Cultivating customer reviews

Now, more than ever, consumers are relying on online reviews to validate their buying decisions for products and services. In fact, a recent survey by ReviewTrackers.com revealed that 4 in 5 Americans read reviews before making a purchase decision. In addition to building your brand credibility and providing social proof to potential customers, reviews are essential to driving your company’s local SEO performance.

Which is why finding effective ways to make the ask is so important.

Weighing your options

According to Sammy Paget, content marketing manager with dedicated SEO local platform BrightLocal, “Consumers now are very used to getting requests for reviews. The challenge is finding the best way—and time—to reach them.”

Citing a recent survey by BrightLocal where consumers were asked which review request methods would make them more likely to leave an online review, Paget notes there’s a clear preference for requests made via email (34%), in person (33%), and on a receipt or invoice (32%).

“While there’s just a 1% difference between each of these options,” she notes, “each approach offers unique advantages.”

She explains, “In the case of email, your request finds them wherever they are on their phone, tablet or computer and, with automation, can come right on the heels of closing out a job. With in-person requests, there is a sense of obligation that helps convert the ask to an actual review, provided the customer has had a positive experience. And, finally,” she adds, “the receipt or invoice approach is a nice way to bring closure to a project, while providing a physical reference to where your customer will need to go to complete a review. If the consumer is pleased with the outcome, they’re likely to feel favorable about writing a review.”

As for other review request methods, here’s how they stacked up in the BrightLocal survey:

■ Through social media 31%

■ In an SMS text message 23%

■ Over the phone 12%

■ By a chatbot 9%

■ On a business card 8%

■ None of the above 10%

Why one pro made an about-face on review requests

Nick Slavik’s (of Nick Slavik Painting & Restoration Co.) Google page is filled with 5-star reviews (170 to be exact). And while Slavik has been in business for 15 years, he admits that 80% of those reviews were earned in the last 18 months.

According to Slavik, the key to that impressive review haul was a return to old ways.

“When I first started out, I did the estimate, I delivered the bid, I did the work, and I closed out the job,” he recalls. “There was a very strong connection with the customer and that was rewarded with a review every time I asked.

“As we grew to a team of six, we turned to apps and software to help solicit reviews. We automated and tracked everything and found that the digital approach wasn’t working. Nobody was providing reviews.”

A year and a half ago, Slavik made the decision to have his office coordinator, who also serves as the first point of contact for any potential customer, start calling on completed jobs and asking for a review.

“It’s manual and it’s time-consuming but it’s effective,” he says. “We strive to get two new reviews a week and we’re hitting that goal.”

As for the actual ask, Slavik says the office coordinator targets the happiest customers. “She reaches out and lets them know that we’d appreciate a review. She then pushes them an email with both a Google and Facebook link and confirms they’ve received it while they’re on the phone. We don’t tell them which to use and we don’t ask for five stars. We just ask for the review.”

Slavik notes he hasn’t dropped automated appeals entirely. “They’re still in place and up to 20% of our reviews come from those channels. To be clear, I have no doubt that if we had the time and bandwidth, we could move the needle on the automated review numbers. I’m sure of it. But for now, this is how we’re choosing to use our resources.”

Q:How have you leveraged an existing offering to service new markets?

A:Let’s face it, it’s an era where businesses have had to make a choice; they can adapt to everchanging consumer demands and market fluctuations or become stagnant and face the associated risks. Last year, while reflecting on our FY22 strategic plan, we considered our options and thought about how to extend our offerings to include final cleaning/pressure washing. The idea made sense because it allowed us to broaden our scope on an existing commercial project or potentially win a new project that did not originally have division 9 (finish work) in the scope. Specifically, as we assessed our business model, we knew that we often partnered with commercial GCs and directly with businesses to complete the painting scope. Adding cleaning capabilities to our repertoire would allow us to become more marketable while continuing to build on existing relationships.

Another consideration was how it fit with our company values. Our mantra at Vork Brothers Painting is ‘We do what others don’t.’ It means more than what it sounds like. Yes, of course we want to service our customers at an elite level, but who doesn’t? What we mean by that statement is that we want to be different, and to be different we must act different, and to act different we must think different. This circulates around our people, training and values as a company. We are a family owned company and relationships are at the center of what we do. As we evaluate opportunities, we carefully recognize our own capabilities of servicing that opportunity to ensure that it will meet or exceed customer expectations. We recognized that final cleaning/ pressure washing is a ‘bolt-on’ to our primary painting business, and servicing the commercial markets would allow us to leverage the offering outside of the residential market. We knew that our cleaning equipment was underutilized and the commercial market was untapped.

Recognizing the opportunity, developing the relationships, and marketing the offering were three important steps in servicing new markets.

After determining that it was a fit with both our portfolio and our values, we went for it! Fortunately, the equipment investment was minimal as we had already been utilizing industrial-grade pressure washers and water buffalo tanks to service our residential market. The natural transition to tapping into the commercial space made sense. At the onset of 2022, we began having some conversations with specific construction firms on projects that we saw as a fit for kicking off the added offering. Sure enough, by late January we had locked in a commercial/ industrial contract for final cleaning. Services included:

■ pressure washing (racks, IMP walls, steel columns, girts, exterior portions)

■ floor scrubbing

■ mopping

■ vacuuming with inPAINT ® day. lifetime.” a industry to learn question

We’ve since completed three cleaning jobs centered around similar work scope(s). We are excited about the traction and momentum.

Our next steps in leveraging this offering are to focus on who we are partnering with for final cleaning projects heading into next year, as well as refining existing relationships with particular commercial construction firms. Our commercial/residential painting projects are primarily completed in west Michigan. That said, regarding the cleaning division of our company, we’re open to traveling throughout the Midwest region. Being open to these new markets is allowing us to scale our business while still maintaining our service focus and core business model. We are excited for how this offering will continue to expand over time as an added scope for what we do and, more importantly, how we do it.

Teach to Fish eBlast

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”