In a world with Google, Yelp, and social media, reputation management has been pushed to the forefront of the marketing strategy for any construction or industrial business. Anyone with a keyboard can leave their opinion online for the whole world to see. Keyboard warriors with too much time on their hands and a bit of a grudge can turn small issues into big headaches.
Managing your reputation as a business has always been important. The goal as a contractor has always been (or should have always been) to take pride in your work, do a good job and leave customers feeling happy and satisfied.
It’s a fantasy to think that every single job you work on will always be positive, but by focusing on your work and providing a good product and experience, you reduce the likelihood of a negative reaction.
But it's important to realize that some people in this world are just looking for a reason to be angry. Maybe they’re having a bad day, or they believe they could’ve done a better job themselves (every contractor’s favorite) or maybe they sent the alimony check that morning. Either way, you’re eventually going to run into someone negative and if you’re unable to resolve the situation, they might take their complaints to the internet.
In the rest of this article, we’ll talk about some tips for managing your reviews, and some of the platforms you might want to consider keeping an eye on.
Tips For Online Reputation Management
Do a Good Job
Seems pretty obvious, right? As we mention in our open, doing a good job doesn’t always mean you won’t receive any complaints. Performing at a high level does provide a few benefits, though. It will help you establish a good reputation. This is important because It's estimated that word of mouth drives 5 times more sales than paid advertising, and even more importantly, 26% of people will avoid a brand if a friend or family tells a negative story about their experience (SEMRush). Doing good work can also help you drown out any negative reviews someone might leave. If you have 100 solid reviews and one negative review, people searching for you will probably think that the Negative Nancy was having a bad day.
Ask People For Reviews
This one is important. Sometimes you’ll do a job that is so outstanding and the customer is so happy that they’ll leave a review on their own without any prompting. That isn’t always the case, though. Even when you knock it out of the park, leaving a review might not be the first thing a customer thinks to do. A gentle reminder that you appreciate their support of your business and that they can help you even more by leaving a quick review is a great way to entice those less tech-savvy customers to jump online and help you out.
Respond to Comments
Responding to reviews is a great way to interact with customers who have taken the time to share their experiences. It lets them know you truly appreciate their time, and it's one more positive way to continue interacting with them. 83% of consumers also expect businesses to respond to comments on social media (PR Newswire).
When responding to comments, make sure you respond to all comments, not just the positive ones. We see this a lot when a vendor who manages their reputation online ignores negative comments. It's advisable to not do that. Responding to negative comments allows you to show that you care. You can also provide your side of the story. I wouldn’t go into too much detail, but if you have tried to provide a solution offline and the customer decided to leave a negative review anyway, comments are your opportunity to provide a little bit of context to the story.
Make it Easy for Them
Let's face it, we’re all just a little bit lazy. Finding a way to make leaving a review simple and easy is going to be one of the best ways to make sure it already happens. The good news here is that most of the platforms we described above can generate a link that you can easily send to customers. This lets them leave a quick review by just making a couple of clicks and saying what they have to say. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Consider Hiring An Expert
Reviews can be challenging and time-consuming to manage. There are experts in this field that will help you get more positive reviews while also dealing with the bad ones. Hiring out the reputation management aspect of your business also allows you to focus more on the larger business initiatives that will help you achieve your goals.
Reputation Management Platforms
Google Business is an online tool that helps businesses manage their online presence across all Google platforms (Google). Google is a giant in the digital marketing world, and they provide many products that help businesses market themselves more effectively. Google Business is a little bit like your business’s “home page” on Google’s search engine. When someone does a google search looking for your business or for the services you offer, sometimes Google will direct them to your Google Business listing. This provides searchers with a larger snapshot of your organization and what you do than a traditional google search would. Google business is important for a few reasons. Reviewers can go and leave reviews about your company, which is important, but one of the main reasons you need to be on Google Business is because Google likes it when you use their tools. And with Google receiving around 84% of search volume (Statista), it behooves businesses to do things that Google Likes. We go deeper into SEO and why that’s important in other articles.
Angie’s List, now known as Angi.com, is the original construction reputation management platform. Angi was founded to help buyers hire construction companies that are vetted and reviewed. Angi has been around for a long time and as such has a fairly large user base and can be a great source of revenue as well. One thing to be aware of with Angi, however, is that they do charge contractors fees to be listed on their website. It might be worth it to your business to do so, but that is going to be up to you to decide.
I personally love Houzz. Houzz is “a place to find and hire the right design and construction professionals.” One of the biggest benefits of Houzz is that companies can use the platform to post pictures of their work so customers can get an idea of what a company’s abilities and expertise are. One drawback of Houzz is that they will try and get you to pay them for their premium services. The premium services could be beneficial to you, but they also could be a waste of money. You’ll have to decide if the calls are worth it, but if you’re looking for a great place to showcase your work and interact with potential customers, Houzz provides a nice platform.
Chances are that you’ve probably heard of Yelp or even used it yourself. The entire point of Yelp is to help businesses manage their reputation. They were founded as a website where you could look at restaurant reviews, but they have expanded to the point where reviewers can leave reviews for most types of businesses. Yelp may not be the most popular review app in the construction world, but it should be on your radar.
Social Media
Do not sleep on social media. We’ve mentioned before that social media oftentimes feels like a necessary evil, but it is still necessary. If you utilize different social media platforms, they can be valuable when it comes to reputation management. Social media platforms give you a level of control that the other review sites we’ve mentioned don’t. On Facebook, for example, you can choose to turn reviews off if you don’t want them displayed for whatever reason. Social media can also be a great place to ask your fans to leave a review. If you interact heavily online with your customer base, asking them to take a simple action could help you increase your number of good reviews.
Conclusion
If you’re in business long enough, someone is probably going to leave you a negative review. It's going to happen and there’s not much you can do about it. The good news, though, is that most people searching for your services in this wide world we live in are reasonable people who just want a quality contractor to help them solve a problem. As the world continues to shift its focus online, construction businesses are going to have to take a hard look at their online profiles and take reputation management seriously. Because while most people out there are good and honest, smart businesses who prepare to defend against the keyboard warrior set themselves up for greater success.
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