A personal recommendation is often the most important factor when it comes to choosing a tradie.
After all, when you open your home to a total stranger, you need the peace-of-mind that the tradie you’ve chosen is totally trustworthy and reliable, that he or she will provide a high quality service and that your money will be well spent.
Recommendations can come from friends and family, but often people turn to their trusted advisor -ie Google! – for reviews and ratings before they make any decisions on which tradesperson to use. In fact, 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation and over 63% of us are likely to check Google reviews before visiting a website.
Google reviews do more than just enhance your reputation and give potential customers peace-of-mind about your business. They can also play a really important role in your local SEO and escalating your website up the rankings on the search engine pages. Not only that, positive reviews can increase conversions by up to 270%.
But it’s also worth noting that the vast majority of people don’t trust reviews that are older than three months, so even if you’ve had some great reviews in the past, you can’t rely on these to bring in business in the future.
Truth is, collecting reviews has to be a continuous work in progress. And the more effort you put in, the greater the benefit.
Consider this example of Perth windscreen repair and replacement company, Autoscreens. As a result of their persistent – and consistent- efforts to collect Google Reviews, they have amassed over 190 Google Reviews and are now Perth’s highest-rated windscreen business.
Anything’s possible. You just need a properly planned strategy and then you need to keep your foot on the pedal when it comes to implementing your plan and collecting reviews.
Here are some good ways to get more Google reviews for your tradie website:
- Send a targeted, personalised email to customers. Asking them for feedback at the right time (eg just after they’ve used your service) will increase the likelihood of them leaving a positive review.
- Send an SMS
- Use your social media channels like Facebook and Instagram
- Ask your customers in person (especially if they’ve just told you they were really happy with your service)
- Make sure your website provides opportunities for clients to leave reviews
The trick is to make it as easy as possible for customers to leave a review. People are generally time-poor, so the more you streamline and simplify the process for them, the higher the chances of success. That’s why rule number one is to include a Google Review link in your request, be it an email, an SMS, on your webpages or on social media.
And remember, you need to respond to EVERY review that you get – whether it’s good or bad.
Negative feedback obviously isn’t ideal, but it is an opportunity for you to set the record straight if there was a dispute or misunderstanding, and for you to right any wrongs. They way you respond to both positive and negative reviews sends a clear message about how you do business, so it’s important to respond promptly, courteously and helpfully.
To see this strategy in action, have a look at the way Autoscreens respond to customer views on their Google My Business listing. The tone of their responses is friendly and genuine and the company engages with the customer on a personal level. Anyone reading these responses will get a really good sense of the personality and values of the business – and this not only strengthens Autoscreens’ reputation but also gives a potential customer who is looking for a windscreen repair or replacement company the reassurance that they’d be in good hands.
There’s no doubt that the more reviews you have for your tradie website, the better for your business. They’re really important not only in terms of validating the quality of your service and providing potential customers with peace-of-mind reassurance, but they also play a key role in helping to bump up your website on the Google search rankings.
