Asking customers for reviews

[tireshark]

Going to try to start getting reviews from customers… wondering how you guys do it and/or whats the best place for reviews. Saw @squidskc talk about reviews in an old thread, and wanted to get some tips.

1. Do you have a talk you give to try and make them understand how important they are? Does anyone give them a printout with instructions on where to go, and how to do it?

2. Do you ask them to leave reviews on mulitple sites?

3. What are the important places? Im assuming Google reviews is most important… besides that? Facebook, Home Advisor, Angies List, etc.?

No one in my town has more than one review on google, and most have 0. Thanks for any advice.

[squidskc]

Oh man… this is one of my favorite topics. I just unpacked my lunch, but this is a lot more fun.

Reviews are worth their weight in gold. If you don’t already have a copy get Window Cleaners Marketing Blueprint by @chris

If you join PWRA/WCRA you get a copy free.

Have a script for asking for reviews. Burn it into your memory so it comes naturally.

In the initial phone call or meeting:

“How’d you hear about us?”

Google, HomeAdvisor, Facebook, Angie’s List. Doesn’t matter what the answer is.

“Awesome. We’re glad you found us? Did you have an opportunity to check out some of our reviews?”

“Yes/no” doesn’t matter what they say.

“I’d encourage you to check out our reviews/other reviews on Google, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, and now Angie’s List. Nearly 50 folks over the last year have told us how over-the-moon they are with how their project turned out and our customer service.”

After the job is done:

“Are you happy with how it turned out?”

“Yes. Love it. Best work we’ve had done on our property.” (That’s actually from one of our first google reviews)

“Could I ask a favor? Would you mind taking 2 minutes to leave us a review online? I’ll make it super easy. The links for various sites will be in your invoice email or I could text it to you.”

“Yeah, no problem at all.”

“I really appreciate that you’d do that for us. If you can believe it, reviews and referrals are two of the primary ways clients find us.”

Email signature includes a link to all sites for reviews, I have a link saved for every site in the notepad in my phone so I can copy and paste if they ask for it via text. It’s on our estimates and our invoices and soon to be on our truck.

Put it on everything. Call and hassle HomeAdvisor if they don’t post them right away. It’s even on our shirts! Ask every time. Some people will review. Others won’t. I can’t seem to get commercial customers to leave a review to save my life, but they’re referral and multi-job machines.

I never ask for them to leave multiple reviews on multiple sites. I feel like that’s asking for a mile when they’re willing to give an inch.

Reviews and referrals are as important as getting paid in my book.

[squidskc]

Google reviews are the most important for SEO, but if you drive a majority of your business via homeadvisor that’s more important. We have 21 reviews and 4 pending on HA. Only 17 on google. They’re pretty important there though because your rating shows up with your google map listing if you’ve set up your Google My Business account.

[squidskc]

I just took my shirt off in a Super Target parking lot like a goon to send this, but I’m not kidding when I say it’s everywhere.

[tireshark]

Squid, that is awesome man. If our paths ever cross, I definitely owe you a 6 pack of beer or Dr Pepper, for taking the time to leave such helpful information… haha. Thanks!

[squidskc]

Anytime. A log of Grizzly long cut is my preferred payment, but I like helping when I can. Machine issues and plumbing… probably better people to ask.

[KNBExteriors]

Reviews are golden, I push for google reviews since Angies List and Home Advisor have their own automated systems that request reviews on my behalf.

What I do to get my google reviews is I use the Customer Factor CRM to automatically send each customer an email thanking them for their business. They receive this email th day after their service is completed. In the email, I have a link to my google business page and I ask them to click it and go leave us a review. Now if the customer is home at the time of service, I will let them know that the email is coming and to look out for it and I stress how important the reviews are. I notice that I tend to get more reviews when folks are home and I let them know that the email is coming. This approach works well for us overall.

[KNBExteriors]

How do you avoid the yellow bleach spots?

[squidskc]

@KNBExteriors The logos are sublimated into a loose fit under armour style shirt. Moisture wicking blah blah blah. The fabric doesn’t get affected by the bleach, but it costs about $300/quarter to get 7 new shirts. They get pretty funky anyway since they’re white. Worth every penny.

[SafeChoiceCleaning]

5 Reviews of 5 Stars on Google is where over 50% of my business comes from!
The majority don’t even go to my website, they just click the “call” button on Google.
If 10 people promise to give a review, expect to get 1 review. The completion rate isn’t so good.
Google Reviews are VERY worthwhile collecting!

[Innocentbystander]

I’ve bought those before and they are super comfortable but man do they stink. Something about them sucks up the sweat smell. I do orange 50/50 blend shirts for everyone now

[KNBExteriors]

And you don’t get any orange spots? I’ve used various brands of polyester shirts and seem to always get some orange spots.

[squidskc]

Yeah they only last about 3 months. They get washed with bleach which helps. But they all get tossed with the exception of 1 each quarter.

[squidskc]

Not that I’ve noticed. This one got stained after a particularly messy stone retaining wall job and I notice after a couple months the sunscreen stains the ends of the sleeves and the collar though.

[squidskc]

Here’s the brand. I usually get 1 blue one in the bunch for super dirty jobs since it’s easier to hide stains. But the white ones work great if you’re cycling through 5 of them and keeping 1 for estimates and networking events and mess like that.

[KNBExteriors]

I like to stick to my blue themes and that’s the perfect color shirt! Do you order them or buy locally?

[squidskc]

Locally owned franchise called Big Frog T-Shirts. The turnaround time is 24 hours if they have your shirt in stock. If you do enough business they’ll always have your shirt in stock. Stay local if you can. They’ll refer you out.

[squidskc]

@tireshark I got to thinking about how to ask for reviews on multiple sites without seeming like a tool. I did it with my afternoon house and it worked beautifully. Two reviews on the way! Email me at and I’ll send you the email and you can see my signature for getting reviews.

[Racer]

A lot depends on if you build a good relationship with your client. I make it easy for them when I send them a paid invoice with links to Google and FB. I ask them if they could just take a minute. A lot will. Problem I’ve had is it’s amazing how few of my clients have gmail addresses, maybe 1 in 30.
Hey Brodie, do you have your Google link set up like this? Makes it real easy for them and it carries straight to the 5 stars. pro clean exteriors - Google Search

[squidskc]

Yes sir. Makes it superrrr easy for them to leave a review. I clicked on your link though and this is what I got just so you know. If this is the link you’re using you might double check it.

I think this is what you meant though.