A common comment I hear in the Home Improvement industry, especially in locations with growing populations and stable economy, is “We don’t need more leads, we have enough business from word of mouth referrals”. First, I commend them and say that is fantastic, really it is. Companies with this situation must have built up a great reputation for services rendered over a long period of time. They have to work hard, be attentive to details and have a service oriented attitude that pleases the customer.
Their strong reputation may carry them as long as they continue to deliver outstanding service. In a society where internet technology and the market doesn’t stand still, they’re choosing not to adapt to the shifting business landscape. All the while they do deliver good services, a revolution occurred online that they can’t ignore.
Let’s consider a typical situation, I’m your neighbor and we struck up a conversation in the yard. I ask you, do you know someone to replace my windows or someone who could give help me renovate my basement? If you do, great, you tell me about Jim or Charlie or whoever the guy was. How do I reach them? Oh, you don’t have a phone number (how many phone numbers do you remember? personally, I know about 5, my family’s numbers) Oh, I should google them to get their phone number? Thanks for the pointer neighbor.
I go home and type in the name to a search engine. Just like that, an offline word of mouth endorsement takes the customer online. What do I get? Your company’s reputation is now completely dependent on the search engine and those customers who’ve gone online to talk to about you. If your company is listed along side others in a search engine you are going to be at disadvantage because your lack of online presence and zero reviews will be up against companies with dozens of reviews with 4.9 stars out of 5. The fact that the customer went online to find your phone number means they’re likely going to comparing you to the competition. When compared online, a company with strong online reviews vs your business without, two thirds of those customers are going to also call the other company.
Even if you want to simply retain your current business, you should get some idea of how you’re showing up online. Lastly, if you’ve got a many word of mouth referrals, it should be easy to get them to give positive reviews online to protect your dominant position in the marketplace. Maybe that bump in offline to online referral conversions will give you the confidence to increase your business size or increase your rates as the “premium services provider” to increase your profitability.
People love to offer their experience online, good, mediocre and especially the bad experiences. Online reviews have completely changed the food and beverage industry, retail is quickly changing as well and you be sure that the same shift in reputation is well underway in the home improvement space. Therefore, its really important to understand that word of mouth referrals are not immune to a poor online presence.
