Home services companies need to establish a culture of continuous improvement to keep up with the latest consumer trends. Today, new innovations enter the market every day. Customer preferences are constantly changing, most often reflected in the quality of reviews they leave behind.
Monitoring these reviews and responding to them in a timely and professional manner is an essential part of home services business success. A well-written response to reviews is all it takes to inspire customer confidence — even if the customer review is negative. As a home services company interested in growing your business, finding ways to improve your customer reviews should be top of mind.
Here’s how you can do it.
The Importance of Reviews for Your Online Reputation
Your customers use the internet to evaluate different home service companies. Whenever they run a Google search, they’ll see a variety of sites containing online reviews, such as:
- Google reviews
- Google My Business pages
- Yelp
- Facebook reviews
They could also go on their mobile device and check the App Store or the Google Play Store, where they’ll see even more product reviews. In other cases, they might visit company business pages on social media and browse customer reviews.
And we haven’t even mentioned Amazon reviews yet.
With the abundance of review sites out there, shoppers have plenty of options when they want to voice their opinions about a company's products or services on the internet. Your job as a business owner is to manage and respond to these reviews.
To have a strong online reputation, you must be good at managing your online reviews. Online reputation is a currency all of its own in any line of business. Regardless of your industry, your reputation will make or break your ability to find new customers. It determines how well you can:
- Attract organic marketing traffic to your website and social media profiles
- Develop a loyal customer base that will act as a strong support system for your business in the future
- Set yourself apart from the competition so that customers choose you instead of a rival home services company
Reviews also impact your search engine rankings. Google ranks highly rated companies as more authoritative and rewards them with superior search results rankings. This makes it easier for new customers to find and purchase their services.
Consider also the effect reviews have on your customer referrals. Many customers needing the help of a home services business won’t know who to turn to, but a referral can immediately instill trust in your business. It’s like an endorsement from someone they respect, which is irreplaceable in the business world.
The more positive reviews you have, the more people refer your business to others. Think of it like a multiplier for exponential growth. Having an excellent reputation in the home services industry can be an immense asset going forward.
But to get there, you need to improve your reviews first.
Monitoring Popular Review Sites
Home services companies must actively monitor popular review sites for mentions of their brand. This is called social listening, and it’s an important practice to gauge brand awareness. Your market research tells you what social platforms your audience prefers to use, and you can put that information to work by:
- Creating alerts, such as Google Alerts, that tell you whenever someone mentions your company online
- Tracking customer feedback on social media and analyzing the sentiments received there
- Keeping an eye on the primary review sites to see when your review count changes
Many companies remember to monitor their own reviews but forget to watch their competition. You’ll often find indirect feedback about your company on competitor review pages, so monitor those, too. You have to know what people say about you, whether they have a kind word or a complaint about your company.
However, this is often hard in practice. You’re already running an entire business, so how can you find time to monitor business reviews as well? Fortunately, there are many AI tools to choose from that can help with this. AI-powered review management platforms make it easier than ever to stay on top of customer feedback.
Social Proof and SEO
Companies need to implement effective search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to achieve higher rankings and increase lead generation. Social proof is important in SEO because it can:
- Boost user engagement metrics, which is one of the key factors weighed by Google algorithms
- Increase your company’s visibility across the internet. The more people speak of you, the better the algorithms rank your site.
- Elevate click-through-rates (CTR). Search engine users click on sites with more positive reviews more often than sites with more negative reviews. The algorithms notice that higher CTR and reward the site accordingly.
- Provide more backlinks from sites with a better online reputation. Other authoritative sites in the home services industry will speak positively about your company and link to it. This increases your authority and improves your rankings.
Since people naturally want to trust the opinions of others, social proof acts as a powerful indicator of where they should take their business. That’s why home services companies must leverage social proof to build credibility and trust among customers and potential customers alike. Through word-of-mouth marketing, companies can establish credibility and come out as one of the top players in the field.
Following up with Customers
But the question remains: How can you improve your reviews? The answer lies in sourcing more reviews — specifically, more positive reviews. This means stepping up your game and providing better quality service to your waiting customers. That includes:
- Following up with each customer after services to make sure their experience met their expectations
- Elevating your current customer service offerings through human resources training or AI chatbot integration to provide a superior customer journey
- Getting to know your customers better via market research and analytics
The number one way to source more positive reviews is to provide better service. Whenever you complete a home services call, follow up with a customer to make sure they are happy with you and your team. You can then monitor the review sites, and if a review goes up, respond and thank them accordingly. Your customers and potential customers will see it and admire your attentiveness.
This is also a matter of timing. The best time for customers to leave a review is when their experience with you is still fresh on their minds. Use your customer relationship management (CRM) system when you respond, giving specific details of their case. It will show them that you’re not simply giving a formulaic, impersonal response to their reviews.
How to Deal With Negative Reviews
Recognize, however, that it would be impossible to please everyone. You’ll receive negative reviews from time to time. It’s not necessarily “okay,” but it’s a necessary part of doing business and something you must learn to manage.
The good news is that customers expect to see a few critical reviews. If your company only has perfect 5/5 ratings, people would suspect your reviews are false. The presence of a few negative reviews enhances the authenticity of your business. It shows that you’re a business run by real people, and real people sometimes make mistakes. The difference lies in how you handle those negative reviews.
First, answer them right away. If your social media listening game is up to par, you’ll know when the negative review goes live. Your response should include the following:
- Specifics about the time and place of the incident without revealing overly personal information
- A statement that shows you understand and empathize with the customer’s unpleasant experience
- An invitation to either resolve the problem or contact you directly to discuss it in greater detail
You won’t be able to resolve every bad review. Some situations are beyond your control, and there are some people you just can’t negotiate with. The important thing is to make the interaction public so that others can see you devote time and attention to improving your customer experience.
That’s why how you answer your reviews matters so much. And as you continue your valuable work in the home services industry, the quality of your reviews will improve. Positive reviews will outnumber negative reviews eventually. That’s all prospective customers need to feel safe about contracting your services.
Home Services Companies Must Focus On Review Management
For all the reasons outlined above, home services companies must take their review management strategies up a notch. Remember to prioritize customer satisfaction at every turn. The more customers you satisfy, the more your review scores will improve, leading to more customers lining up at your door.
Scorpion is here to help you improve your home services reviews. Through a partnership with Scorpion, your home services business can begin sourcing higher-quality reviews efficiently and grow organically from the ground up. If that sounds right for you, contact one of our representatives today to get started.
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