They say you only get one chance at a first impression.
For home service contractors, a prospect’s first encounter with your brand may be the only chance you get to convert them into customers, and investing in a proper online reputation management system can help.
The average customer today checks you out online first—even if they get a word-of-mouth referral—before they decide whether to hire you.
So, that glowing review or positive testimonial can be the difference between gaining a loyal customer and losing out on a potential one. Sometimes, it’s how you handle a negative review that appeals to a prospect.
This blog post explains how effective online reputation management can impact revenue and business growth. You’ll also discover actionable steps to improve your company’s online reputation.
What Is Reputation Management for Home Services?
Reputation management is the practice of monitoring and improving how the public perceives a business’s image.
For home service providers, it involves proactively managing customer feedback, reviews, and brand image to build trust with prospects and increase your chances of attracting and retaining customers.
Reputation management typically involves:
Actively requesting reviews from your past customers.
Creating business listings on platforms like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and other directories specific to your service, where reviews can be uploaded.
Actively responding to customer feedback, whether positive or negative.
Updating accurate information about your business across all your platforms (website, social media accounts, etc.).
In the next section, we’ll explain why your home service business needs to prioritize reputation management.
Why Is Reputation Management Important for Home Services Companies?
Sometimes, it’s not about the quality of the service you provide. It’s about what past customers say about your service.
90% of potential buyers are more likely to convert after reading a positive review about a business online, according to a G2 survey.
That’s just one of the benefits positive reputation management offers home services companies. Here are some more.
Builds customer trust
Trust is the foundation of running any successful home service business.
Picture this: a customer needs an HVAC service provider to repair their air conditioner, and they stumble upon your website. How do they make sure you’re the right contractor for the job? They look for your reviews and testimonials.
If you show positive reviews on your website or online business listings, this prospect is more likely to trust you right off the bat.
Building a strong and positive brand reputation also helps differentiate you from your competition, improving the chances of new customers choosing you over them.
Drives revenue
A positive online reputation also directly impacts your bottom line. How?
Customers are typically willing to pay more for services from a company with excellent reviews and ratings. A strong online presence also attracts more customers, which means you’re getting more leads.
In addition, your existing customers are more likely to hire you again, leading to a continuous cycle of repeat customers.
Improves local SEO
Search engines like Google prioritize businesses with consistently positive reviews, accurate business listings, and frequent customer engagement.
The more positive interactions your business receives online, the higher your visibility in local search results. This results in more organic traffic and drives potential customers to your business.
For instance, if someone searches for a contractor service you provide—say, “top plumbing service in Boston,” you have a better chance of ranking at the top of the search results.
Helps you manage negative feedback
Online reputation management is not all about positive feedback. Even the best home service businesses will occasionally receive negative feedback.
However, how you handle bad reviews can help you stand out from the competition.
Addressing complaints quickly and professionally demonstrates that you care about customer satisfaction, which can potentially turn a negative experience into a positive one.
It also shows that your business is proactive and committed to resolving issues, assuring potential customers of good service even if problems arise.
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How Can a Home Services Company Manage Its Reputation?
Reputation management typically involves different aspects, from sourcing customer reviews to engaging them and addressing negative reviews.
Doing everything manually can be overwhelming, especially when you’re busy with other projects. However, you can automate the process with ServiceTitan’s Reputation Management tools. It’ll help with customer review collection, management, and response.
Keep reading to learn about the different ways a home service business can manage its reputation and how ServiceTitan helps with each step.
1. Get customer reviews
Customer reviews are the backbone of online reputation management.
The first step to improving your home service’s online reputation is getting feedback (ideally positive feedback) from past customers about your services.
ServiceTitan’s Reputation Management software can help manage your review collection process to save time and improve productivity. Here’s how.
Automated review requests: ServiceTitan helps you contact customers with a review request immediately after a job is completed. This ensures every client gets a chance to leave a review.
Review dashboard: See the overall performance rating of the reviews customers leave on your dashboard in ServiceTitan and respond.
Testimonial generation: In addition to your online reviews, you can send surveys to homeowners via SMS or email from the ServiceTitan platform to get additional information for testimonials.
2. Verify your business information
Another aspect of online reputation management for your home services company is ensuring your business information is consistent and accurate across every listing platform—Google Business Profile, Yelp, or social media.
Confirm you don’t have “Inc.” on some listings and have it on others. This can get confusing for new leads trying to find you.
Posting unified information for your business across all your digital channels makes you seem more trustworthy, improving your chances of converting a potential customer.
With ServiceTitan’s Listings Management feature, creating a consistent online profile for your business becomes easy.
It shows your listings across various platforms, including Facebook, Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Foursquare, from one central location so you can identify, verify, and update them right on ServiceTitan.
3. Engage with users and customers
Getting customers to leave you reviews is only part of the equation. The other half is responding to and engaging with these reviews. This not only shows that you actually care about customers’ opinions but also proves you’re proactive. Plus, it builds trust and strengthens relationships.
But as you know, responding to comments across various platforms can be exhausting. That’s where ServiceTitan’s reputation management software comes in.
It notifies you when customers leave a new review, allowing you to check and respond to those reviews right on the ServiceTitan platform.
4. Be accessible and easy to reach
Customers never want to feel like they have to chase businesses when they have questions or complaints.
If a customer complains about a sink repair that a plumbing contractor just completed and can’t reach the company’s support team, they’ll likely go online to leave a harsh review for that business.
Such inaccessibility or slow response times can lead to lost opportunities, negatively impacting your bottom line.
The solution? Offer multiple channels where customers can get support, via phone, email, website chat, or social media.
ServiceTitan’s Customer Experience feature can help you streamline such customer communications through:
Online web booking: Integrating your business listings (such as your Google Business Profile) with ServiceTitan ensures customers can book your services straight from these listings.
Integrated SMS/texts: This integration allows your customers or leads to text the business/office directly when they have questions or complaints.
Tech to customer texts: During jobs, your techs can easily communicate with customers through text messages directly from the ServiceTitan app.
5. Provide an excellent customer experience
A big part of ensuring your local business builds a strong online reputation is providing a positive experience for every customer. This improves the chances of customers leaving you excellent reviews that you can leverage for increased business growth.
ServiceTitan allows you to take it a step further by matching every customer review you get to the technician who was responsible for the job. This ensures you stay on top of your internal quality assurance processes.
Besides, being able to match specific techs to reviews received ensures that you can recognize the efforts of technicians who receive glowing reviews. This boosts team morale and productivity.
You’ll also be able to identify techs who receive negative reviews and follow up as necessary.
6. Address negative reviews
Negative feedback is an inevitable part of being a home service provider. While the goal is to always put your best foot forward and deliver top-notch service, sometimes it may not go according to plan.
The way you handle negative reviews can make all the difference. A professional response can turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal one.
ServiceTitan’s Review Filtering can also help you manage negative reviews.
With Review Filtering, you can send customers a quick 5-star survey to get their thoughts before sending the links to review your business publicly.
Depending on how many stars the customer gives you, you can either link them to your review sites or focus on responding to their feedback so you can try to resolve their issues.
In addition, ServiceTitan alerts you when a customer leaves you feedback on a review platform, ensuring you can quickly respond to them.
7. Make the best out of your testimonials
Another crucial step in improving your home service company’s online reputation is to use as many of the reviews you get as possible.
You can turn the positive customer testimonials you receive into marketing assets on your website, ads, and social media to build credibility and social proof.
Let your success stories do some of the talking on your behalf.
What Can Harm a Home Services Company’s Reputation?
As a home service provider, your business reputation is one of your most valuable assets.
Let’s examine some factors that can negatively impact your company’s reputation.
Negative reviews: Poor feedback can create doubt and drive leads to competitors. While you may be unable to prevent complaints or negative reviews, you need to address such concerns when they happen. Failing to respond signals indifference to customer satisfaction, making it harder to earn trust.
Inconsistent information: Having incorrect information on your business listings, such as outdated phone numbers or mismatched addresses, can frustrate customers and make your company seem unreliable. If potential or existing clients struggle to reach you or find accurate details, they may take their business elsewhere.
Poor communication: Poor communication is always a red flag for a service provider. Everything from—missed calls, slow responses to inquiries, and a lack of follow-ups—can create a negative customer experience. Remember, customers expect quick and professional communication. Anything but this can drive them towards more responsive competitors.
Unprofessional behavior: Your interactions with customers define your company’s reputation. Keep such interactions as professional and respectful as possible. When a technician shows up late, acts dismissively, or fails to resolve a customer’s problem, it impacts your reputation, leading to negative word-of-mouth and online complaints.
It’s Your Turn Now
By making reputation management a key part of your overall marketing strategy, you can strengthen your brand and stay ahead of the competition.
But remember, providing excellent service should be at the core of your company’s online reputation management.
ServiceTitan is a powerful all-in-one software solution designed specifically for home service providers. Whether you run a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, or landscaping business, our cloud-based platform can help you streamline operations, increase revenue, and drive business growth.
ServiceTitan Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and substantially elevate the trajectory of their business. Our comprehensive, cloud-based platform is used by thousands of electrical, HVAC, plumbing, garage door, and chimney sweep shops across the country—and has increased their revenue by an average of 25% in just their first year with us.
