Optimizing your Google Business Profile and other online listings is an important part of any local SEO strategy, but it doesn’t stop at making sure your NAPs are up to date (name, address, phone). If you want to take your home services SEO to the next level, you need to dedicate time to regularly generating online reviews from your customers. Learn why these reviews are so important, how to encourage your customers to sing your praises online, and the best way to respond to every review you receive.  

Why Google Reviews Are Critical for Home Service Companies 

Before we dive into how you can generate more online reviews for your company, let’s take a moment to look at why you need to focus on online review management.  

Google Reviews Directly Impact Your Local Search Rankings 

One of the most important reasons you should focus on generating more reviews for your business is that they are crucial to your local SEO strategy. Google reviews play an important role in improving your Google Business Profile map pack ranking. Generating consistent and authentic reviews is a key signal search engines use when analyzing business profiles. 

Online Reviews Build Essential Trust for In-Home Services 

Online reviews are an important part of the purchasing process for most consumers. In fact, only 4% of customers report they never use online reviews before making purchases. They also trust reviews more than they trust online influencers and articles written by subject matter experts. In fact, 26% of people surveyed said they trust online reviews as much as they trust feedback from their friends and family. Suffice it to say – online reviews go a long way to building trust for your customers.  

Reviews Help You Stand Out in Competitive Markets 

Customer reviews are especially important in the home services industry. There is a lot of competition online, and customers need to know what sets your company apart from all the others. They also want to know that you are a reputable company that they can trust in their homes. Hearing from your previous customers will help your clients feel confident that you are the best team for their job.  

6 Proven Strategies to Generate More Online Reviews 

Strategy #1: Master the Art of Direct Review Requests 

We know it sounds simple, but studies show that 77% of customers are willing to leave a review if you ask. Sometimes people just need a simple reminder to take action. It can be helpful to let the customer know that leaving reviews helps support your business by allowing more people to find you online. 

Strategy #2: Perfect Your Review Request Timing 

It’s crucial that you ask for online reviews at the right time. Customers are more likely to leave a review when they are happy, so you want to make sure you are asking at the right time.  

It can be helpful to ask for a review when your customers have had the opportunity to experience your services. For a plumber or HVAC company, this might be immediately after service has been completed. However, for pest control, it might make sense to wait a few weeks before asking for a review, so your clients have had time to notice the effects of your work. Don’t ask for a review before the service has been completed or if there is an ongoing issue you haven’t been able to resolve yet.  

It might be easiest to ask for a review as your technician is wrapping up a service call. However, if this is coming right after paying a hefty bill, they may be less inclined to leave you the glowing review you deserve.  

We recommend testing a few different times during the customer journey to see what works best for you. 

Strategy #3: Train Your Technicians as Review Generation Champions 

Your technicians can be one of your best assets when it comes to generating reviews. After all, they are the ones who get the most face-to-face time with your customers. Train your team to ask for a review after every successful service call. You can empower them by providing scripts or including a prompt as they wrap up the call.  

Be sure to remind your technicians to ask for reviews regularly. You should also highlight employees who receive mentions in reviews and recognize team members who are especially effective at generating online testimonials.   

If you’d like, you can also explore incentivizing team members to help generate reviews. There are several approaches you can take – just ensure you offer a reward that is both meaningful and motivating. It is important that you do not offer your customers incentives to leave a review, because that is against the terms and services of most online review sites and can get you into a lot of hot water.   

Strategy #4: Automate Your Review Generation Process 

Many workforce management solutions – including ServiceTitan – have a feature that helps you generate and manage your reviews. These reputation management solutions allow you to automate the process from beginning to end. With automation, you can set up emails or texts requesting reviews to be sent when specific triggers are reached. This will save you a significant amount of time, help you generate more reviews, and make it very simple for customers to leave reviews.  

Strategy #5: Remove All Friction from the Review Process 

It’s important that you make it as simple as possible for your customers to leave reviews. If someone is motivated to leave a positive review but runs into obstacles, they are likely to abandon the process altogether. Don’t leave positive reviews on the table by making the process difficult. Here are a few things you can do to make sure it is easy for customers to leave reviews:   

  • Provide direct links to your Google Business Profile via email or text.  
  • Link to your online review site at the bottom of your website and in the footer of emails.  
  • Have a QR code that all of your technicians can use to share links at the job site easily. 

Strategy #6: Strategically Target Multiple Review Platforms 

When we say reviews – it’s easy to jump straight to Google Business reviews, and for good reason too. Google dominates the search engine market, and, according to BrightLocal, 83% of consumers report turning to Google Reviews when looking for business reviews.  

But consumers don’t stop there. In fact,  

  • 74% of consumers report that they look for reviews on 2 or more sites before making a purchasing decision.  
  • Yelp (44%), Facebook (40%), and the Better Business Bureau (20%) are other popular review sites that BrightLocal found today’s customers are consulting. That’s not even considering the home services industry-specific review sites such as Angi and Thumbtack.

You can’t effectively generate and manage reviews across every single review site available, so it is important to pick a few review sites to prioritize and promote. Of course, we always recommend generating reviews for your Google Business Profile, but here are some things to consider when choosing which other sites to prioritize:  

Look for Online Review Sites That Already Have Reviews for Your Business 

Do you already have reviews on a site even if you haven’t actively been managing it? Customers may have already left reviews that you didn’t solicit. Claim ownership of those profiles and build on the momentum you already have. Even if you have negative reviews on those sites – don’t jump to deleting your account. With all of the tips mentioned in this blog, you’ll have a thriving listing in no time.  

Find Out What Review Sites Your Competitors Are Using 

Check out what your competitors are doing. Is there a review site where they are active? If so, it might make sense to start generating reviews there as well to shift some of their traffic to your site. Alternatively, you could look for a review site that your competitors have no presence on. If you know your customers use that site, you have the opportunity to dominate that conversation.  

Keep It Relevant to Your Industry 

Make sure the review site is relevant to your industry. If you’re a plumber, you don’t need to generate reviews on TripAdvisor. The great news is that there are plenty of review sites that are created to amplify home services businesses for you to choose from.  

How to Respond to Google Reviews Like a Pro 

You’ve done the hard work to generate reviews, but you’re not done just yet. It is important to respond to every review you receive – yes, even the negative or fake reviews.  

BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Study found that 89% percent of consumers report they are ‘fairly’ or ‘likely’ to purchase from a business that responds to all reviews – negative and positive. In contrast, a little over half of shoppers would buy from a company that responded to only negative or positive reviews. Perhaps most shocking, though, is that only 44% of those surveyed are likely to work with a company that didn’t respond to any reviews at all. That’s a pretty significant decline!  

The data is clear – consumers look at reviews when making their purchasing decisions, and your responses are a crucial part of that process. Not responding to reviews can actually have a negative impact on your business.  

Responding to all of your online reviews can also make a positive impact on your local SEO rankings. Replying to reviews helps improve the prominence of your online business listings. Google even lists this as one of their tips for improving your local ranking.  

Best Practices for Positive Google Review Responses 

Responding to positive online reviews is the fun part – this is your opportunity to celebrate a job well done and another satisfied customer. Be sure to thank the reviewer for taking the time to leave a review and to emphasize anything specific that was mentioned in the review.  

It’s important to take the time to make every response unique. When potential customers are looking at online reviews, they will notice if every response is the same. This makes the message seem inauthentic and shallow. Instead, create an outline of how you will respond to reviews, not a template of what you will say. One outline could look like this:   

  • Thank the reviewer for leaving a message   
  • Highlight anything specific in the review that stands out to you  
  • Bring the review back to something essential to your business, such as company values or your mission statement  
  • End your response with an offer to be there for their future needs  

Positive reviews also provide a great opportunity to incorporate keywords you are trying to optimize for naturally. It’s a simple switch that can have a big impact.   

For example, instead of saying:  

“Thank you for trusting us with your business.”  

Try:  

“Thank you for trusting us for all your HVAC needs.” 

Turning Negative Reviews into Trust-Building Opportunities 

Responding to negative online reviews appropriately might be one of the most important things you do online. It’s important that you do not come across as defensive or accusatory. If that happens, there’s a chance you might reinforce the negative message the review is trying to convey. Here are a few key rules to remember when responding to negative reviews:  

  • Thank the poster for taking the time to leave you a review.  
  • Share that their experience is not in line with the experience you want your customers to have.  
  • Try to take any further interactions offline – you don’t want to get into a debate in the reviews on your online listings. 
  • End the message on a positive note whenever possible.  

It’s even important to respond to fake reviews! If you suspect a review is fake, you should report it in hopes that it will get removed. You can also reply, stating that no information indicates they were a customer, and then offer them the opportunity to call you to review any outstanding concerns.   

Similar to positive reviews, each response must be unique to the review that has been left. This will signal to future customers that you genuinely care about every customer’s experience with your company.   

The Bottom Line: Reviews Drive Growth 

With how important local SEO is for home services companies, it’s important that you prioritize generating online reviews. Regardless of the sites you prioritize, these strategies should help guide you as you begin to ask your satisfied customers for reviews.  

If you need more help with local SEO for your home services business, contact us today! We are helping contractors across the nation improve their local SEO every day.