During this time, the professional pest control industry is honored for playing a “… key role in protecting health and property from significant pest-borne threats.”
We continue to see great work from the NPMA to ensure our local and national governments understand the importance pest control plays to keep our communities healthy by deeming pest control businesses as essential. It is now more important than ever to raise public awareness about the risks posed by household pests. Homeowners need to be encouraged to prevent pest infestations in their homes and properties.
This makes April a great time to continue to promote your pest control business. One way to do this is through customer reviews. For example, have you ever Googled your pest control company? If not, you should. Here are a few reasons why:
Reviews are important. How important? Very. Take a look at these statistics: 90% of shoppers read at least one online review before deciding to visit a business; 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations; and 94% of online shoppers reported that a negative review has convinced them to avoid visiting a business.
Ask for reviews. According to Forbes, “ … a Google review can shape your business far more than a Google Ad.” You should actively encourage your customers to write reviews. This can be done in a few different ways:
Just ask: After you’ve serviced your customer’s home, ask them to leave a review, whether it’s online, or emailing them a quick form. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Create incentives: Offering discounts, a chance to win a prize, or online gift cards are ways to encourage your customers to write reviews.
Make sure your business is registered to third-party sites: According to this Hubspot blog, “ … Yelp and Facebook were consumers’ most trusted source of customer reviews.” Ensure your pest control business has profiles for both sites. Also, don’t forget about Twitter, Angie’s List, LinkedIn and Google.
Respond to reviews. Whether positive or negative, make sure you’re responding to your customers’ reviews. All responses should be made quickly (within 24-48 hours), be sincere, and if it was a negative review, offer to remedy the situation.
PestRoutes can support generating reviews. As a customer of the PestRoutes® platform, we can help you with reviews of your pest control business. We can help increase your visibility, improve search engine results and make you stand out.
Making sure you have a way for your customers to provide feedback shows that you’re engaged in your business. It creates transparency, helps you determine customer satisfaction and how you can improve your business.
Click to view the Tips Sheet that we've prepared to help you use reviews to promote your pest control business.
