Episode Overview
Online reviews are crucial for trades businesses of all sizes. But the process of asking for reviews and responding to them across various platforms can be time-consuming. In a recent episode of the Mastering ServiceTitan podcast, Jess Kralemann, Co-Founder and CEO of Titan Advising Gurus, shares how ServiceTitan Marketing Pro features can automate review collection and responses. Kralemann gives actionable advice, from using simple customer notifications to advanced Marketing Pro automations, and reveals common mistakes like "gatekeeping" reviews.
Read on to learn the ins and outs of reputation management, including how to leverage authenticity to build customer trust and grow your business.
Soliciting and Responding to Reviews
Asking for reviews is the first step, and ServiceTitan simplifies the process. For those not yet utilizing Marketing Pro, customer notifications, a core product feature, offers a simple way to solicit reviews.
“When you're building out those customer notifications, you have your booking communication, your reminder, and an after job completion notification. That's where you would ask for that review,” Kralemann says. “You can even put in your Google link. With that core feature, you are able to reach out and get those reviews flowing in as soon as possible.”
And make sure to send the review request, no matter how the job went.
“Don’t try to gatekeep your reviews,” Kralemann says. “As a consumer, if you have nothing but five stars, I’m not going to believe it. There have to be a couple negative [ones] in there that I'm going to look at, but I'm not just looking at it to see what went wrong. I'm looking to see how you responded to it and how you handled it.”
When it comes to responding to those negative reviews, don’t let emotion get in the way.
“Be very professional with it,” Kralemann says. “Answer any lingering questions that they may have put in that review, explain what happened, and ask them to contact the office further so it can be resolved. As long as you don't get defensive and start an online war with that person, I think you’re OK.”
With multiple review sites, like Google, Angi, Meta, and Yelp, it’s hard to know what to focus on when it comes to reputation management.
“You can be the master of a few, or you can just do a poor job at many,” Kralemann says. “So my recommendation is pick one or two, three at the most, that you really want to push these reviews to and stick with it. If you're overwhelming a customer with too many options, they're just not gonna do it.”
Automating the Process
Marketing Pro - Reputation automates the review process and enables companies to respond to reviews across various channels all from one place. For tracking purposes, it matches reviews to technicians, customers, and jobs.
The platform can resend review requests if the customer doesn’t leave one, and also allows you to choose which review sites to connect to the request.
To make responding even easier, you can set up autoresponses.
“When you set it up, you can pick 10 different responses from what ServiceTitan has in there, or you can build your own,” Kralemann says. “And then if it's a five-star review, it's gonna pick through one of those 10 responses and push it out. If it's a four star, it'll push.”
Kralemann only uses autoresponses for four- and five-star reviews, preferring to respond personally to reviews with three stars or less.
Once you automate the process, set up benchmarks, so you can measure success. Kralemann recommends aiming to receive reviews on 5-10% of jobs you complete. To increase reviews, train your techs to ask each customer for a review versus just leaving behind a business card with a QR code on it. You can even incentivize review collection with bonuses or contests.
Reviews Matter
To sum it all up, Kralemann says, “You need to have reviews. They're important. Don't shy away from negative reviews. If you're getting a lot, reevaluate what's going on, but it's OK to have some bad ones. Don't gatekeep, and just collect as many as you can.”
If you need help with Reputation, or any other features within ServiceTitan, Titan Gurus is there to offer support.
“Our entire team is built from ladies who have come from the trades over the years,” Kralemann says. “And we've used ServiceTitan to help grow, so we really know the system inside and out from a practical standpoint. We have all the ServiceTitan certifications. Whether it's providing one-on-one training, group training, or even technician training, if it's in ServiceTitan, we will help with it.”
You can find this interview and many more by subscribing to Mastering ServiceTitan on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.
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About ServiceTitan
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive software solution built specifically to help home service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and substantially elevate the trajectory of their business.
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