How online reviews impact your roofing business
As a roofer, you can’t count on repeat customers to be the primary driver of your business. While your existing customers may still need your expertise for repairs or to remedy unexpected weather damage, lead generation is vital to grow your business.
Since roof repair or replacement is one of the most expensive investments a first-time homeowner makes, they want to be sure they’re getting what they pay for. It’s challenging to find a roofing contractor who will do high-quality work in the time promised.
In the absence of a trusted personal recommendation, many customers turn to the Internet to get suggestions. In 2021, the proportion of consumers who used Google to research businesses in their local area reached 81%, a significant increase from 63% in the previous year.
Using a search engine for recommendations, most customers will end up reading feedback from other customers on review sites such as Yelp, business listing sites such as Google reviews, Nextdoor or social media sites like Facebook reviews.
How online reviews impact your roofing business
Homeowners are spending more money on home improvements year over year. They are looking online for reputable roofers, and positive reviews from customers can make your roofing company stand out.
Online reviews are important since they’re the new word-of-mouth in our increasingly digital world. In fact, 49% of local customers trust reviews they read online as much as they’d trust a recommendation from someone they know.
Most times, your online reviews may be a prospective customer’s first impression of your company. As with any introduction, you want to make a positive impression, so positive reviews are vital.
How to manage negative reviews
The push for trustworthy information means that negative feedback doesn’t have to be stressful. Instead, it becomes an opportunity for you to address a negative customer experience and showcase your professionalism and willingness to stand by your work.
Negative reviews offer other potential benefits. Reviews with less than five stars build a sense of authenticity and trust among prospective consumers.
If you’re still on the fence about whether building your online reviews can help grow your business, consider this statistic: Customer reviews and ratings can raise a company’s conversion rate by over 120%. When your local searchers have options for their roofing needs, you want to be the most attractive option with fair prices and punctual, on-time service.
How to ask for reviews as a roofer
Even though any review is good for building your online reputation, positive reviews are really what you’re after. Happy customers mean positive reviews. Positive reviews provide the opportunity to generate more leads and satisfied customers, and the cycle repeats.
So, how do you get positive feedback from your customers? Here’s a simple rundown of the entire process: Do an excellent job and ask for the review!
Asking for the review in person after completing the job shows you care what your customers think. It’s also the best time to ask because the work is fresh in their mind, and they are still excited about their brand-new roof.
How can I get more reviews for my roofing company?
The best roofing businesses understand the importance of establishing and maintaining a solid online presence. Besides helping potential clients discover your company, online reviews improve your ranking on search engine result pages (SERPs), resulting in more leads.
Requesting a customer review for your roofing business is a great first step, but if you want to boost your online reputation, consider other strategies. Read on for some of our best tips to help roofers to get more online reviews.
Take advantage of your existing materials
Whether you fixed a roof leak with new shingles or completed an old roof replacement, you will generate a final piece of paperwork for your customer: an invoice or receipt. Leverage this opportunity and put your review request on these materials. Check your accounting systems or consult with your office staff to see if they can automatically print the message on every invoice.
Stay active on social media
Set up your business account on major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Consistently share helpful roofing tips, such as how to clean up after a spell of heavy rain. Or post photos of your roofing projects and offer special promotions.
Staying active on social media helps you stay top of mind among current and prospective customers. This way, they will think of you first when they need high-quality roofing services.
Create a business card
If you’re still using handwritten invoices, or your accounting system doesn’t support add-on messaging, consider a simple business card requesting a review that you can give to your customer with their final paperwork. Include the following details on your business card:
- Your roofing company name and phone number
- Your business website URL and QR code
- A short reminder to customers to leave a review
- Your company’s social media handles
Follow-up after the job
If you don’t already follow up with your customer after the job is done, consider checking in shortly after the entire roof project is complete. This could be as simple as a call or email or as formal as a thank-you note.
Not only will you build your reputation as a professional roofer, but you’ll also create another opportunity to remind busy customers to take the time to share their feedback.
Ask with every email
If you are following up with your customers by email or sending periodic check-ins, you can make your email signature work for you. Set your signature up with a link to your review page on your website or a link to your preferred platform for online reviews — this gentle reminder helps ping your customer every time you email them.
Make it easy
Making it as straightforward as possible to leave a review is an easy way to increase the number of reviews that customers leave. Some of your customers may have never left reviews before. Create a page on your website featuring reviews, instructions on how to leave one and links to the review sites.
Why you should never buy reviews
When starting out, many business owners wonder if they can speed up their online reputation building process. While it may seem like a quick fix, never buy reviews. Here are three reasons it’s a terrible idea.
Genuine reviews are more valuable
As discussed, customers are more likely to trust authentic, but less-than-perfect reviews more than a five-star average. This trust in the genuine is a critical reason your online reputation should be built based on real customer feedback.
Buying reviews may be illegal
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has regulations and laws against businesses that suppress or misrepresent reviews. Violations can subject your business to significant financial penalties.
In addition, depending on what state you operate in, you may also be bound by fair advertising practices, as well as those outlined by your roofing industry trade association or other memberships.
Inauthentic reviews can get you kicked off platforms
Buying reviews may prevent you from building your online reputation. Most review platforms, such as Yelp, Angi (formerly Angie’s List) and Google, penalize businesses that have gotten customer reviews through illegitimate avenues. In some cases, they may actually restrict your ability to use their platforms for advertising your roofing services to potential customers.
How to respond to positive reviews
Earning a wealth of positive reviews is the ultimate goal for building your online reputation, but it isn’t the last step. On most review platform sites, you can respond to positive reviews and thank your customers for leaving their ratings and kind feedback.
Why respond to your positive reviews?
You may wonder why you should respond to positive reviews — after all, aren’t these customers already happy with your workmanship? There are a few key reasons that responding to positive online reviews is a best practice:
- It shows you appreciate your customers, even after the job is done.
- It solidifies your relationship and encourages them to call you the next time they need roof work done.
- It showcases your commitment to excellent service to potential customers who read reviews before making a purchase decision.
How to write a response to a positive review
Responding to positive reviews can be as easy as saying thank you. If a customer has left only a positive star rating with no written feedback, start with a simple note sharing your appreciation for their ranking.
If you know who left the review, or they left written feedback, respond with a more personalized message. If follow-up is required, or future check-ins are recommended to ensure the durability of your work, you can include that in your response, further showing commitment to your customers.
Get the most out of your positive reviews
If you have a team of employees, forward or share positive reviews with them as a morale booster. It shows them their hard work is appreciated by you and the customer.
If you have a social media presence, share positive customer reviews of your roofing business to help future and potential clients see what people love about your company. You can also pull quotes from your reviews to create graphics or embed the testimonials on your website.
Remember that your goal is to be anywhere your customers may be looking for roofing contractors. You want your business to be the one with a positive reputation that they find, so they pick up the phone or send an email.
How to respond to negative reviews
As a hard-working roofing contractor, you know negative reviews are bound to happen. Whether the reason was your responsibility or the customer was being unreasonable, it’s critical to respond to negative reviews.
Why respond to your negative reviews?
Most often, customers who leave negative feedback want to be heard and have their concerns acknowledged. By responding to your bad reviews, you can:
- Learn valuable insights into how you might improve your business processes or communication on future jobs.
- Try to turn an unhappy customer into a raving fan by resolving their concern.
- Confirm to prospective clients that you are genuinely committed to great customer service and top-notch work.
How to write a response to a negative review
As a best practice in a service business, always acknowledge the negative review on the review site. If you know the customer who left the feedback and you have their contact information, reach out to them offline to keep a potential confrontation off the Internet. Connecting by phone is a good way to sort out the situation with the customer.
You can often turn a negative review into a positive one by simply talking to the customer and clearing up the misunderstanding or making adjustments to accommodate the customer’s needs. If you are able to resolve the situation offline, ask them to amend or update their review.
If it’s not possible to address the concern offline, respond directly to their review on the review platform. Thank the customer for bringing the issue to your attention, whether it was a misunderstanding or a genuine error. Show your commitment to ensuring every customer is satisfied and, if appropriate, take responsibility for any mistakes or fixes that need to be made.
Your goal is both to add another positive touch point to a customer who may have had a less-than-perfect experience and to showcase how you stand by your work to any potential customers reading the reviews.
Broadly can help your roofing business get more reviews
With the potential to boost conversion rates and sales, customer reviews for a roofing business are invaluable. Streamline your customer experience and marketing strategies with Broadly’s suite of industry-leading software solutions, such as Reviews.
Simplify reputation management by consolidating online reviews across many different sites — from Facebook to Google — into one user-friendly dashboard. Plus, automate review requests and notifications of new reviews to save time and resources.