A job well done leads to a glowing online review, and a steady pool of positive reviews helps service professionals book more jobs and grow their revenue.
“We see that homeowners and consumers look at ratings and reviews before anything else when they're making their buying decisions. And this is across the different categories in the trade industries we support,” says Ann Moenius, Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives at Angi.
With the ServiceTitan and Angi integration, users get leads directly from Angi—pre-populated with customer info, job type, and campaign source—for fast and easy booking in ServiceTitan.
In a recent ServiceTitan webinar, Moenius and Micah Blair, Account Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Angi, spoke about the role of customer reviews and how business owners in the trades can optimize their reviews to win more jobs through service requests that homeowners submit via Angi.
“Whether it's Google, another platform, or it's with Angi, you're really building that credibility in making yourself stand out against the competition,” Moenius says.
What homeowners look for in the trades
As business owners think about establishing their online presence, Moenius says the key is to understand what consumers are looking for in quality service professionals. She shared some findings from internal Angi research to support the claim.
“There are three main factors that go into how homeowners think about the quality of the pros they hire,” Moenius says. “There’s social proof, expertise, and also professional traits. Reviews play a huge part within each of these three factors.”
1. Social proof
Moenius says homeowners want to see photos of previous work and they want to know if any hiccups occurred along the way. Most importantly, they want to know if the homeowner would hire the pro again.
“This is really the modern-day way of getting a referral or word-of-mouth recommendation from your friends and family, except we do it online,” Moenius says. “Reviews are a big piece of that social proof.”
2. Expertise
Homeowners want to ensure they’re hiring service pros who are knowledgeable in their trades, according to Moenius. She recommends including info in your online presence to demonstrate years of experience, total number of reviews, licenses and certifications, and other pertinent information, so homeowners can make educated hiring decisions.
3. Professional traits
Moenius says customers want to know how service pros conduct their business. Are they communicative and responsive to potential customers? Do they have good customer service skills? What are their business values?
“There are two factors I really want you to consider about your online presence. What message are you putting out there and what do you want to convey to the consumer who's reading about your business?” Moenius says. “And then do your customer reviews echo those types of things? Are the reviews talking about how professional you are and the great quality of work you did?”
Number of reviews versus star rating
When it comes to online reputations, Moenius says service business owners frequently ask her if it’s more important to have a five-star average rating or an abundance of reviews. Short answer: It’s both.
“What we found in our interviews is that consumers use a not-so-scientific equation that helps them kind of quantify and qualify a pro,” Moenius says. “Homeowners actually trust those pros that have a good combination of both a good number of reviews and then at least a four-star rating, but it doesn't have to be a perfect five.
“We know from our data that our current pros on Angi who have three or more reviews are 39% more likely to be selected by the homeowner,” she adds. “And your likelihood of getting selected increases (with) the more reviews you have.”
Moenius says service pros should strive to get at least three reviews, and then make collecting reviews a priority to keep their profiles timely and fresh.
Syncing Google reviews with Angi
Angi generates 268 million site visits annually. Blair reiterated the importance for service professionals to build their online profiles to get in front of homeowners as they hunt for quality service providers. He mentioned a new feature that allows service businesses to automatically import their five most-recent Google reviews into Angi with the click of a button.
“This will automatically set you apart from pros that don’t have any reviews or ratings on their profile currently,” Blair says. “So again, having at least three reviews is key. By importing these five right off the bat, you're already setting yourself up for success.”
To move Google reviews to Angi, simply:
Log in to your Angi portal
Click on “Reviews” at the top of your screen
Click “Request Reviews from Customers”
Select “Add Reviews from Google”
Click “Import Now”
Select your Google account and click “Allow”
Best practices for managing reviews
Angi users can also send review-request prompts for any completed project to remind homeowners to give their feedback. Blair suggests following up with every customer to keep the review pool full and up to date, and recommends the following tips for managing business reviews.
Respond to every review
Blair says you should always respond to a customer review, especially negative reviews. Most homeowners understand mistakes can and do happen, and the business owners who professionally respond to negative reviews build confidence in the eyes of the customer.
“When responding to these negative reviews, try and strive for resolution or de-escalation at all times,” Blair says. “And make sure you show professionalism on all the responses. This is going to increase the legitimacy of your business and gain further confidence from homeowners viewing your profile.”
Request reviews often
Whether from Angi, Yelp, or another online review site, Blair says service business owners should request a review from every customer to build up their online reputation.
“It's always good practice to request a review directly from the homeowner when a project is complete, especially when you're on site and the customer has everything fresh in mind,” Blair says. “If you aren't able to get a review immediately, always send a reminder for these outstanding requests. Of course, people get busy, so make sure to send a follow-up email or link directly to the customer to increase the likelihood they're actually going to leave you a review.”
Keep reviews fresh
Blair says homeowners value recency of reviews. He suggests keeping reviews as fresh as possible to build confidence in the customer as they're looking at your online profile.
“I know personally whenever I check out reviews and ratings, I'm always looking for something that's less than a month old, or even more recent,” Blair says.
The ServiceTitan and Angi partnership
The ServiceTitan and Angi partnership makes perfect sense, as homeowners turn to Angi to find highly rated professionals, and service professionals turn to ServiceTitan to optimize all aspects of their business.
Through the partnership, ServiceTitan users gain access to several perks, including dedicated support, hands-on onboarding for the first 90 days, 50% of all leads for the first 30 days, and a 10% Lowes discount.
Ready to start getting leads from Angi? Activate the integration today.
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive home and commercial services business software solution built specifically to help companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and achieve growth. Our award-winning, cloud-based platform is trusted by more than 100,000+ contractors across the country.
Ready to learn more about what ServiceTitan can do for your business? Contact our team to schedule a demo today.
