If you operate a home services company, or you’re a marketing agency in the home service industry, chances are you’re so busy completing projects that you don’t have much time left over to dedicate to online review management. If that statement applies to you, there’s both good and bad news.
The bad news is that, by overlooking your reviews, you’re also neglecting valuable opportunities to attract customers, improve your local search rankings, and stand out from your competitors — but the good news is that, by tightening up your review response strategy, you can seize those same opportunities to drive more customers (and more revenue) to your home services business. In fact, you might be surprised to learn just how much consumers value online reviews — and, even more crucially, the responses that businesses provide.
That was what we set out to measure in our recent survey, where we interviewed 200 participants who all reported hiring a home service company during the past year. Read on as we share some of the insights and highlights from our survey, along with some tips and strategies to help your brand or agency enhance its review management system.
4 in 5 People Are More Likely to Choose Home Service Companies that Reply to Customer Reviews
Consumer opinion constantly fluctuates, so we wanted to discover how homeowners really felt about the state of online reviews in 2022. Our survey participants ranged in age from 18 to over 54, included a mix of men and women, and covered a range of income levels and household/family sizes. What all shared in common was recently (within the past 12 months) hiring or contracting with a service provider to complete a project or make repairs on their home.
Here are some of the key takeaways for your agency or brand to be aware of:
- Four out of five consumers prefer home service providers that reply to their customers. Over 80% of our survey respondents (161 people) said they were “more likely to use a home services company that has responded to its online reviews.” That’s a hugely significant insight your business needs to act on if your goal is to acquire as many customers as possible.
- Most consumers think responding to reviews helps businesses stand out from their competitors. Feeling deadlocked with your competitors (or worse, like you’re falling behind them)? Responding to reviews could help give you an edge. A total of 73% of our respondents (146 people) agreed that “responding to reviews is a good way” to differentiate your home services business from the competition.
- Over three quarters of consumers say they’re more likely to give repeat business to home service providers that customize their review responses. 77% of our respondents (154 people) said they were “more likely to be a repeat customer of a home services company that responded with a personalized, thoughtful review reply.” And with a dedicated response scribe providing custom content for you, ensuring your customers receive personalized messages becomes truly effortless for your team.
- Almost half of consumers say they’d consider changing a negative review — but it depends on how your home service business responds. Over 45% of our respondents said they might update a negative rating or review, provided the business owner “responded to you with a thoughtful, personalized message.”
We hope these insights from real consumers will encourage you to reassess your review management strategy and make sure it’s delivering the best results possible — and if it isn’t, our team of review management experts can help you optimize your system for maximum productivity and efficiency in 2023. Keep reading for tips on writing better responses to customer reviews, or learn how our response scribes make it easy for your team to generate custom responses.
Tips for Writing Better Replies to Reviews of Your Home Services Business
When it comes to home service providers like plumbers and landscapers, consumers are drawn toward businesses that not only respond to their customers, but make the effort to respond in a personalized and detailed fashion. But now that you have this data, how do you actually approach the task of responding? What are the best practices and strategies that your home service company needs to be aware of, and on the other hand, what are some review management mistakes to avoid? And if you’re struggling to get reviews in the first place, how can you get more ratings from customers (without getting penalized or triggering alerts in the process)?
We’ve covered all of those topics plus many others on our blog, which provides bi-weekly insights into the online reputation management industry. If you’re new to review management — or, you just need a refresher — these articles will help you get started off on the right foot.
- 7 Most Important Review Platforms for Home Service Providers
- How to Leverage Bad Reviews to Benefit Your Home Services Business
- How to Respond to 1-Star Ratings and Negative Reviews
- How to Respond to 3-Star Ratings and Neutral Reviews
- How to Respond to 5-Star Ratings and Positive Reviews
24-Hour Review Response Service for HVAC, Plumbers, Electricians, and Other Home Service Professionals
The data is in, and consumers show a clear preference for home service companies that provide personalized responses to customer reviews. While it might have seemed like a low priority in the past, responding to reviews is actually one of the simplest yet most productive steps your business can take to improve customer acquisition and retention in 2023. And with a new year around the corner, now is the perfect time to optimize your review management strategy. Paired with our secure and powerful dashboard, our review reply service makes getting started a breeze.
Discover why home service brands and marketing agencies like CallSource, V Digital Services, and 411 Locals Business Services trust Shout About Us to manage their reviews. Book a demo to see our platform in action.
Emily Homrok is a freelance copywriter with more than seven years of writing experience. She joined the Shout About Us team as a content strategist in 2020.
