Regardless of the type of business you are promoting, reviews are a key component of building a solid reputation in your local area. Far too many pest control companies fail to utilize the tools that help improve customer service and showcase your company as the best pest control business in your local area.
Successful pest control companies are reaching existing customers and gaining new ones by focusing on reviews. Many consumers in today’s marketplace are looking at reviews to see which companies are rated most highly near them.
These same people are often willing to pay a premium price for the better services they feel they will receive, based on great reviews. Your challenge is getting those reviews. So, let’s talk about some tips and tricks that you can use to get free customer reviews that people are happy to give.
A Winning Plan to Get Rave Reviews
The first thing to understand is that people don’t always review a company unless service is extreme. This can, unfortunately, be extremely bad or extremely good service.
Sadly, most companies do just enough to consider a job done adequately. That isn’t enough to get a great review. By the same token, a poor performance will land you a bad review.
You need a winning plan of action if you want to drive customers to your pest control business by skyrocketing pest control reviews for your business. Most business is won by word of mouth, but technology has changed how this word is spread. Take a look at this simple plan for skyrocketing your pest control reviews.
1. First, Find Out Where Your Customers Found You
Consider offering an incentive such as giving them a 10% off coupon for answering two or three questions. When they call to make an appointment or schedule an appointment online, ask them where they found you. This can help you determine where you are being reviewed and how you can maximize reviews on those platforms. This can also tell you if they are they using a particular phrase to find you. Such as, Pest control near me? Find out what they are searching and where this is leading them.
2. Use Your Best Reviews in Your Advertising
By using reviews in your advertisements, you are tputting reviewing your pest control company at the forefront of a new customer’s mind. When customers search pest control services near me, they will see both your ads and your reviews. In addition to Google searches, your customers may have already seen reviews for your company on sites like Yelp!, Angie’s List, or Thumbtack. By asking people how they found you, you’ll have a good idea of which reviews they are seeing and where you should focus. The sites they saw reviews on are the ones they’ll go back to and leave reviews on you.
3. Make It Easy to Give You a Review
Call customers after all service calls. Ask them how your pest control technician performed his or her duties. Is the problem resolved? Are they happy with the products? What can you do better? Personalize the service and the response. Great customer service will help your pest control company begin to stand out as a company that doesn’t just come and do the job and leave. If your service technician tracked dirt in on their carpet, offer to have that carpet shampooed. Go out of your way to ensure your customers are happy. It’s worth the great review for outstanding service.
4. Reach Out to People Who Give You Bad Reviews
When customers leave bad reviews, call them with genuine concern and ask what you can do to make things right for them. Granted, there will always be situations that are simply too difficult to resolve, but you can leave a customer feeling that you tried and you truly care about them, not the review. You need to make them feel like the priority. Most of all, you can learn, as a company, what you can do to be better and stand out as a pest management leader in your area. Make sure that you respond to bad reviews on the site so that other people can see you are actively working on solving the problem. This bodes well for you also. Communicate with people and use this as a selling point as well. Responding to negative reviews shows you are amiable and willing to go the extra mile to please customers.
5. Contact People Who Give Rave Reviews
Make sure that you acknowledge people and ask their permission to showcase their review on your social media pages. This is the best type of free advertising you could possibly ever get. These people will remember you the next time they need help or have a neighbor or family member who needs your pest control services as well. Happy customers are flattered when you recognize them for a positive review. This leaves you in a glowing light. Remember that great reviews make other potential customers feel more confident in you before you have performed any pest control for them.
6. Ask for Reviews
This seems ridiculously simple, but it works. Ask people to review you. Then make it easy for them by emailing them a link to post a review, along with a wonderful thank-you for their business. Make collecting email addresses a part of your service agreement. Train your technicians to ask people to review them and do all you can to lead them right to the review. People can be fickle. Often, pest control treatments are done when a customer is away from home and there is no contact. Email is a great tool to send them a receipt and ask for a review at the bottom of your receipt. Ask people to be specific about the service they received. Were you there to alleviate a bed bug problem? Did they have a rodent infestation or roaches under their refrigerator? Potential customers like to see what you can do when they read reviews.
“It is essential that you ask people to review you and then make it easy for them …”
7. Tell Them Why They Need to Review You
This can be as simple as making a pitch to them about how your small business relies on great reviews. That is true, however, offering an incentive typically works better. If they review you, perhaps you enter them into a contest to receive a month or two of free pest control services? You can offer them a month of a free upsell service to give them a chance to try something new? This can help convert to a sale later, a happy customer now, and a glowing review that is permanently affixed to a website where potential new customers are waiting to be won over.
Reviews Can Explode Your Business
Your services are necessary, but people want to find a local pest control company that is convenient, does a great job, and cares about them and their family. Face it, they have many choices. Why should they choose you over the other pest control services in the local area?
Reviews can tell them why they should choose you. Review that show happy families who will call on you again will attract hundreds, if not thousands, of new customers to you and help make you the most well-known pest controller in your area. Reputation is everything and positive online reviews are like word-of-mouth reviews on steroids. Don’t underestimate them.
