The average competitive marathon runner finishes a 26.2188-mile race in less than five hours. Elite runners finish it in less than two hours. But three out of four runners “hit the wall” at some point. And one of the most overlooked causes is “improper fueling” during the race.
Imagine all that training and physical preparation for naught because of such an obvious oversight – food!
Likewise, one of the best tools for marketing your cleaning service company is often the most overlooked – customer reviews. Whether you get them from Google My Business or Yelp, reviews are a marketing channel asset hiding in plain sight.
Word of mouth (via keyboard)
79% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends or family. Think about the last item you purchased online, mostly if it was over $100 or so. According to credible studies, if you’re like most people – over 90% – you take a look at online reviews.
When you think about it, Your maids are in contact with customers daily, so it just makes good business sense to take advantage of the thanks they’ve earned.
Never underestimate the art of asking.
Of course, the assumption here is that you are providing the very best service possible. And that your maids are building positive relationships with clients and winning their trust.
When that’s the case, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask for a review. This means reminding your maids to request them and maybe even asking customers for them yourself, at least at first. It’s also a great way to keep your ear to the ground.
Launch27 maid service software makes it easy to solicit reviews, but don’t overlook the importance of doing them effectively. The right structure is critical.
Reviews from your customers must have a ring of truth to them. So what information do you need to make your reviews believable?
Help them help you (write a review)
Your customer may not know where to start or what makes a good review. Help them! Following is a shortlist of questions you can have them answer
The key to capturing that “ring of truth” is to think about your own mindset when considering a purchase. What are your primary concerns? In fact, that’s question number one on your list:
1. What concerns did you have about hiring a maid service?
Pretty obvious, right? The more answers you get to this question, the better equipped you’ll be to sell your services. You could quote some of the best answers on your website. Take the top three categories of concerns and make sure to include quotes from each.
2. What did you find out once you began using our service?
Are you beginning to see how the right questions do the work for you? The whole point and the power of social proof, is that the customer does the selling.
So, now that we’ve dealt with their most common concerns and how your great maid service company addressed them, we can close with a question that adds some uniqueness:
3. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
This is a chance to have them riff on whatever comes to their mind. You may be surprised and educated by the variety of things that come up. Things that will help you build a better business.
To that point, remember that quality reviews don’t just help you find customers. They help you keep them.
Extracting the good from bad news
Not only is the occasional negative review an opportunity to demonstrate how quickly and effectively you address service disconnects, but it also allows you to see areas of your business that could be improved.
Don’t make the mistake of excluding or ignoring the negative reviews. It’s one thing to be believable, but it’s even more important to be truthful.
Finally, running a cleaning service company is like running a marathon. It can be long and challenging. Fueling your business properly during the race with customer reviews will also fuel your business success.