This week we went back and answered every Google review of Chimney Monkey that had never gotten a reply — some more than six months old. More than 1,000 homeowners across Buffalo Grove and Chicago’s North Shore have reviewed us. Reading that many in one sitting teaches you things a job-by-job view never shows. Here are three of them.
1. Most five-star reviews say nothing at all — and that’s its own kind of feedback
The large majority of our reviews are a five-star rating with no text. At first that feels like a missed story. It isn’t. A rating with no words usually means the visit went the way it was supposed to: the appointment happened when we said it would, the findings were explained, the price matched the diagnosis, and there was nothing left to say. To everyone who left one of those quiet five-stars — thank you. We read every single one, and we replied to every single one.
2. The review that mattered most wasn’t the most flattering
Beth W. hired us to replace a chimney crown. The crew finished in a day and a half, and her review opened generously:
“Chimney Monkey was quick to come give us a quote & scheduled work in a timely manner… The office was easy to work with & responsive to phone calls.”
But she also told us what wasn’t right: concrete smears left on her red brick, and metal flashing that sat slightly uneven on two corners. It was her first crown replacement, and she said plainly that she had no idea whether those things were normal.
That honesty is worth more to us than praise. Brad went out, visually inspected the finished work, and called her to walk through exactly what she was seeing and why. Her update:
“I originally rated them 4/5 stars but changed the rating to 5/5. They were very quick to follow up about the bits we weren’t totally happy with… I’m satisfied with the service we received & would definitely use them again.”
The lesson we took onto every roof since: a crown replacement isn’t finished when the concrete cures. It’s finished when the brick below it looks like we were never there — and when the homeowner understands what they’re looking at.
3. The speed people remember is the speed of getting an answer
“Quick” shows up constantly in our reviews — quick to schedule, quick to quote, quick to follow up. What homeowners are really describing is diagnostic speed: how fast they went from “something might be wrong with my chimney” to a documented answer about what is actually happening and what it will take to fix. That’s the part of the job we’ve built the whole company around. The inspection is the service. The repair is a separate decision.
What we do with your reviews
Every review now gets a reply, usually within the week. The critical ones get read twice and discussed — that’s how the final walk-through on crown work got better. And reviews with stories in them get featured in our monthly review roundups here on the blog.
If we’ve worked on your chimney and you haven’t said your piece yet, we’d genuinely like to hear it — five stars or not: leave a Google review.
And if your chimney needs an answer, that’s what we do all day.
Categories: Buffalo Grove Chimney Care