Online reviews are necessary for many reasons. 95% of customers read reviews before making a purchase. Your clients trust what other customers have to say and will use this to choose a product or service. Not only that, but reviews will improve your search engine rankings — even negative reviews.
If you own an HVAC or plumbing business, you’re in luck. There are many ways for clients to review your company. They can go directly on your website or social media pages, as well as third-party review platforms.
But not many businesses know how to get reviews. If this sounds like you, we offer plenty of advice to satisfy customers and gain positive reviews.
Use Different Tools
There are many review tools and software options that can help you gain more reviews. You can use these tools to improve your operations, better understand what your customers want, and know what influences their purchase decisions.
Birdeye is a great example. This is a unique tool that helps you gain visibility on search engines and review platforms. They offer a user-friendly dashboard that manages your business listing on Google and multiple review websites.
You can use this dashboard to monitor your social media channels, your customer reviews, and any surveys. Not only that, but all customer data is available in one place. You can communicate with customers via text message, your website, email, and more.
Birdeye also automates the customer service factor of customer reviews. Your customers will receive notifications, asking to leave a review. This eases the review process so customers don’t seek out ways to leave reviews.
Display Your Reviews on Your Website
Reviews are beneficial for your website for many reasons. Your clients will likely access your website before contacting you. Seeing positive reviews will help them develop more trust.
Not only that, but reviews can help increase your website traffic in different ways. Reviews from previous customers provide website content, resulting in better SEO performance and more organic traffic.
All of these factors will help increase leads, which will gain more customers.
As an alternative, you can highlight positive reviews on your social media. This not only draws in customers even more but enhances your social media presence.
Make It Easy to Leave Reviews
How do you get more reviews? Make it easy for the customer. Don’t force the customer to look for the review section on your website or require customers to complete a survey-sized review.
How should you display your review section? You can leave a review area on your website, where customers can give you a star rating and leave a description (but make this optional). You can also link to different pages such as your Yelp listing and invite customers to leave a review on those platforms.
You can ask your website designer to place this section on your website, especially if you’re using customer testimonials to generate leads. Different third-party platforms, such as Yelp, also offer widgets you can easily add to your website.
Use Incentives
What’s in it for them? Customers love freebies and other benefits. Use incentives to attract reviews. This includes giving them a discount or coupon code for their next service when they leave a review. This will not only result in more reviews but increased sales.
You can also make your reviews into a contest. Host a contest that relates to your business, such as a year of free AC maintenance or free new bath fixtures. Inform customers that they will enter the contest when they leave a review.
What about negative reviews? Should you reward customers for leaving less-than-perfect reviews? You’re asking for testimonials, not just positive ones. Reward all customers for their honesty. Who knows, this may influence your customers to give you another chance.
Send a Follow-Up Email
The best way to keep your brand fresh in your clients’ minds is by sending them a follow-up email. Try to send the email within the week of their service so their experience is still fresh in their minds.
Ideally, you can send a review request email. But you can always send a normal email that’s something along the lines of, “how did we do?” From here, invite them to leave a review and link to your different review pages.
Don’t Ask
Have you tried these tactics but are still not getting reviews? Try not asking. While it sounds contradictory, you don’t want your customers to feel forced to leave a review. Instead, invite them to visit your social media, your website, or even your Yelp page.
Pay Attention to Negative Reviews
No matter how hard you try to satisfy clients, you’ll inevitably get a few negative reviews. Does this mean you should hide when a customer didn’t have anything nice to say? Pay close attention to negative reviews and try and make things right for the customer.
Here’s a good process to follow when a customer leaves a bad review. Respond and apologize. Explain what you’ll do to improve their experience. Include your contact information and invite the customer to contact you.
With that being said…
Improve the Customer Experience
What if a customer leaves a negative review? Reviews may be a way for customers to improve their future experience with your brand. This strategy not only invites customers to go back to the sales funnel but you’re offering a solution to their problems.
For example, let’s say a customer leaves a negative review. Respond and offer the unsatisfied customer free maintenance. As an alternative, if you installed a new HVAC unit and they’re unsatisfied with it, offer to replace it free of charge.
What happens if your customer is more satisfied? Ask them to leave a positive review or to change their negative review.
How to Get Reviews: Use Testimonials to Your Advantage
Knowing how to get reviews isn’t a strategy that business owners learn immediately, especially HVAC and plumbing businesses. But there are many ways to get reviews and use them to your advantage.
You can start by trusting a marketing and lead generation company that understands your unique needs. Contact us for a free digital marketing audit to see how your reviews and reputation stack up against the competition.
