By Chad Reinholz
I’m an Angie’s List guy. Whenever I need a contractor for a job at my house, I consult Angie’s List to see who is highly reviewed. I’ve learned it‘s not perfect – not everyone you hire will be great – but it’s better than randomly calling people from a phone book or picking someone who spent a fortune on print or radio ads. Those folks might have a big marketing budget, but does that mean they are good at delivering service?
So I turn to Angie’s List and read some of the customer reviews. I may also do a quick Google search for some of the highly rated folks to see if they have any other reviews and if they align with what Angie’s List indicates. If they Angie’s List reviews seem legit, I give them a call. In all, it’s a quick, easy way to find a contractor.
I’m not alone, either. According to a Search Engine Land study from 2012, 52% of respondents are more likely to use a local business if they have online reviews. Even more important, 72% trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Obviously, strong online reviews are vital to proving your worth to potential customers, especially for your field service business.
Online reviews are an important asset when trying to grow your small business. So how to do you get online reviews? Here are four tips to get you started:
- Do great work – This goes without saying, but if you don’t do great work, you aren’t going to get great reviews. In order to do great work, you need to make sure your internal processes free you to focus on your customers. In other words, use field service software like HindSite to eliminate the paperwork that is killing your productivity and efficiency. If you do, you’ll have more time to focus on improving your customer service skills.
- Target your happy customers – Now that you’re doing great work, you need to figure out who your happiest customers are so you can target them with your review requests. How do you do that?
One solution is to use post-service surveys. With HindSite’s service business marketing add-on HindSite Connect, you can automate these surveys. Here’s how it works: Once you’ve completed your service, your field crews or technicians mark the job as complete using our mobile field service software and sync to your office. That immediately sends what we call a completion email to your customer. Embedded in that email is a link to a simple survey that asks your customer to rate your service, including how likely they are to recommend your business. That information is then sent to HindSite’s database, which you can query to find which customers rate you highest.
Then, using that data and Hindsite Connect, you can send an email asking your most satisfied customers to submit an online review. Using a software solution that streamlines the entire process can greatly simplify the review process and is definitely worth the investment. - Follow up with a call – The next step is to follow up with a call to your customers. Give them some time – a week or two – and then give them a call and ask them if they’d be willing to review your business online. Put together a script and be honest: Tell them online reviews are a great way for you to grow your business. You appreciate their continued patronage, and would appreciate if they could take five or ten minutes to share their experience. It’s easy to say no or ignore an email, but much harder to ignore a phone call request.
- Offer a discount in exchange for a review - If you’ve ever visited Caribou Coffee, you know that they randomly ask customers to rate their service in return for a dollar off their next visit. I’ve talked to people that absolutely hate their survey – it’s long and annoying – but do it every time to save a dollar.
The concept will work with reviews, too. Give your customer $5 off their next service in return for a review and you’re likely to see the number of reviews for your business increase.
Great online reviews can differentiate your business from the competition, helping you grow. So spend some time working on processes and procedures that encourage reviews, and you’re likely to reap the rewards.
Want some other tips for your service business? Check out our free eBook, 33 Stupid Things Contractors Do (And How to Fix Them), today!
