Are your Google/Yelp reviews killing phone phone call volume?
Well, the answer is, very possibly.
If you’re doing well with your SEO, PPC social media marketing, etc., and STILL no water damage leads? It’s time to look at your online reputation.
And if you’re like most of our customers, you would like to maximize the output of every single source of phone calls you can get your hands on.
But even today after years and years of reviews being posted, it seems like old news to most of us, but still yet you’d be alarmed at how many people do not care or even pay attention to their reviews. And they ignore it to their own damage. Yes, if it is ignored, no matter how good you market online, you factually will turn away some if not most of your customers.
Face the facts: people look at reviews! You do, and they do. On Amazon, Google, Yelp, Angie’s List, etc…
There are a few scenarios here that we will examine here and the results of each:
1. You have no reviews.
2. You have tons of positive reviews and no negative reviews at all.
3. You only have negative reviews or a majority of negative reviews and need to recover from bad Google reviews.
Each of these will produce less phone calls than you are capable of getting. This is how:
- You have no reviews. This is simple. They Google and see this:
Guess who they AREN’T picking? You look unestablished or like a fake company or however else you’ll be look ed at, all resulting in NO CALLS. And those guys look FAKE.
Next, 2. You have tons of positive reviews and no negative reviews at all. Now this one is tricky, because most business owners think this is what they want. They rant and rave when they get a bad review. However, this is not necessary, and in realty much better for your reviews! Having too many perfect reviews actually in fact backfires on you. Why? Because it looks like you’re buying or placing fake reviews all the time. You actually want some bad reviews, not many, but a few. People are smart out there. They pick someone who has a majority of good reviews, but a few bad ones, so they know you’re real. Every company out there gets cockroaches that leave bad reviews, everyone knows it too.
Guess who looks like they are buying reviews or putting up tons of fake reviews? Hmmmm…..
3. You only have negative reviews or a majority of negative reviews. Now this one is obvious, or I’d like to think so anyways. It should be super clear how you’re viewed when you only have bad reviews and no good reviews. You look like a charlatan who will probably steal from them or do a bad job. Simple. I knew a guy once who had 6 negative reviews on Yelp and 5 negative ones on Google, and only one positive review. And no matter how good his online marketing was, no one was calling. Why? BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL LOOK AT YOUR REVIEWS BEFORE THEY CALL YOU. The result of this is simple. No one calls you, period.
Now in this one above, I’m not sure which is worse? The guy with no reviews or the guy with 4 three star reviews? I’d pass on both of those guys.
Guys, spend the time and the effort on getting more water damage jobs. You don’t have to like it, but believe me it is worth it. SEO, PPC and Reviews are not areas where you want to cheap out in your companies marketing budget.
Sincerely,
Dan York Founder,
www.water-damage-marketing.com
