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Receiving reviews can make a major impact on your pest control business. If you’re not generating positive reviews from your clients, especially on platforms like Google, then you need to start.
Why Use Online Reviews
Is your company still using comment cards?
Comment cards are a classic way of gaining valuable feedback from your customers. This may be a great tool to boost efficiency of your technicians and find what does/doesn’t work with your customer’s service but, unfortunately, it does not do much more than that.
Have you ever had a glowing comment card and thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in the community could see this?”
That’s where online reviews come in. Reviews left by your customers on platforms like Google and Facebook have the potential to dramatically increase your service sales.
With 88% of customers reading online reviews to determine the quality of a business, it’s no wonder that so many companies rely on customer reviews to grow their business. When a customer sees a positive review of your pest control business, they will be more inclined to visit your website and book service.
One of the reasons online reviews are so effective is that, when a customer leaves a review, it is considered “earned media.” This is material that neither you nor your company has paid for.
If this sounds a lot like word-of-mouth marketing, it’s because it essentially is. Reviews posted on the Internet is like an online version of word-to-mouth recommendations and is the second most trusted form of online advertising.
While generating online reviews is a tactic that you must utilize as much as possible, there is one caveat: because this is earned media, you do not have control over exactly what a customer says. A negative review can be just as, if not more, detrimental to your business as a positive review is essential.
You’re providing this best service and the best customer experience you possibly can, right?
How To Get Online Reviews
Before you get started, it’s important that you have a verified business on a platform like Google for customers to easily find your business and leave reviews. If you haven’t created a Google My Business account, create one now so that you can drive local traffic to your site and enable customer reviews.
This is a key step because Google’s search engine dominates the Internet.
Having consistent reviews left by customers on your pest control company’s Google My Business account signals to Google that your business needs to be ranked in local search results.
While the specifics of the Google search engine ranking algorithm are not public, review diversity, velocity, and quantity are proven high ranking factors for businesses.
Some other sites that you can generate reviews on are Facebook, Angie’s List, Yahoo! Local Listings, the Better Business Bureau, and Yelp. But there are many more review sites that allow you to request for and manage reviews.
So, how do you grow your pest control business with online reviews?
Just ask -- it’s that easy!
Just like you would with a comment card, asking your customer for feedback can go a long way. And when you have provided an excellent customer experience and pest control service, your customer will usually be happy to leave a review.
Keep in mind that you will want to have your review request be part of your sales cycle every time. That is the best, most consistent way to ensure you are getting quality reviews. You may get one or two random reviews every once in a while from a customer without asking, but you want to aim for generating as many reviews as possible.
Remember that customers will take the path of least resistance, so make it easy for them to leave you a review.
With most of these tips, you will want to provide a link to the review site(s) of your choice that will lead your customer directly to your page for the review.
Some ways you can generate reviews are:
- Visuals
If you use email as a part of your communication with customers, you can set up automated emails to go out asking for a review. Remember to consider timing. You want to send your review within a day or two of your service so that the experience is fresh in your customer’s mind. Do your best to send the review request at a time when someone is reasonably free -- don’t send the email when someone could be in the middle of dinner (such as 6:30 p.m.) or when they’re on their way out the door to work. - Leave-Behinds
If your pest control company uses leave behinds (business cards, brochures, pamphlets), leave some space for a review request. Leave clear instructions on how to leave a review. - Direct Mail
Similar to leave-behinds above; if you are using direct mailers in your pest control marketing, encourage customers to leave a review online. Again, leave room for a link and simple instructions for them to follow for the online review. - Phone Calls
If your company makes follow up phone calls, ask your customer directly. This is a great time to thank them for their business and humbly ask them for a review. - Your Website
Having a responsive and mobile-friendly website is key to growing your business in 2022. Create a section where customers can easily navigate to a page and leave a review. You can also put this in your site’s header or footer. - Social Media
If your business has a social media page, such as on Facebook or Twitter, consider using that platform to generate reviews. The easiest ways are to make a post to your wall or feed asking for customers to leave a review, have a review request in your company bio, or ask your customer directly through a direct message. Remember to provide a link that will lead your customer directly to the review site, just like you would with an email request or on your website.
Get Your Pest Control Business Growing
Generating online reviews is an incredibly easy strategy to grow your pest control business. But if you are not providing your future customers with the best experience possible, then the work you do for reviews will be negligible.
Create a stellar experience with your company by making it easy for first time customers to order pest control service from you online. With BugSquad, your pest control prospects can easily shop and book your pest control services online 24/7 through your own website. The BugSquad app will help with initial sales, increasing bookings and revenue, while reducing the amount of time you spend selling.
Curious if BugSquad is right for you? Visit our FAQ page to see answers to the most common questions we get.
