The three biggest factors that JRA focuses on for improving our customers’ web presence are: #1 Google Ads results, #2 organic placement, and #3 customer reviews. Improving AdWords and SEO is expensive. To do a good job you would spend at minimum $2,000 a month to improve Google Ads and SEO rankings. However, simply getting good reviews and more reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook, Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor, Thumb Tack, and more can increase your business tremendously. The best part is, it’s free! Almost nothing in this business works well when it is free. Getting lots of good reviews is free (or darn near close to it) and can have a huge impact on your business.

So, how exactly do you get better reviews? It’s a multi-step process.

  1. Get lots of customers
    • Obviously, if you don’t have the jobs then you won’t have the opportunity to get lots of reviews. You need to be on Google Ads and doing SEO. However, Adwords will run you out of house and home if you try to self-manage. You will get lots of clicks for things you don’t do. Just kiss that money goodbye. You also need to be getting exposure through every avenue you can.
  2. Do great work
    • Show up when you say you’re coming. Give them a firm price up front. Work quickly and carefully. Sweep up when you’re done. Do all the little things and the big things right. You won’t get good reviews if you don’t do good work, and customers are much more likely to post a positive review if you do an excellent job.
  3. Ask for the review
    • Studies have shown that you get over 80 percent more reviews when you ask the customer to leave a review. Some providers are hesitant to do this, as they feel they are coming off as pushy. Nonsense. You have just done this customer a huge favor, something they are glad they didn’t have to do. You have done a great job. Many customers want to do whatever they can to help you.
    • After you accept payment, ask the customer something like this: “John, thank you so much for your business today. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d love to be able to send you an email with links to leave us a review. Would you be willing to let us and other potential customers know how we did today? Would that be OK?” If they say yes, respond back and say, “excellent, John. I look forward to reading what you have to say.” That last little bit is very subtle but critical. You have thanked them for a service they have not yet completed. They now feel they owe you their end of the deal. They will be much more likely to follow up and actually post the review.
  4. Have a standard email and follow the rules
    • You need to have a standard email you send to your customers that thanks them for their business and asks them to click on a link of their choice below to post a review. Yelp doesn’t allow you to ask a customer for a review or send a link, so don’t. Google used to allow you to only send links to customers who ranked you highly. They no longer do that. You must send a link to all customers once you have asked them to rate your service. There used to be some services that would send unhappy customers to a feedback page and happy customers to Google, Yelp, Facebook, etc. Google no longer allows that.
  5. Reward team members for getting reviews
    • Once you are off the truck, one of the hardest things is getting your team members to ask the customer to leave a review. You might need to reward them for getting reviews, otherwise they will quit asking for them.

junk removal truck

Train your team members from Day 1 to prioritize exceptional service and to ask for reviews. These are vital to the growth and continued success of your junk removal business.

Once you have a lot of great reviews, the chances of a customer booking go way up. Reviews are a great way to increase the results you are getting from AdWords and SEO. Many customers will click on your ad, view your site, go back to Google to then look at reviews, and look at your organic placement as well. If you have a good website, a good Ad, and good organic placement you still might miss out on a lot of customers who want to see proof that you do good work. Testimonials on your website won’t cut it. You need Google reviews, Yelp reviews, and reviews on other advertising platforms that you use. Just because you have a great site doesn’t mean you will get the business if you don’t have the great reviews to back it up.

Close those deals and let’s blow up your business in 2018.

-Lee Godbold