One question, four searches
What the homeowner said, and what each assistant typed
The same sentence went to every assistant. None searched it as written. Each turned it into the question it cares about. Asked about Dallas, TX.
The search is the filter
Each assistant has a question of its own
Share of each assistant's 6,285 searches that mention each thing, across all 1,319 answers. A search can count in several rows. A company that never appears for an assistant's kind of search is never considered at all.
Instinct and Meta Muse run one search and read what comes back. Grok runs a median of 13: a few to find candidates, then one per company for its license, its BBB profile and a Reddit thread. Fo queries a places index instead. Only 1% of Instinct's picks and 10% of Grok's rested on a directory page; the rest cite the company's own site.
| The search mentions |  1/answer |  13/answer |  2/answer | F2/answer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Same-day, emergency, open now | 40% | 11% | 18% | 26% |
| Cost, price, fee | 43% | 7% | 22% | 21% |
| Reviews, ratings | 11% | 21% | 48% | 19% |
| Best, top rated | 10% | 10% | 40% | 9% |
| License number | 6% | 19% | 0% | 0% |
| BBB | 2% | 30% | 2% | 0% |
| A named company | 0% | 7% | 4% | 0% |
| Financing | 6% | 1% | 9% | 12% |
0% | 4% | 0% | 12% |
What gets you picked, what gets you passed
The same eight things decide both
Share of 3,825 coded pick reasons and 4,085 coded pass reasons that cite each theme, across all assistants. One sentence can cite several.
Location is the biggest lever on both sides. 64% of picks cite being in or near the town; 26% of passes cite being somewhere else.
Availability gets you picked more than it gets you passed. Half of picks quote a same-day, 24/7 or arrival window; a missing one is cited in 17% of passes.
Price is the easiest fix. 36% of picks quote a published fee or range, and no price is cited in 15% of passes.
What each assistant cites when it picks
Share of each assistant's coded picks citing each theme. Grok wants a license and a BBB page, Meta Muse wants reviews, Instinct wants a price and barely mentions reviews.
2,204 coded picks
951 coded picks
616 coded picks
- F
54 coded picks
In their own words
How an assistant explains a pass
One sentence each, quoted from the recorded answers. The reasoning is specific, confident, and sometimes a guess.
Reads Reddit as evidence
“Radiant has a BBB A rather than A+, 24 complaints in 3 years, and was the company r/Austin users most agreed to avoid because of upselling.”
on Radiant Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical, asked about Austin, TXFinds the ownership change
“Popular on Reddit, but the BBB page says it is NOT accredited and lists an alternate name 'Florida Coastal HVAC Acquisition, Inc'. DBPR shows new licensing under that acquisition entity from July 2026, which suggests a recent ownership change.”
on Belle Air Inc, asked about Orlando, FLCounts complaints, not stars
“It states good warranty terms and is BBB A+ accredited, but it publishes no prices and BBB shows 20 closed complaints in 3 years and a 1.5 out of 5 review average.”
on Goettl Air Conditioning & Plumbing, asked about Phoenix, AZJudges by the name alone
“Lower rating at 4.5 stars with only 26 reviews, and its name suggests it is a parts distributor rather than a residential repair service.”
on Century HVAC Distributing, asked about Mansfield, TX 76063Fact-checks the page
“It has a McKinney branch, free estimates and license TACLB00052136E, but it is a large multi-trade DFW company with no published brand, pricing or warranty, and it wrongly suggests federal tax credits may still apply.”
on Baker Brothers Plumbing, Air & Electric, asked about McKinney, TXA blocked site is a missing business
“It has an active Clearwater license and 5.0 stars from 376 reviews on ProsGrade, but its site blocked me and I found no BBB profile, so there was too little reputation data to rank it.”
on Poulin Cooling A/C and Refrigeration, asked about Clearwater, FL
One company, twelve towns
Frosty's HVAC: picked at home, passed down the road
A Farmers Branch, TX contractor with a published $85 diagnostic and its license number on every page, seen in 404 answers across DFW. Same site, same terms; only the town changed.
- 100%Carrollton, TXpicked 17 of 17
- 79%Irving, TXpicked 19 of 24
- 76%Farmers Branch, TXpicked 16 of 21
- 73%Dallas, TXpicked 22 of 30
- 70%Dallas, TX 75225picked 14 of 20
- 60%Lewisville, TXpicked 12 of 20
- 57%Frisco, TXpicked 12 of 21
- 43%Arlington, TXpicked 9 of 21
- 42%Richardson, TXpicked 8 of 19
- 41%Fort Worth, TXpicked 9 of 22
- 39%Plano, TXpicked 7 of 18
- 36%Denton, TXpicked 8 of 22
“Same-day business-hour dispatch to Frisco is routine, with a published flat-rate price list ($85 diagnostic waived on repair, most repairs $350-$1,500) and license TACLA126718E.”
asked about Frisco, TX“Transparent pricing ($85 diagnostic waived with repair, license TACLA126718E, 4.9 stars from 143 reviews), but it is based in Farmers Branch about 45 minutes away and says non-members usually book 1–2 days out.”
asked about Fort Worth, TXNothing on the site changed between these two answers. The assistant read the address, estimated the drive, and ranked a company with no published price above the one with the clearest. For a contractor, service-area pages are not SEO; they are the answer to “how far away are you”.
Picked and passed, side by side
The two pages, and the sentence that separated them
From one answer each: the company the assistant put first and one it looked at and passed on, as their sites appeared, with the assistant's reason for each.
- Dallas, TX
“My AC stopped cooling. Find me an HVAC company in Dallas, TX that can come out today.”
PickedFrosty's HVAC
frostyshvac.com/ac-repair-dallas-tx
“Its Dallas AC repair page posts an $85 diagnostic waived with repair, flat-rate pricing, same-day service, a license number, and dated recent Dallas repair stories, though actual same-day availability was not confirmed.”
PassedTotal Air & Heat
totalair.com/air-conditioning/emergency/
“Its Dallas-Plano emergency page confirms 24/7 emergency AC repair and 60 years in business, but it posts no diagnostic fee or repair pricing.”
- Frisco, TX
“Who is the best AC repair company in Frisco, TX?”
PickedAir Repair Pros AC, Heating & Plumbing
airrepairpros.com/
“Frisco-based since 1998 with HVAC license TACLB019076C, a 4.9 rating from thousands of reviews on its site and Frisco directories, and BBB accreditation since 2005.”
PassedOne Hour Heating & Air Conditioning of Frisco
onehourheatandair.com/frisco
“Strong Frisco presence and ~4.8★ with hundreds of reviews, but ranked below Air Repair Pros and Legend on RatingsNearMe and ServiceAgent.”
FDallas, TX
“I need a new AC unit installed in Dallas, TX. Who should I get quotes from, and roughly what will it cost?”
PickedRescue Air and Plumbing
rescueairtx.com/
“9639 Greenville Ave, Dallas 75243, (972) 201-3253, 4.8 across 4,067 ratings, listed open 24 hours; the largest reviewed operation found, so the likeliest to schedule an install survey quickly.”
PassedOne Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Dallas
onehourairdallas.com/
“4.9 across 1,238 ratings and 24 hours, but based in Carrollton 75006 with a very-expensive price flag.”
- Plano, TX
“Who is the best AC repair company in Plano, TX?”
PickedTotal Air & Heat Co.
totalair.com/air-conditioning/repair/
“Plano-based company with 4.9 stars from 1,171 reviews in the 2026 Plano HVAC directory, 24/7 hours on its own site, and a 2026 Pulse of the City News award for customer satisfaction.”
PassedJupitair HVAC
jupitairhvac.com/plano/best-hvac-companies/
“Named its own site 'Editor's Pick' in a self-published Plano ranking, so it was excluded as a biased source.”
- Houston, TX
“My AC stopped cooling. Find me an HVAC company in Houston, TX that can come out today.”
Picked75 Degree AC
75degreeac.com/services/emergency-ac-repair/
“Its Houston emergency-repair page posts a 2-4 hour typical arrival window with same-day service when booked before 8 PM, a flat $89 diagnostic fee with no after-hours uplift, and a published repair price table, though actual current availability is unverified.”
PassedLuke's Plumbing & Air Conditioning
calllukes.com/air-conditioning/ac-repair/
“It advertises same-day and 24/7 emergency AC repair in Houston, but the page posts no diagnostic fee and no license number to compare against the picks.”
What to fix
Six changes, in the order the data ranks them
- 01
Write the page for the question, not the trade
Every assistant took the homeowner's sentence and searched something narrower: a same-day page, a price, a license, a review count. The page that answers that exact question is the one that gets opened.
- 02
Put the fee and the window in plain text
Instinct's searches are about cost and urgency more than anything else. A diagnostic fee, what waives it, and the hours you dispatch were quoted back in pick after pick.
- 03
Print your license number where a search finds it
Grok searched state license numbers by name and passed on companies whose number it could not find or verify.
- 04
Your address decides your towns
One company with the clearest pricing in DFW was picked nearly every time at home and passed in the next county, in the assistant's words, for being 45 minutes away.
- 05
Answer the BBB complaints
Instinct and Grok read BBB profiles. Unanswered complaints were quoted as the reason to prefer a competitor that had otherwise less going for it.
- 06
Make sure the site loads for a bot
6% of rejections say the assistant could not open or did not open the site. A blocked page reads as a business with nothing to show.
Method and limits
How we did it
Every answer is a recorded run in the Picks Index for September 2026: 1,319 answered HVAC questions in 143 markets (738 of them in Texas), from Instinct (774), Grok (317), Meta Muse (210) and Fo (18). Each assistant was asked a homeowner's question verbatim, told to search as it normally would and not to contact anyone, and returned its picks, the companies it considered and passed, every search it ran and every page it opened.
Searches and reasons are the assistant's own report of its work, not a trace we captured; we count what it said it searched. Search categories are matched by words in the query. The assistants ran on accounts we operate, one or two per product, so these are the products' habits, not a survey of their users. Quotes are verbatim and name the companies the assistants named; a pass is the assistant's judgment on the day, not ours. Screenshots were taken on 2026-10-01 and may differ from what the assistant saw in September.
Numbers are frozen as of 2026-10-01. Every underlying answer is public in the Picks Index, and the companion report on why assistants pass is here. The data behind this page is at data.json.
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