A JUMP MARKETING MINUTE
FOR HOME SERVICE COMPANIES
Five Marketing Steps for Home Service Companies in 2021
The Jump Marketing Team
Your customers and prospects will use three devices to view your website in 2021–laptops, cell phones and tablets. Look at your website on those same three devices. Does it appear on all three screens quickly? Is it easy to navigate? Is your phone number easy to find? If someone wants to schedule a technician, is it crystal clear how to do that? If changes are needed, get them made ASAP.
How do prospective customers check out your company? By looking at what your customers write on Google reviews. Monitor those reviews often. They are too important to ignore. It’s smart to respond to positive reviews but it is essential to reply to negative reviews as quickly as possible. (See the enclosed Jump Marketing Minute newsletter on how to do that)
Homeowners who phone your business have problems and they need those problems repaired. A catchy slogan when answering their calls is fine, but it’s more important for your customer service reps–the gatekeepers in your business–to display empathy, show concern, and offer quick help during the course of the call. A stressed homeowner is looking for an ally when she calls your business. That can be accomplished in seconds if you have the right people answering your phones.
The home service company path to business growth requires two things: keep current customers and add new customers. Keep customers by delivering truly outstanding customer service consistently, by doing the things you say you will do and by expressing sincere appreciation always. Turn prospects into customers by following steps one, two, and three above, and by using advertising to set your business apart from your competitors.
You will spend marketing resources more wisely and effectively by making sure your business objectives drive your marketing objectives. It should never be the other way around.
Three Things to Do with a Negative Google Review
By David Allen
Three months ago, an HVAC company received a one-star Google review from an unhappy customer. Someone at the company posted this response to the customer’s negative review:
“This guy was unreasonable to deal with. Tried to explain to him but he will not understand. We don’t want customers like that.”
I have no way of knowing if the customer saw the company’s response. But I can virtually guarantee that over these last three months, prospective customers have seen it. Do you think those homeowners grabbed their phones, called the company, and said “Hey I really like the way you blasted that customer! You showed him. We think you are just the HVAC business for us!” There is a correct way to respond to bad Google reviews. That example is not it. Here are the three steps I recommend to not only disarm a potentially damaging review but to turn a negative into a positive.
First, have a process to know about bad reviews FAST and then respond to each one ASAP. That starts with someone daily monitoring your Google reviews. They are THAT important to your business. Google is the world’s largest search engine and is used by far more consumers looking at online reviews. More than 94 percent say a negative review has convinced them to avoid a business.
Second, no matter how bad, how to mean, or how unfair a review is, never try to defend what your company did or didn’t do in your response. Take the high road with something like this: “What you have described is very unlike us. I am looking into it immediately. Are you available for me to phone you today? I want to make this right.”
When you do that, you are assuming responsibility, you’re taking the discussion offline by addressing the customer’s issue with a phone call, you’re offering to resolve the issue quickly and you are expressing your desire to make it right.
Prospective customers who are checking out your home service company will read some of the glowing five-star reviews your customers have written. But they will look for the bad reviews, too. Remember that you are writing your online response to the upset customer AND to the larger audience of prospective customers who will read it. Your kind, sincere, and quick reply to a critical review often says more about your business to a prospective customer than even a long string of five-star reviews. In fact, that kind of response is often just the trigger a homeowner needs to become a new customer.
For 20 years, the Jump Marketing Team has helped home service companies by creating marketing strategies and advertising campaigns that work. We would be grateful for an opportunity to speak with you about how we could help your business. Call or email David Allen. Cell: 205-243-7473 or david@GoJumpMarketing.com. Thank you very much for your consideration.
David Allen is the owner of the Jump Marketing Team, a Birmingham
marketing firm and ad agency that works with home service companies in the Southeast.
Email: david@gojumpmarketing.com Phone: 205-967-2555