Referrals from a happy customer are one of the best leads your home services business can get. If people promote your business through word of mouth, you’ll see better conversion rates on those leads. Plus, leads from customer referrals are free. When a new customer calls because of a referral from someone they trust, the chance of you landing the job is very high.
This article showed that companies saw an 80% closing rate when the call came from a good customer referral. We asked our RenovationFind certified home service companies if this was a realistic closing rate from referrals and they agreed. However, when the lead was from advertising, it has about a 20 to 40% closing rate.
Now that raises the question, why do companies close such a higher amount of referral leads VS leads that come from advertising? The answer is very simple. TRUST!
So, how can you get more referral leads to your business? You can do a great job working with your current customers and hope they spread the word, but is that enough? Here are some tips on how to get more referrals for your home services business:
Check your online presence
That’s where customers are looking.
Getting that referral is the first step in building trust with a potential new customer. It doesn’t happen naturally, and you must work hard to get those referrals. Still, it’s something any home services company can achieve.
The first step is creating and maintaining a good reputation online. Of course, your online reputation is more than just online consumer reviews. Online reviews matter somewhat, but they can often be fake and can’t always be trusted. That’s why you need to get accreditations from third-party organizations that can help build that trust even more.
Google posted a statistic showing that most consumers are researching 10.4 sources of information online before making a buying decision. The more places a customer sees that you’ve been certified or are being monitored, the better.
So, even if their friend has referred them to your business, they will still do their research on your company. That means they’ll look at your website, social media, online reviews, and for those third-party certifications like RenovationFind and memberships with the Better Business Bureau.
You have to show all of those certifications and positive information upfront and centre. Make sure your certification logos are visible on your website. Keep a section on your website for customer reviews. Share them on your social media. Try to do everything you can to show researching consumers that you are a company they can trust.
To get started, try Googling your company name. See what comes up. After clicking through the first ten links, how does your company look? Would you buy from that company? Then, go through those sources and see how you can improve the information if needed.
What about customer reviews?
If a customer had a great experience, you could ask them to leave you a positive review on Google or Facebook. Positive reviews help build an online reputation but keep in mind that they aren’t the only thing that matters. People will still look for those third-party accreditations. They want to make sure you’re compliant with an official set of standards, in addition to having positive consumer reviews online.
Build a brand of trust
Unfortunately, bad contractors who take advantage of homeowners have put a black mark on the home improvement industry. Homeowners are timid when it comes to hiring someone to work on their home projects. They’re worried the contractor won’t do a good job or will overcharge them for the work. In worse-case scenarios, the shady contractor won’t finish the job or could run off with the homeowner’s money. Everyone has heard a story of this happening to someone. These concerns are legitimate for homeowners to have.
That means the GOOD contractors must work even harder to earn back that homeowner’s trust. You can gain confidence by being consistent with your communication, quoting, and consistently meeting or exceeding expectations. But before you have the chance to do all that, how can you show them you’re trustworthy?
How do you get more referrals?
“Out of your satisfied customers, 83% are willing to refer you, but only 29% actually refer.”
As a consumer yourself, how often do you take the time to refer a business to a friend after you’ve had a positive experience? Unless it naturally comes up in a conversation, you probably wouldn’t. That doesn’t mean you didn’t enjoy your experience with the business. A happy customer doesn’t result in a referral most of the time.
The same goes for your happy customers. You know they are satisfied with your work, but you can’t rely on them to go out and spread the word on their own. If all of your satisfied customers were making referrals, imagine what your sales would be!
Give them a reason to refer you
You can’t sit back and assume your happy customer is going to refer you to their connections. Some of the time, this will happen, but it’s certainly not the norm. They need a REASON to refer you. That means you have to develop a plan to give those customers a reason to tell their connections about their experience and your company.
RenovationFind can help get and close referrals with the >> RenoFind Referral Booster
RenovationFind is not just a lead generation company. Instead, we focus on what we know customers value the most: trust. We have created a data-driven system that shows homeowners that the companies listed on our website are companies they can trust.
How it works
Every company on RenovationFind.com has been through an extensive vetting process. We work with a third-party organization that runs background checks and continually monitors the companies to ensure they’re complying with standards. We check the company’s legal and financial background, business licensing and insurance, WCB coverage, and monitor customer reviews.
When the screening is complete, the companies are rated and put on the website. Companies that have a Better Business Bureau membership in good standing receive a higher rating. In addition, we limit the number of companies per category on the website. Limiting the number of companies ensures that only the best of the best companies are on the site. It also lets homeowners narrow down their search when looking for trustworthy, quality contractors for their home projects.
RenovationFind Certified
Being RenovationFind Certified is a significant first step in building a positive online reputation with current and potential customers. It can put you above the competition and increase your referral lead conversion rate.
When your company is RenovationFind Certified, you can post the certification logo on your website, work vehicles, social media pages, and other platforms. The logo shows customers that your company has been vetted for customer service, quality work, and trustworthiness. If they are referred to your company by a friend, seeing that RenovationFind Certified logo can help seal the deal. If they’re finding you for the first time, it builds that level of trust, even without a mouth-to-mouth referral from a friend.
Plus, we can help you out with that customer referral program. When you sign up with RenovationFind, we provide RenovationFind Memberships and other gifts that you can give your customers. A referral incentive will also help increase the number of referrals you receive.
We also provide a full suite of digital marketing services, from professionally written and optimized blogs, social media posts, email marketing campaigns to online banner advertisements and search engine optimization. These services can help your company move to the top of Google search results and enhance your online presence. These effective marketing opportunities are proven to increase leads, and because you’re building that brand of trust, you’ll be closing more sales too.
Another Helpful Article is >>> 6 TIPS TO CLOSE MORE SALES FOR HOME SERVICE BUSINESSES
