately, opens a recovery task, and does not ask for a review.
Branch. The brief's warning: filtering who is asked can conflict with Google's review policy. Keep the post-job ask universal. Route the unhappy customer to the owner. The policy wording itself was not confirmed in the research pass.
- 3
Draft public replies only after a person approves them
A separate loop reads new Google Business Profile reviews, drafts a reply that names the tech and the city, and waits for the owner to approve it in Slack or by SMS before it posts.
Tools and rough monthly cost
Messages plus a small orchestrator. Do not budget a voice agent for this one.
| Tool | Job | Rough monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan, or Jobber | The completed-job or paid-invoice trigger | Your existing plan. Housecall Pro webhooks require MAX. Jobber webhooks must be answered within 1 second and the payload carries only an ID. |
| Twilio | The 1–5 text, the review link, and the owner alert | Per-message usage. Unverified public list-price estimate, October 2026. Not a figure from the research brief. Check the vendor.Unverified |
| n8n or Make | The two-hour delay, the score split, and the three-day referral | Often the low tens of dollars. Unverified public list-price estimate, October 2026. Not a figure from the research brief. Check the vendor.Unverified |
| Google Business Profile | Reading and posting review replies | The brief says the GBP APIs can read and reply to reviews and that access approval is required. That approval step was not re-confirmed. [unverified]Unverified |
| LLM API | Drafts the public reply for approval | Usually a few dollars a month. Unverified public list-price estimate, October 2026. Not a figure from the research brief. Check the vendor.Unverified |
Expected ROI
The brief does not give a dollar return. The cited evidence is the ACHR review stat: 92% of homeowners say reviews matter when they pick an HVAC contractor, and 61% of contractors show reviews on their site. Track review velocity and recovery tasks, not a made-up revenue lift.
Caveats
- Google's review-policy wording was not confirmed in the research pass. The brief's instruction is still the one to build: ask every customer, and do not ask the unhappy ones for a public review.Unverified
- GBP API access approval is marked unverified in the software table. Until access is approved, draft the reply for the owner and let them paste it.Unverified
- Housecall Pro webhooks require MAX. Jobber webhook deliveries must get a response within 1 second, and the body only contains an ID, so the workflow has to fetch the job.
Example prompt
Change the names, fees, and slots before you run it. It does not add facts that were not in the brief.
You handle the post-job review text for a home-service company. The first text asks for a score from 1 to 5. It goes to every completed job. Do not skip anyone. If the score is 4 or 5, send the Google review link you were given. Three days later, send a referral offer with the unique code you were given. If the score is 1, 2, or 3, write an alert to the owner with the score and the customer's words. Do not send a review link. When drafting a public reply to a Google review, mention the tech's first name and the city, stay under 80 words, and do not post it. A person approves first. Do not offer a gift card, a discount, or anything else in exchange for a review.