Reviews are one of the most important marketing and sales tools for any home service business, whether you’re a Plumber, Electrician, HVAC professional or any type of home service provider, a review can either show a customer why you’re their best bet or why you’re not.
One of the most important steps when deciding whether to schedule an appointment with a business is the information-gathering stage. This stage is about the customer finding out more about the businesses within their area that offer the service they need help with.
For example, a homeowner in Loudoun County, Virginia might need to call a plumber because there’s something wrong with their hot water heater. If they don’t already have a great Plumber that they can trust, then they will probably go online to find a local Plumbing company that services their area.
Research shows that around 93 percent of online experiences begin with a search engine like Google, Yahoo, or Bing, research also shows that 85 percent of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase online. This is also true for customers looking to book an appointment for a service.
That tells us that roughly four out of five people will use the internet to find a plumber to help them with their plumbing, a new contractor for their kitchen remodel, or a great HVAC company to get their air conditioning back up and running.
Seeing that the online space is cluttered with business listings for nearly every service you can think of, reviews and a great website are what sets a business apart. Even a few reviews can help make the difference between someone passing over your business or picking up the phone to call.
In the Home Service Industry, most work is done in the field – i.e. in the customer’s home, but a customer’s home is their sacred place, and customers aren’t going to let just anyone into their home, near their family, to complete work. Business owners need to build trust, and share with homeowners, their expertise, and why you should choose their team.
This is why reviews are VERY important.
While it’s good to have good reviews, bad reviews do exist, and no business is perfect. With that said, how you handle a bad review or critical feedback helps new customers know how you (or your business) handle situations that are not favorable to both parties
PRO TIP: When responding to a negative review, keep it simple, and honest, and address the issue.
Why some home service providers struggle to get customers online:
Many home service businesses, no matter the industry, have online reviews whether on Facebook, Google, Yelp, Angi’s List, Houzz, etc. However, what most do not have is a balanced review profile.
Look up [Service you offer] in [area you serve] for example Plumbers in Tampa Florida, you’ll notice a few things about the businesses you’re competing with:
- Not enough positive reviews: They have reviews but not enough to sway new customers. These businesses will struggle as they work to build a trustworthy review profile
- Too many negative reviews: Negative reviews are always more glaring than positive ones, not to mention that a single negative review can bring down your review. The negative review could be about the price the business charges, their customer service, the quality of the actual home service provided, etc. Any business with lots of negative reviews will need to spend more money to attract new customers.
- Imbalanced reviews: These are businesses that have lots of reviews on one platform and zero on others, for example, they may have lots of reviews on Yelp, but one review on Google. This means they might get customers from the platform where they have lots of reviews but would lose a lot of business from customers’ searching on google because those customers don’t have any reviews to compare your services with fellow consumers.
Any of these three will make it harder to get customers online, but once you notice which of the three your problem lies, and you fix it… customers will pour in.
Later in this article, we’ll talk about how reviews improve your online visibility.
5 Reasons why reviews are important for home services businesses
- Reviews make your business more credible: Reviews make your business feel more legitimate to anyone that is just discovering your business. Someone learning about your business for the first time might not feel comfortable working with you because they don’t know if they can trust you. Feedback and comments from other customers will give them the reassurance they need. Put simply, reviews bolster your credibility, influence customer decisions, build their confidence in your brand, and show them why you’re a better choice than your competitors.
- Reviews boost your online visibility: Did you know that the number of reviews and ratings affect how you show up on Yelp and Google? Google takes reviews and ratings from multiple sites into consideration when determining the order of businesses it returns in local searches. In fact, according to LocalSEO Guide, online reviews and specific keywords influence local search engine visibility more than any other factor. What this means for you: The more reviews you have – particularly if these contain your keywords and the town or city that you operate in – the higher you are likely to rank.
- Reviews directly impact sales/purchase: The better a business’s online reputation is, the easier it is for people to make the decision to try your business. Not too many customers are willing to take a risk on a business with few, or mostly negative reviews. The more positive reviews a business has, the more the decision to work with them seems like a no-brainer.
- Reviews show that you care: How you respond to negative AND positive reviews shows customers that your business cares about its customers. In fact, for some customers, your response to a review is just as important as the review itself. Research shows that 78% of consumers feel that a business cares about their consumers more if they respond to online reviews than if they do not.
- Reviews market your business for you (for free): When your business has lots of positive reviews, it generates online visibility for your business and convinces on-the-fence customers to work with you, you do not have to spend as much money on marketing because your reviews do the work for you. Think about it, the more reviews you have, the more people that discover and use your business, and the more reviews you’re likely to receive, so the cycle continues.
5 Tips on how to use reviews to generate leads for your home service business
Now that you know why reviews are important and the impact they can have on your business, it’s time to start using them to draw in customers.
- Share reviews and testimonials on Social Media: Facebook has the highest number of users in the United States, followed by Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. All four platforms let you post images and videos, so share those reviews on social media, and tell the people who follow you or those who just stumbled on your business, why your customers love and trust you. If you don’t share them how will customers know about it?
- Share reviews on your website and blog posts: Should a new customer stumble on your website, your website information about how darn awesome you are is nowhere as convincing as other customers talking about how awesome you are. Others talking about the quality of your plumbing service, electrical service, HVAC service, tree service, etc. are not as convincing as others saying the same thing. This is also one of the BEST ways to improve the conversion rate of your website.
PRO TIP: You can use NiceJob to automate the process of asking your clients for reviews, and sharing new reviews (and existing Google Reviews) on Social media and on your website
- Create a Customer Reviews page on your website: It’s not just enough to have your customer reviews show on your Home page, about page, and/or services page, or even to have recent reviews pop up on any page via a widget (like the one NiceJob offers, a good example is the one you see on the left side of our website). It is important to have a page on your website that shows all the wonderful past customers have said about your service. It is also great for users visiting your website as some widgets might not be visible to them otherwise.
- Use reviews on your online Ads: While there is no doubt about the benefits of advertising online with Google, you can improve the results you generate from PPC advertising by leveraging your customer reviews, it’ll lead to higher click-through and conversion rates. You should know that you cannot place full reviews or testimonials in your Google Ads, Google does allow you to place rating stars on your ad. The orange stars – your business’s overall rating, and the number of reviews show useful feedback and can help you stand out from every other listing on Google.
- Use reviews in your offline marketing activities: While online marketing is great, offline marketing cannot be dropped altogether. Brochures, flyers, banners, etc. are still very important and can help you market your business. However, they generate better results when they have customer testimonials on them. Including what your previous customers are saying about your business, will draw the attention of your target customers.
How to get more reviews from your customers
The best way to achieve more reviews that are legitimate and honest for your business is by providing your customers with a way to actually send you a review. Your customer might take the initiative to write you a review on Google, Yelp, Facebook, Angi’s list, or other platforms but the odds of that are much lower compared to when you provide a system that facilitates that.
Many customers appreciate knowing how to write a review for your business and where to write that review. When you are proactive in seeking feedback, especially negative feedback you’ll be able to address the problem before it becomes a negative review posted publicly.
PRO TIP: You can use Quality Driven Software (QDS) to request honest feedback from your customers about your team specifically. Depending on the CRM you utilize, you can have NiceJob automatically ask all clients you’ve recently completed work for, to review and refer you.
How Pink Callers Can Help
You’re already great at providing expert home services for your customers. That’s why you’re in business! But, while you’re out solving your customer’s problems, it can be easy to forgo other important parts of running a successful business, like responding to customer queries, scheduling appointments, collecting payments, and following up on leads. Whether it’s due to a shortage of skilled workers, or limited operating hours, Pink Callers can step in to help.
Pink Callers Customer Service Rockstars (CSRs) can man the scheduling and customer service front while you handle the more important stuff. You do what you do best while your CSR handle:
- Managing all forms of communication like phones, email, texts, and website leads
- Follow-up calls and callbacks
- Scheduling of estimate appointments and accepted work
- Quoting and sales over the phone
- Monitor your social media accounts and marketing outlets like Home Advisor, Angie’s List, Yelp, and more for potential incoming leads
- Collecting payments and completing work in your CRM daily
Reach out to us today to learn more about how our CSRs can help you grow your business, and stand out in the industry. Call us on (888) 325-7465 or fill out the Contact Form to find out how Pink Callers can help your Home Service Business.