Reviews can be intimidating, but they're an inevitable part of running a business. Your customers go online to rate your business out of five stars or comment on their most recent experience. You probably do the same when looking for a local business.
It's tempting for many business owners to avoid online reviews, but doing so leads to missed opportunities. Online reviews are invitations to dialogue — to find out what your customers love and what you can do better.
The Importance of Home Services Reviews
According to a 2022 consumer survey, 98% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.
Data from the same survey showed that customers of service businesses and tradespeople are most likely to depend on reviews. For 55% of these customers, reviews played a "very important" role in deciding to use a company — a higher percentage than in the healthcare industry. Another 41% said they were "important" or "slightly important."
The takeaway? Only 3% of your potential customers don't think reviews matter.
The statistics make sense. As a home services provider, you routinely enter clients' private spaces and take care of things they depend on. Before hiring you, they want to ensure other people like them have had a positive experience.
What Customers Learn From Reviews
Reviews are essential to customer research in today's home services market. Here's what your customers look for when they search online.
Star Ratings
Customers use star ratings as a quick way to screen for service quality. In the 2022 survey mentioned earlier, 87% of consumers said they wouldn't consider a business with less than three stars. For 38% of people, four stars are the minimum overall rating.
Only 6% don't consider star ratings when choosing a business.
Written Comments
According to the same survey, almost seven in 10 people want to see a positive written review before choosing a business. Written comments describe what the customer did and did not like. In addition, potential customers can also look for comments that touch on specific concerns they may have.
For example, suppose someone needs HVAC system servicing and is worried about dishonest pricing. That person would probably appreciate a review of an air conditioning company that broke down their pricing and explained the costs.
Business Responses
Survey respondents were also more likely to use businesses that respond to customer reviews, primarily if the company responds to all — both positive and negative — reviews.
Customers look at review responses to learn about a business's customer service style. For example, suppose a business owner empathizes with an unhappy reviewer and offers to make it right. The reader can imagine the business treating them with the same level of compassion.
How To Respond to Reviews
Responding to every review is the best way to show care for the customer experience. Positive reviews are the simplest. A "thank you" and a personal touch show genuine appreciation. For example:
Thanks, Sue! Glad you were happy with Sam's work.
Thank you for the compliment, Bill! We're happy we could fix your appliances in time for your holiday party.
If the customer praises something you're particularly proud of, say so. All you need is a short sentence like, "Our transparent pricing policy is one of the things we're most proud of. Thanks for noticing!"
Negative comments require more attention, but you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time. Just touch on these four essential points:
Apologize for the bad experience. Even if what happened wasn't your fault, expressing regret shows you care about making customers happy.
Thank the customer for their feedback. Avoid the temptation to defend your business and show you appreciate the opportunity to improve.
Accept responsibility. Assuming you can do so honestly — meaning, the review wasn't an outright fake — acknowledge you could have done better. A version of "We missed the mark on this one" goes a long way.
Offer to make things right. If you can take action to resolve the issue, such as a refund or complimentary follow-up visit, offer it in your response. Ask the customer to contact you or ask for their information to take the next step.
Sometimes, there's nothing you can do to fix things. In those cases, your best bet is to sincerely apologize and specify what you'll do differently next time.
How Review Monitoring by Scorpion Can Help
Scorpion understands the importance of your business's reputation. We make tracking and managing your reviews and online brand mentions easy with convenient, straightforward tools anyone can use.
Our Reputation Monitoring technology connects to all the places people talk about you. But instead of asking you to check all those sites individually, we pull them together in a single dashboard.
Your dashboard is your one-stop shop for managing your online reputation. It includes:
- Reviews from multiple sites
- Reports on review trends — better, worse, or the same
- Summaries of how you stack up to competitors
- Instant notifications about negative reviews
- Automated responses to positive reviews
Scorpion gives you the tools you need to stay on top of your reputation and control the buzz about your company.
Using Review Monitoring To Improve Reviews
With Scorpion helping you improve home services reviews, nothing is holding you back from getting as many great reviews as possible.
Start by doing an excellent job that makes your customers want to spread the word. Then, using Scorpion's easy follow-up feature, send a friendly note checking in about their experience.
Encourage happy clients to leave reviews on popular platforms like Google or Yelp. Google is by far the most popular platform. Among those who responded to the survey mentioned earlier:
- 87% use Google to evaluate local businesses
- 48% use Yelp
- 46% use Facebook
That said, you don't have to limit yourself to the sites that work for other businesses. For example, if your customers love Angi — formerly Angie's list — you can gather reviews there too.
Keep responding as your reviews come in. Scorpion's Reputation Management tool will help you keep up and put your best foot forward.
Take Control of Home Services Reviews With Scorpion
People are reviewing your business, whether or not you're involved. Joining the conversation is essential to managing your business's reputation, and Scorpion makes it easy — even for busy home services business owners.
Get in touch today to find out what we can do for you.
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