Let's take a look at the issues you'll need to do deal with in order to develop your home inspection firm's five star reputation online…
Issue 1: Chances Are Your Home Inspection Firm Is Not Listed On The Correct Directory Sites
Thousands of customers everyday search on local business directories like Google+, Yelp, Yahoo Local, and dozens of other sites to find the most reputable company to do business with. After extensive research we found that most home inspection firms could not be found or are not properly set up on some of the most vital directories for your business.
Solution: Research, Set Up, and Claim Local Directories
1. Proper Industry Directory Research
Develop detailed research on local directories based on industry keyword research Research top competitive companies to find directories they are listed on.
2. Proper Set Up And Claiming Of Your Business Listing
1. Create accounts on the best industry specific directories
2. Proper set up of your company information and categories on each site
3. Claiming of your listings in order to control them and respond to reviews
Issue 2: Multiple Bad Reviews & Very Poor Ratings
We've found bad reviews and poor ratings about home inspection companies (including some of our own members) on local business directories. Each poor review not only is publicly read by your potential customers, but it also brings down your reputation score on local directory sites. Many local directories such as City Search and Insider Pages aggregate reviews from other sites. Therefore both good and bad reviews can spread to other sites very quickly.
Solution: Average Up Your Reviews and Bury Your Bad Reviews
1. Post more 5 Star Reviews to bring your reputation score up
2. Post more 5 Star Reviews to push the bad reviews off the first page of your listing
Issue 3: Not Enough Reviews To Be Trusted
Consumers will read an average of 10 reviews before making a decision and research shows that customers do not trust a company that have less than 10 five star reviews. Therefore you need a strategy to quickly get more online reviews to show up on your directory listings.
Solution: Create A Customer Review Strategy
1. Create professionally designed review post cards to collect customer reviews
2. Create professionally designed review business cards to collect customer reviews
3. Create a professionally written email campaign to collect customer reviews
Issue 4: No Control Over Reviews
No matter what strategy a company uses to collect reviews; your company does not have control over the fact that customers may post bad reviews. Your business is only one customer a way from getting a poor reputation online.
Solution: Create A Private Review Page To Collect Reviews
A private review page will ensure that when bad reviews are posted that they will never be public. The system should notify you of these reviews so you and your staff can address them privately and internally.
1. Develop a private review page to collect reviews from customers
2. Create a process that bad reviews get filtered and sent to your companies manager
3. Create a process to post 5 Star reviews online on important local business directory sites
Issue 5: No Review Posting Strategy
Companies that get reviews from their customers cannot post those reviews online because local directories like Yelp, Google, Bing, and dozens of other have proprietary filters and algorithms to delete reviews that are posted from the same computer IP network. Therefore, if you post those reviews from inside your business, Google will delete them and flag your Google account as spam because there's no way to tell if the reviews are real or made up.
Solution: Develop a proprietary strategy that overrides the review filters and algorithms in order to post 5-star reviews to your local directory sites
1. Develop strategies to bypass review filters
2. Post real reviews from customers collected on your review page
3. Sort through reviews to find the best for posting
4. Optimize the reviews for your company
Issue 6: No Reputation Monitoring System
Unlike the 100's of different software programs that can monitor your social engagement, brand and company name, these technologies like Google Alerts cannot monitor your reputation. When people leave reviews on a directory site like yelp, they never mention your name because they're already on your business listing. Therefore, with dozens of review sites out there, there is no way for even the most sophisticated social or branding software to know if bad reviews are being posted and no way to follow up to get the bad reviews eliminated.
Solution: Create a monitoring process that monitors, tracks, and reviews your listings on a daily basis
1. Create a monitoring process that daily monitors, tracks, and reviews your online review sites
2. Utilize the processes to notify you when bad reviews are posted
3. Manually setup a protocol to review all your sites and notify you of bad reviews
4. Develop a positive alert protocol so your team is notified about 5-star reviews so that they can follow up with the reviewer for a possible referral.
Issue 7: No Reputation Website Marketing
Almost 3 out of 4 consumers say that online reviews are a major factor in deciding or not deciding to buy a product or service. Currently on your website, do you have the authority or social proof to show the customers who have visited your site that you are the leader in the marketplace?
Solution: Harnessing the power of written and video testimonials and adding them directly to your website for new and existing customers to see.
1. Branding of your company through videos reviews
2. Add video testimonials and reviews to your website
3. Add the latest written testimonial reviews from your local directories to your site
Issue 8: No Video Review Testimonials
"All things being equal, people buy from people. All things being unequal, people buy from people." The post powerful reviews are video reviews with real customers that have experienced your products and services. If you do not presently have any video reviews to be able to leverage the great customer service and experience that you give on your website, social media, or on any of your business listings, that's a missed opportunity for additional business.
Solution: Create 3-6 video testimonials with which to market and brand your company as a trustworthy company to do business with.
1. Setup a time with your current customers to record the great things they have to say about your company and the experience you gave them
2. Edit those testimonials in a way that allows them to convert leads and traffic
3. Market those videos on your website, social media, and other online marketing venues
Issue 9: No Reputation Reporting Process
It's important that you and your team keep up to date on the progress of creating and maintaining a 5-star reputation online. Therefore, you need a detailed process that will inform you of both the good and unfavorable reviews in a report that you can share with your team.
Solution: Develop and maintain a reputation reporting process
1. Create a reputation reporting procedural system
2. Develop a two week reporting process that highlights all your reviews from the various online directories
3. Create branding for the report so that you can use it to share with your staff and others to encourage them on the great job that they're doing
Note: It can also be used as a learning tool to educate your staff on issues that arise when receiving bad reviews.
Issue 10: No Multi-Location Reputation System
Each company location needs to have its own listing on all the major directories. If one location receives bad reviews, it can't impact the other location's reputation. Therefore, each location's reputation must be separate and monitored.
Solution: Build a multiple location-based reputation reporting process
You will need to duplicate the process of capturing, posting, monitoring, and reporting reviews on a per-location basis. This will give you a report that reflects your entire reputation company-wide.
Issue 11: No Reputation Marketing Staff Training (Reputation Marketing Culture)
It's important to remember that every company is only one customer away from having a bad reputation. It isn't enough to create and manage a 5-star reputation. It's important to be proactive in creating a reputation marketing training process for your staff. The most successful companies create a Reputation Marketing Business Culture.
Solution: Build a reputation marketing training center for your staff
1. Build a customized and branded reputation marketing training solution each one of your staff. This will educate and inspire them to engage in developing and maintaining a 5 star reputation.
2. Create individual training videos in order to educate your staff on why your online reputation is vital to your marketing strategies. This will insure that each one of your employees will have a clear understanding of how they can contribute and ensure that your company emerges as the market leader.
3. Create a quizzing system where your staff can login, watch the training, and take a short quiz on what they've learned. This will help us make sure that each of your staff are on the same page.
4. The system needs to notify you on how they performed with the training so you have an understanding of which of your staff has a clear understanding of your goals and which ones might need a little more support.
Developing a training system for your company ensures a proactive approach to creating and maintaining your 5-star reputation and will almost guarantee your seat at the table as being a market leader and most reputable company to be doing business with.
Wow, does putting together a 5 star reputation marketing plan, like the one described above make you feel like this guy…
As you can see, every home inspection company needs a reputation strategy. If you don't feel up to the task, we are happy to do it for you. Because reputation marketing is now the most important marketing that any local business (that's you) can do and we want to help you with that. So what I've listed below are the action items that we will be doing for your firm to create and maintain your 5 star reputation, so that you can get more new customers from the internet! This strategy is all about helping you get and keep your inspection schedule full.
Reputation Marketing Action Steps That We Do For You…
Setup
1. Directory Setup
1. Develop detailed research on local directories based on industry
2. Research top competitive companies to find directories they are listing on
3. Create and claim accounts on best industry-specific directories
4. Proper setup of your company information and categories on each directory site
5. Claiming your listings in order to control them and respond to reviews
6. Confirm a list of your citations and company details
7. Set up a process to monitor your listings on major directory sites
2. Private Review Page Setup
1. Create a private review page to capture reviews
2. Brand the review page with company colors, logos and branding
3. Create a unique URL to for your private review page
4. Set up your review page with testimonials
3. Review Process Setup
1. Create a protocol for reviewing online directories for all review posted
2. Develop a review process to send alerts on all bad reviews to you or your support team
3. Create a process to notify you or your sales team with positive reviews for follow up
4. Create professionally designed review postcards and business cards you can print and send
5. Create a marketing email to request your current list to post reviews for you
4. Video Review Setup: OPTIONAL & An Additional Charge
1. One hour of training on how to get and film video testimonials
2. Edit each testimonial
3. Create a branded video testimonial review channel
4. Optimize videos for your company name
5. Post 5 Star review videos online
5. Reputation Marketing Staff Training Center
5. Create a comprehensive training center for your company that will:
1. Educate your staff on the importance of 1st Class Service
2. Create a clear understanding of the importance of a 5 Star reputation online
3. Inspire your staff to get reviews and engage your customers
4. Set up a quiz system to gauge their understanding of reputation marketing
5. Report the results to you so you have clarity on what your staff understands
6. Monthly Reputation Development
1. Daily
1. Daily review of your online directory sites
2. Daily reputation review alerts to your company on new reviews
2. Weekly
1. Weekly review of your online directory sites
2. Weekly monitoring of your online reputation
3. Send monthly reporting of your positive and negative online reviews
4. Posting of new 5 Star reviews to your website and other online sites
7. Posting & Responding Reviews
1. Post up to 10 new reviews to your listings each month
2. Build and maintain a 5 Star reputation online each month
3. Focus on pushing down bad reviews and averaging up your reputation score
4. We will work with your staff to help them respond to negative reviews.
5. We believe that it is vital for a company to respond personally to all negative reviews!
Ready To Get Started Becoming A Market Leader Online With A 5 Star Reputation? If so, the just click on http://SpeakWithBeth.com to set up your 30 minute allpontment to discuss your Reputation Marketing needs!
