Key Takeaways
- 89% of global consumers check online reviews during their buying journey, and 49% say good reviews are one of their top three influences when making a hiring decision. For home services businesses, that means your review profile is actively winning or losing jobs every day.
- Review monitoring means tracking what customers say about your business across every platform where reviews live, including Google, Yelp, Angi, Facebook, and the Better Business Bureau, and responding consistently across all of them.
- Responding to positive reviews is not optional. Acknowledging good feedback builds customer loyalty, reinforces your brand, and signals to potential customers that your business is engaged and attentive.
- Negative reviews handled well can actually build trust. A calm, professional response that takes responsibility and offers a path to resolution shows future customers more about your character than the original complaint did.
- Customer reviews give your business direct feedback on customer service, technician performance, and communication gaps. Treating them as business intelligence, not just reputation management, makes your operation better over time.
- Review monitoring tools like Scorpion's bring all your reviews across platforms into a single dashboard, so nothing slips through and you can track how your reputation trends over time.
---
Review Monitoring for the Trades
Before most homeowners call a plumber, HVAC company, or electrician, they read reviews. They're checking whether your business shows up, how many reviews you have, what your rating is, and whether you respond when something goes wrong. Review monitoring is how you stay on top of all of that, and use it to your advantage.
In this blog, we explain how to do just that. Below, we cover what review monitoring for the trades means, why the process is so important, how to handle reviews, and which review monitoring tools to use.
Home Services Review Monitoring
Home services review management and monitoring entails keeping tabs on what your customers are saying about your home services business and brand online. This includes tracking reviews that are both positive and negative across all of the channels that the reviews live on (e.g., Google, social media, Angi, etc.).
In addition to monitoring these reviews and mentions, it’s important for home services companies to respond to and/or acknowledge the reviews in some way. This may entail writing a direct response, “Liking” a review, or escalating a review to the right member of your team.
Importance of Reviews for the Trades
Why do customers find online reviews so important? How do customer reviews impact trades businesses like yours?
Reviews for the trades are incredibly important to business success. According to a report by Trustpilot and Canvas8, 89% of global consumers check online reviews before hiring someone, and 49% say positive reviews are one of their top three factors in making a decision. For a home services business, that means a potential customer has already formed an opinion about your business before they ever call.
In addition to providing social proof and assurance for those customers who are considering hiring your local business, reviews also impact your reputation (both in person and online), brand credibility, online presence, SEO and search engine ranking.
Customer reviews also give your business practical intelligence. It can be used to help your home services business make necessary adjustments related to various business strategies including customer service and success, reputation management, digital marketing (e.g. social media and email marketing), and customer satisfaction. That’s because customer reviews give you insight into how your customers feel about your brand. They also help you understand the “why” behind those feelings.
Where Customer Reviews are Shared
There are many review sites that host past and new reviews for local businesses. Here are some locations that you’ll want to keep an eye on when monitoring your company’s reviews:
- Better Business Bureau (if you live in the United States, Canada, or Mexico)
- Google Reviews (accessible via your Google Business Profile)
- Angi
- Yelp
- Social media
- Trustpilot
How to Handle Positive and Negative Reviews
It’s important to monitor both good and bad reviews that your clients and homeowners write about their experiences working with your business. Here are some tips for managing positive and negative reviews (you’ll notice there is some overlap).
How to Handle Positive Reviews
- Acknowledge them promptly. A quick thank-you response shows customers their feedback matters.
- Keep your tone consistent with your brand across every response.
- Share standout reviews on your website and social media as social proof.
- Consider offering a small promotion or discount to customers who take the time to write a detailed review.
How to Handle Negative Reviews
- Respond to every negative review, even the ones that sting. Ignoring them signals to future customers that complaints go unaddressed.
- Thank the customer for the feedback and apologize where appropriate. Do not get defensive.
- Keep responses brief and invite the customer to continue the conversation privately by phone or email.
- Be honest. If your business made a mistake, say so. Accountability builds more trust than a perfect record.
Review Monitoring Tools
Review monitoring tools help your business stay on top of what customers are saying without checking every platform manually. Depending on the tool, your business can:
- Collect reviews from multiple platforms in one dashboard
- Receive notifications when new reviews come in
- Send automated or manual responses
- Track how your ratings trend over time
- Compare your reputation against competitors in your area
There are several review monitoring tools available today for the trades. Here are some options you may consider:
1. Google Reviews
After you set up your Google Business Profile (previously referred to as Google My Business), collect Google Reviews. A Business Profile and customer reviews improve your ranking on Google.
Monitor your most recent reviews and track clicks from search results and your Business Profile to your website through Google Analytics and its performance cookies. Also, if you’re monitoring your customer reviews on Google and notice one that’s inappropriate or goes against Google’s guidelines, report it so it can be taken down.
2. Scorpion Review Monitoring
Scorpion’s Review Monitoring tool helps your home services business constantly monitor customer reviews. You can send automated or manual responses to every review, positive or negative, without logging into multiple platforms.
Rather than having to monitor customer reviews across different sites and locations, Scorpion brings them all together in a single dashboard to make the process more efficient for you and your team. There’s also review tracking so you can understand how your reviews are trending and how they compare to the reviews of your competitors.
Monitor Your Customer Reviews
Your reviews are one of the first things a potential customer sees when they search your business name. Staying on top of them, and responding consistently, is one of the most direct ways to protect and grow your reputation. Talk to a Scorpion marketing expert about how review monitoring works for home services businesses.
