One of the most important things you can do to boost your business is show off great customer reviews. That starts with doing good work then making sure customer's follow up and leave a review on an appropriate platform. In this video Lee Godbold with Junk Removal Authority shows you how to maximize this free tool to grow your business and increase the effectiveness of your paid advertising. https://junkremovalauthority.com/
Alright guys welcome to another episode of Junk Removal Made Simple by the Junk Removal Authority. Today we’re going to be talking about review gathering and gathering reviews. One of the most important things you can do to help improve your business is making a concerted effort to get more reviews. Many people miss out on this. It took us awhile on Junk Doctors to really consider the importance of a gathering reviews and having a lot of reviews on Google, Yelp or on Facebook.
If you think about it, gathering reviews has been one of the things that Amazon has done right. One of the reasons Amazon is so successful. When you get on Amazon and you search for a particular product, you’re able to read reviews from customers, and it seems like it’s just more verifiable than when you just read a random review on the customer’s website. You know on a website for a product you’re going to buy. eBay has the same way, if I buy something on the eBay then I’m looking at somebody’s reputation. If their reputation is in a certain level, I’m not going to buy from it. So, generally the buying process is something like this. They’re going to type in a keyword. They might click on your ad. They might visit your site. Visit, I will say around 2 to 3 websites and then read the reviews. Now that isn’t always the case, especially if you’re well-known in your market. If they search for Junk Removal Raleigh, they might have heard of Junk Doctors or 1-800-GOT-JUNK? pops up. If they find a way to Got Junk, they might have heard of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? They just going to decide and schedule a job. They can also be somebody that’s just urgently needs to get it done. They type it on the phone. The first result that pops up, they click on it. If it is Junk Doctors or if it’s in Raleigh then they just click on call. They call us up, schedule a job or book online. Your researching customer, a lot of people will be going to do some research before the hire up junk removal business. They don’t want to let anybody in their home. Somebody they’re not familiar with, just come into their home. So, they’re going to do some research and generally they’re going to visit your website. They probably visit a couple of competitors’ websites and then they’re going to be reading like your Google reviews. If it’s on Yelp saying same sort of deal. They’ll visit your Yelp page a lot of times instead of your website. Visit a couple of your competitors’ web pages potentially and then don’t look at the review ranks.
It’s not necessarily the company with the best reviews or most reviews are going to get the jobs. That’s a lot of people look as their main criteria, but for a lot of people they’re also going to look at the Yelp page or the website and determine which site they like better. If there’s a video on there and the person whoever was talking seems very trustworthy. That’ll play into effect, but reviews have a great effect. If you have a great website, great content and seem very trustworthy on a video, very personable. If all that goes well for you, but all of a sudden, the customer sees that you have 20 Google reviews and your average star ratings like two and a half, then they’re probably not going to hire you. You could have everything right but if you have bad reviews, that will prevent a job from being booked. However, you can do everything else mostly wrong. You can have a not very good website and not even have a video. You could do if you botch a lot of things, but if you have 20 reviews or 50 reviews and you have a 4.8 or 5.0 rating or something like that. Then a customer could still potentially hire you. So, you could botch everything else but have good reviews and still get the job. Whereas, you can do everything else right. Website video, everything correct on your website or Yelp page but if you have bad reviews, they’re not going to schedule. So, reviews are huge. Get those reviews.
Now, there are few tips on getting reviews. Before we get into that, your main review platforms and there are more. Your main ones by far the biggest is Google and then I’m going to put Facebook. Facebook has recently changed their algorithm where a lot of times your posts are no longer going to be seen on people’s pages unless they select a setting that they will actually want to see your posts. So, Facebook is a bit of a different piece now. It’s been always a good marketing tool for junk removal companies. It’s probably not quite as good now. They’ll be some people if they asked for recommendations on junk removal or something like that. They still might recommend you through Facebook and to your Facebook page. So, make sure you keep it maintained. You’ll want some good reviews on there.
Yelp might bring more business than Facebook depending on your market. Yelp is a lot larger on the West Coast. So, people in the West Coast use Yelp a lot more than people in any other part of the country. So, on the East Coast or in the middle part of the country, the Midwest. In the Midwest you’ll start to see a little more Yelp usage but still not huge like California and Washington State. Those areas, Yelp is huge over there probably because most of these companies are actually based in that particular market. Google, Yelp, Facebook, Angie’s list, Home Advisor and Thumbtack. All those are review platforms. Google, Facebook and Yelp are your free platforms. Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack are your paid platforms. Angie’s list, I would still get on Angie’s List. Angie’s List advertising is relatively inexpensive so I will be on it. There are still some very devoted members of Angie’s list, so you do need to get on Angie’s List. HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack, that’s completely up to you. We do HomeAdvisor. We do not do Thumbtack. Actually, go about to try the Thumbtack. I’ll let everybody know how I think Thumbtack win. We’re actually trying Thumbtack because one of our customers that we’re working with in California is having some decent success with Thumbtack. So, we’re going to try Thumbtack. So, that’s one of the things that I benefited so much from doing these videos. I myself would benefit from doing these videos in addition to the customers we get for JRA. I don’t know everything and we’re going to try Thumbtack because this guy is having a good success with Thumbtack. He’s no longer in HomeAdvisor. So, he’s doing thumbtack. It’s more expensive than have HomeAdvisor. His ways are telling me. Again, this is not for me. I did not have personal experience with Thumbtack. I do it with HomeAdvisor. We do get work from it. We make a little money on it. We certainly make a little. We’re not losing money with HomeAdvisor. It’s a huge headache in a lot of ways, but it is business. So, we’ll put up headaches if it brings in business, we do like Google, Facebook and Angie’s list because the customers more so come to you.
Whereas with HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack, there’s a lot more labor involved. HomeAdvisor, you get a lot of bad leads. Even if you respond immediately, once the job comes through somebody else could have already called. If you get an instant booking, you have like two minutes to respond and your phone is in your pocket. You’re in the middle of something. You don’t reach in there to get it. Somebody is going to beat you to the job. HomeAdvisor is very time-intensive. So, you got it when you’re factoring your profitability from HomeAdvisor. Factor in the headache that HomeAdvisor provides.
One of the tips that I can always tell you is you need to, one you need to do a really good job. Two, you need to ask customers for their review. I won’t dwell on this too much because this is mainly about getting reviews. I will tell you, you’ve got to make sure you do a very good job with your job. Otherwise, the customer is not going to want to leave a review or if they leave a review it’s going to be a bad review. The last thing you want to do is ask the customer that’s dissatisfied for about leaving a review. What we’re about to talk about is sending out an email with a link to your Google page. If that customer is not happy with your service, you don’t want to do that. It’s like you’re basically handing somebody a loaded gun that’s unhappy with you. They can go on Google and they could just write a terrible review about your company and really hurt.
So, you ask the customer for a review. That’s going to be the conclusion of the job. One of the hardest things about this is getting your team members to actually ask. So oftentimes what you need to do is you need to incentivize reviews from team leaders. Maybe just make a five-star reviews. If you ask the customer for a review and they get a five-star review, will pay the TL $10 to $20 bonus. $20 is really motivating. So, if you get that review request out, I’ll pay you $20 bonus. It could also be on the negative that if you don’t get the review request out, you know we don’t see the email being sent out. Whatever, then you can be penalized. The problem is you want them to verbally ask the customer for a review. So, at the end of the job you’d say something like “Frank, we going to appreciate your business today. If you wouldn’t mind, would you be willing to a click on the link? Would you be willing to leave a review on Google or leave a review online to let us and others know about how we did today?” Ask that to your customer. If they say “Yes” that would be great to say “Okay, I’m going to send an email to you right now that will have a link to either a Google or Facebook.” Whatever page! Can’t do Yelp but either Google, Facebook or wherever you want to leave the review. I recommend those two.
You send an email at that very moment. So, send a draft email. That draft email would simply say “Thank you for your service today. We really appreciate your willingness to leave a review. Please click on the link below. One of the links below to leave a review and let others know how we did. We really look forward to reading your review.” Really look forward to reading your review is big, so make sure you get that in there.
We do have a service if you contact me at [email protected]. We have an automated program. It’s not as automated as we won’t yet, but we have gotten an automated program that will automate the city’s reviews out. They’ll be asked to answer. They’ll be asked to score you on a one to five scale stars. If they select either four or five stars, then you’ll be brought to the Yelp. Probably where they can leave a link on either Google or Facebook. If they answer three below, it would ask for feedback on how to improve the service. So again, you’re controlling your reviews by using a service like that. The only way to control it on this draft email is not to send out review requests to somebody you think is dissatisfied with your service. That can be tough when you’re trying to tell your team leaders to make sure they get review request out because if they’re a little bit hesitant, they might not send it. A program like that works great. Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor will assist you in getting reviews. If you provide a customer list of emails, they’ll run it through their database. If they find that particular customer, they’ll actually send off an email to them requesting a review. So, you can take advantage of that service every so often.
The website testimonials, we do it also. Some people do come to read the testimonials on the website, but still it’s normally very unsophisticated buyer. More people are going to take for a credit credence into our credibility. Put them into independent sites like Google, Yelp and Facebook. Then they will review and listen to your website which could easily spend and typed up by yourself.
A lot of you guys are wanting free tips on building your business. This is free. This is something that requires a little bit of leg work. Little bit of systems. A little bit of paying attention to detail including the job. This can bring you big money. So, if you can get more reviews than your competition or at least a bunch of reviews and how we need mostly good. Then you’ve got a huge advantage to the people that ignore their reviews. They just allow customers just to post reviews as they please, which is hardly ever. Ask for that review, send that email request.
Reviews really help close the customer who is researching. Like I said before, that’s one of the largest factors. Get those reviews in, and the customers that are actually researching are much more likely to use you. This has been one of our keys, one of those largest keys to our success on Google. In general, in both our Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro markets. We’ve got a lot of reviews. We’ve got great reviews or good reviews. They show up pretty high on the maps and then also they’re seeing this multiple times. So, we look like we’re much more credible. They’re going to see us on AdWords, Google maps and search engine optimization organic results. That’s like the trifecta. I to call them the trifecta. The triangle, from each point on the triangle AdWords, Maps and SEO.
That’s the triangle, you’re hitting them all three points. All three are extremely important. AdWords is pricey. Getting your SEO right price as you can spend money. You need to be doing that. Like I said, if you get your maps right, you’ll get jobs off. Regardless if you don’t do AdWords or If you’re not sure organically because you’re not doing SEO. Get these reviews right, because if you’re not doing reviews it’s free. It has results that is extremely stupid. If you’re not doing reviews, then you should be ashamed of yourself. You should punish yourself in whatever way because you’re not doing reviews. You’re getting punished already, missing out on business but you’re being a fool if you’re not out there actively trying to get reviews.
You’ve watched this video. For those of you that have not seen this material and had this presented. That’s not the case, but if you’re sitting here and you’ve watched this video and you look at the success. We’ve gotten $2,000,000 after our fifth year in business. You’re going to ignore that success. You’re going to ignore this video. You’re not going to implement what we’re talking about here then you’re fool. At that point, you should punish yourself. This stuff works and its free. I hope to see a lot of people really get some value out of this quick little video. This is probably not going to be the best rated Junk Removal Made Simple episode. It’s light on content. It’s not very long but I can tell you right now, a lot of our videos are 30, 35, 40 minutes. I don’t know what this is going to come to through, probably 18. This little bit of information right here is huge and inexpensive. It has unlimited profit margins because you don’t pay anything for it. Your other investments if you’re doing CAM with JRA, customer acquisition management. We help you set up this review gathering, but if you’re going out there and trying to manage AdWords on your own, you can come over to CAM with us because I guarantee you’re wasting a lot of money. If you do SEO, HomeAdvisor, Yelp, and Angie’s list, in a system like it’s really going to help you to increase your results you’re getting from those platforms. You got to have reviews for that stuff to be effective.
Listen guys business packages, we’ve now created three separate packages, three packages. So, we have one that was $50,000, which on sale $50,000. I want to see that $75,000 but I’m getting pressured to keep it at 50. So, one is at 50,000. We have a very basic introductory package. We include almost nothing other than three months of CAM. Six months of consulting on that package. We build your website and we include I think there’s a month or two or maybe three months of website hosting. Pretty much everything else, you’re going to pay separately. So, that basic package is $25,000. We still have that middle package. Normally $75,000 will sell for $50,000. That basically covers all of your expenses other than someone’s expenses here and there. All of your expenses to set up your business with the exception of anything truck related or anything office related to office warehouse related. That does include expense for you to come to us. Learn from us. We include hotel airfare in that middle package. We also go to you and we send you a team member for the first week of your operation to help with jobs and train your own people. We cover the cost of that particular team member. So, that middle package is $50,000 eventually $75,000. Now the Mac Daddy package is for you players out there. You high rollers, already successful entrepreneurs that want to just get a leg up by investing a good amount at the beginning which will cause your long-term success to absolutely explode. That top package reserved only for the VIPs and the high rollers is the hundred thousand. Hundred thousand dollars for that top business package. That includes everything. I don’t have all the details in front of me. It’s a year CAM. Three years of consulting. One month of a team member coming to you. We pay that team member, that team leader to help get all of your people trained up. Weeks little tight on that middle package. Weeks little tight to get people trained and get them started. They aren’t going to be hundred percent ready in a week. That one-month package we’re going to get you rockin’ and rollin’. We will get your stuff right if you go with that top package level. Currently at $100,000, that package will likely go up to $125,000 but $100,000 at this moment. Includes just a slew of other things that middle package doesn’t even do.
Contact us +1 919-466-9322 [email protected]. Visit junkremovalauthority.com, that website is only about a month old. We’ve been having so much success and interest in JRA. We’re already going through a rework. We’re about making that site just damn cool. It’s going to be a catered. You’re going to select whether you’re a current business owner or perspective one. The information presented is going to be custom tailored to whatever position your currently answers. It’s going to be very neat site, very informative site. We’re going to put great tools, free tools. We have a few now, but like I said we’re already reworked. We put our major investment in that website. We just build it. We’re already up.
We’ve seen that success. Like I said, reach out to me at [email protected]. Please comment. Let me know what you think of our content. If you like it? If you dislike it, whatever. Whatever your thoughts are. Please let us know on the content that just reaffirms to me that people are actually watching these videos and joining them. If you like the video, click like. If you don’t like it, click that you don’t like it. Let me know how these videos are going by commenting. Also, please subscribe. That way anytime we post a new video, you get a notification. We’re going to put out great content. We’ve got even more content that’s going to come. We’re going to do a lot more on the truck content. We are going to have to start recording some videos and putting them out there. Some of our actual on-the-job content. Our hot tub jobs, deck demolition jobs, garage clean outs, attic clean outs and basement clean outs.
Relocating furniture around the home. Our construction cleanups, removing cardboard and apartment jobs. Whatever we do, we’re going to start recording some of that, putting out real world on-the-job content. We’re going to have classroom content with a Junk Removal Made Simple. We’re going to have brilliant thoughts from a yours truly Lee Godbold on the trash-talk as well throughout the week. Subscribe this channel. I hope you had a lot of great value from. I hope every single one of the implements this immediately. Soon as this is over. You need to be going on Google. Make sure your page is set up right. Contact Angie’s List and send them an email about advertising. If you’re not having advertising with them, it’s relatively inexpensive. If you all want to do is HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack it’s up to you. Make sure you have good Yelp page. Do not advertise on Yelp. Do not pay Yelp. If you’re going to pay and the only thing you should pay up for is the expanded profile where you can actually have a video. Where you can have a video on there. That’s the only reason you should ever pay. Do not pay Yelp to advertise unless you’re on the West Coast. West Coast, you maybe pay Yelp. If you are not in West Coast, in California or Washington State, don’t pay yelp. You get no more reviews and you can spend a lot of money. You’ll get some jobs from Yelp, but you get the same amount if you pay them as when you don’t pay them. So, don’t pay Yelp.
I really enjoy bringing this to everybody. We’ll get this uploaded as soon as we can. I hope you all have a wonderful evening. Good luck everybody on your junk removal businesses. I hope this makes people a bunch of money and we will be back before you know it. Thanks guys.