In the HVAC sector, online reviews are increasingly becoming indispensable. Why are they gaining in popularity, and why are they beneficial for the smart HVAC business owner?
- Reviews Build Trust: As an HVAC business, you always need new faces walking through the door. How will prospects trust you with their equipment and money if you don’t have great reviews on your website? This is somewhat like a blind date, and they need some reassurance.
- Reviews Affect Your Local Ranking Factor: With more positive reviews, you can improve your ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPS).
- They Help Your Prospects Feel Safe: When people who need your service read positive reviews about your business, it gives them the confidence to let your technicians into their homes.
Your reviews help to break the ice between you and your potential customer. You, therefore, need as many reviews as you possibly can get.
Reviews Indicate That You Are Trustworthy
Most people who are looking for a HVAC service turn to Google. For instance, if you search for a “HVAC contractor near me,” you’ll find the following;
- Local Services Ads: Here, you’ll find ads for local companies.
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads: These are ads that are generally basic. They contain a headline, a display URL, and a brief description.
- Map Pack: The Google map pack shows the top three Google Maps results for the search area.
- Organic Results: These are typically the top ranking websites for the search keyword.
Our focus here is on Map Pack and the Organic Results; since both get you clicks for free.
Map Pack And Review Stars
When a prospect does a HVAC service search, one of the first things they see on the results page is the local map. It takes up quite a bit of space and is very conspicuous due to its star-spangled appearance.
Which HVAC Website Gets The Click?
The number of review stars on your website often determines whether it gets a prospect’s click or not once they take a look at the local map result.
The benefits of reviews don’t end there. Most shoppers will tell you that they’d rather patronize a business with a hundred reviews than one with tens of reviews.
Why You Need ‘Artificial’ Online Reviews
Is it okay to wait for reviews to come naturally? The simple answer is no. The reason for that is because satisfied customers are less likely to leave reviews than unsatisfied clients. It’s human nature. Anger and the desire for revenge motivate us more than satisfaction and good service.
You, therefore, need to encourage your customers to leave positive reviews to outnumber and outweigh the negative ones.
So, here are six guaranteed ways to get those reviews coming in;
- Ask Customers To Rate Their Experience: You can send emails to customers who haven’t left a review, asking them to rate your service on a scale of one to five. You can then go on to ask those who give a five star rating for a review.
- Add Your Review Link To Your Email Signature: Make every customer Email communication an indirect review request by adding your review link to your email signature.
- Your Website Should Have A Google Review Badge: Even if you don’t have your review business card within reach, you can still find an easy way to let people know where to go to leave reviews.While it might be a long talk to explain to someone where to go on Google to find your link, you could tell them to go to your website and click on the review badge at the bottom of the page. Here’s a sample:
- Automate The Review Follow Up Procedure: Your employees are human. That means they may sometimes forget to request reviews. You can automate the process and guarantee 100% reviews request using HVAC-custom software like Service Titan or HouseCall Pro. You could also opt for general customer relationship management (CRM) software like HubSpot.As soon as you complete a service, an automatic review request email goes to the customer. If the customer fails to click on the first email, you can program your system to send further auto-reminders. Reward Your Team Members Who Gets The Most Reviews: Make getting reviews fun for your staff. You could;
- Give your top review earner some privileges.
- Have a scoreboard where everyone sees the top review earners.
- Have a monthly review competition where the winner gets a gift or a gift card.
- Create Attractive Review Business Cards: After every successful job completion at a customer’s home or office, your friendly service technician should wrap up the discussion with a request for a review and give the client your business card with your shortened review link on it.
Your review card could say, “rate us on Google with five stars.” Add a URL to your Google My Business listing and include whatever else you think might be helpful.
It takes time to build a solid online reputation for your HVAC business. Just keep taking the right steps, and you’ll get the online reputation you crave. One such move is asking for online reviews after each successful service call.
