One thing we’ve noticed when speaking with some of our home improvement clients is a certain reluctance to do anything with online reviews. While some are afraid to solicit reviews from past customers, others don’t even want to acknowledge they’re out there. Either way, it’s a mindset that can negatively impact your remodeling business.
Because in 2019, reviews are everywhere.
No, seriously.
Google a product or service and chances are you’ll find online reviews somewhere on the first page. Let’s search “bathroom contractor Houston” and see what comes up.
Almost immediately, we see three companies with reviews and high star-ratings in the Google Map Pack. If you were to scroll down further, you’d see reviews and star ratings sprinkled in the organic search listings as well.
Online Reviews are a Powerful Tool
Reviews and ratings act as a signal to consumers about the quality of your company’s remodeling services. In fact, for nearly 9 in 10 customers, an online review is as important as a personal recommendation. An additional 90% of customers consult online reviews before ever transacting with a business.
And when you think about this, it makes sense. Say you’re choosing between two similarly priced products from different sellers on Amazon. Are you going to go with the product that has hundreds of great reviews, or the one with a few mixed reviews (or even none at all)?
Just last week, I spent almost 30 minutes reading reviews for different $10 guitar strings. What do you think someone who’s willing to spend thousands of dollars on a remodeling project will do?
What can I use to get reviews for my contractor business?
Remodeling contractors have a number of websites, social media, and review platforms they can use to go after, acknowledge, and promote reviews. A number of the most popular for home remodelers include:
Google My Business
First and foremost, if you don’t have a Google My Business profile, or if you’re unsure whether you own it, you need to get on that ASAP. Assuming you do, however, your Google My Business is often the first way customers will interact with your business.
Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, and because of that, it can have a lot of influence over customers. Social media is here to stay, so make sure that you’ve taken the necessary steps to ensure you own your social media accounts.
Yelp
While commonly used for restaurant and bar reviews, Yelp is a powerful crowd-sourced review forum that simply cannot be ignored. Because of the site’s influence and power, a contractor’s Yelp page will almost always be listed on the first page of search results.
GuildQuality
GuildQuality is a remodeler-specific review and customer satisfaction survey tool. While other review platforms often get the happiest or angriest customers, GuildQuality’s surveying reaches the “normal” customer, the one who wouldn’t typically review a service.
Houzz
Similarly to GuildQuality, Houzz is another industry-specific website geared towards providing customers with a one-stop location to find information on contractors.
Embrace online reviews. You can’t escape them.
The bottom line is that we live in an age where you can no longer ignore reviews. You need to embrace them, manage them, own them, and actively seek them out from past customers. It’s something that your prospective clients are looking for, so if you don’t have reviews (or have low-quality reviews), it may be hurting your home improvement business.
Fortunately, the team at FatCat is here to help. Over the course of the next 3 weeks, we’ll go into detail on how to properly deal with and respond to negative reviews, promoting and sharing reviews, and best practices for soliciting reviews.
Stay tuned!
Interested in learning more about how reviews can impact your remodeling contractor business? Set up a free 30-minute consultation to see if we’re the right fit for your organization.
