5 Tips For Getting More Reviews For Your Trade and construction Business.

‘I don’t worry about reviews. I rely on word of mouth for my Trades business.’

Tell me how often you’ve said or heard this one.


If I had a pound for every time I heard it.

A lot, I’m going to guess Is the answer. Ok, let me tell it to you straight.



Word of mouth is great.

But what happens when those mouths are sleeping at night? 


What about that word of mouth recommendations only fall on the few people listening or in earshot?



What about when those people meet another trade they start recommending instead of you? And you don’t even know about it.



A friend or family member suddenly becomes qualified (I mean actually qualified, not call themselves a Trade because they own a toolbox), or they just hit it off better with this new Trade on the scene. 



What about when those recommending you are on holiday, move away or decide to do a sponsored silence for charity. Hey, It happens.

Word of mouth is great.

But if you really want to build your Trade business and are serious about scaling it and taking it the next level - more vans on the road, a bigger team, higher turn over - in this day and age, you cannot rely on word of mouth alone.

Because word of mouth relies on individuals. And you have no control over that.

Online reviews are your new best friend.

Point made? Great.

So now we need to learn how to bag them.

Your reviews are SO important in building your Trades business.

Because they are a huge part of your BRAND.
The part of your business that represents you when you are not their personally to do it.

You are constantly battling the ‘cowboy’ stereotype, competing on price and working damn hard to convert enquiries to actual jobs.



But well crafted, story-telling reviews can do so much of the heavy lifting for you in your Trades business, helping to build trust with clients right at the start, leaving you to get on with the stuff you’re good at and enjoy.

Here’s 5 reasons how…

✅     Online reviews are written (or captured on video) and are a permanent fixture. Unlike Fulham and the Premiership. I know. Low blow. Online reviews don’t disappear when someone stops talking - like word of mouth.


✅     Reviews upsell OTHER services. Word of mouth might just stick to 1 service that you offer, but a sea of online reviews from different people taking about the different things you did gives a whole lot more depth to what you do in your Trades business.

✅     Online reviews stay in place for tens, hundreds and even thousands of people  (yes, we’re optimistic) to see at any one time. Not even the local gossip can manage that.


✅     Reviews show photos and videos. What better way to attract new clients then when a client leaves you a review and shows off the finished results along with it – be it the office extension, the newly decorated room or the shiny air conditioning unit in the client’s restaurant. 


✅     Reviews work while you sleep. So when you’re tucked up in bed but your ideal clients gets home late from work and is trawling the internet looking for your services, they can see and hear all the great stuff people are saying about you. No matter what time of day or night!

Lets start with something we NEVER do with our Trade Reviews.

Never ask someone who you have not worked with or for, to leave you a review. Just to get your numbers up.

It will come and bite you in the backside.

And boy, will it hurt.

If someone has done that for you in the past, ask them to remove it from wherever they’ve put it.

Immediately.

Reviews MUST come with integrity. That’s the whole point of them. That they are telling us a true story about your business.

Slow and steady wins this race. Quality over quantity. Always.

Trust me.

So now we’ve got that out the way, let’s move onto the good stuff…

1. If you want to Increase Reviews in Your Trade and construction Business, Ask for them.

Sounds obvious.

But unless you ask people to do it, you can’t expect your clients to wake up one morning and think, I fancy leaving those guys a review.

I mean, great if they do!

But if doesn’t always work like that.

Even if the clients are singing your praises when you complete a job, your reviews are likely not at the top of their minds when you’ve packed up and left.

Especially if all they want to do when you’ve finished that loft conversion or decorating the hallway – no matter how much they like you - is get you out so they can spend time arranging all their belongings and placing everything back in the right place in their shiny new home or office.

Then the phone rings. Or the kids act up.

Your review is not a priority in their life, but it is important to you and your Trade.

And that’s why you need to make it part of your process for the job - to follow up and ask for that immense review that is going to game-change your Trades brand.

Do it verbally first, when you’ve finished the job and follow it up with an email the next day.

Strike while the iron’s hot.

(FYI - If you fancy saving heaps of time, we’ve got a done-for-you email template that makes it super easy for your client to leave you a game-changing review. It’s part of our Trades Review Toolkit. Grab it here.)


And if they’ve not left you a review within a week of emailing (with or without our template), politely follow up.

People get busy. Don’t get disheartened. We all need a nudge sometimes.

A great review could be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds to your Trades business.

Imagine this.

Your next Ideal Client, stumbling onto your Facebook page to read a review that was left from a fellow homeowner in London, who told us how you changed their lives by creating more space in their home for their family to grow in.

How you were so respectful in keeping noise to an absolute minimum so as not to disturb the neighbours.

Or how you always took your shoes off when going in and out of their home, without being asked.

How the kids loved you as you even let them get in on the action of helping to paint a wall or 2 and let them take a selfie in your branded fluorescents.

And how they’ve even invited you to the summer house warming BBQ with all their friends and family to celebrate the finished renovations.

(I kid you not. This happened to an actual construction client of ours. And the client didn’t hesitate to mention the BBQ they invited them to in the review they left for them on Facebook).

Details like this, that do so much of the selling and trust building for you, before that person has even picked up the phone to enquire.

You’d expect to have to work a little bit to get this level of awesome review, right?

2. Back Date asking past clients for Reviews in Your Trade and construction Business.

Don’t panic if you’ve got past clients that you think would have given you a great review and you forgot to ask. So you’ve missed the opportunity.

It’s never too late.

Reach out and ask them.

You can say you’re catching up with some of your most favourite jobs of the last few years and would be delighted if they would take a few minutes to leave you a review.

If you left a great taste in the mouth (so to speak) with those clients and you were memorable for all the right reasons, asking for a review when a fair amount of time has passed shouldn’t be an issue.

We’ve done it in our business. And have helped plenty of our Trades catch up with previous clients for this.
Not once have we hit an issue or an unwilling client, as everyone we asked were totally stoked at the time for what our Trades did, and the clients were still reaping the rewards for the job that was completed.

We touched base with super happy clients of the time.

We actually found that a number of them were delighted to be thought of as wanting to be featured in the business (with our review request email template that our Trades used, that we mentioned earlier).

Theirs might even say something about how you completed the job two years ago and it still looks fantastic.

Not many Trades have reviews like that on their books. Always worth an ask!

3. Think +1 when looking to increase the number of reviews in your Trade and construction business.

Just because you did a great job for Mr & Mrs Jones doesn’t mean you only have 1 review there. Double up and ask them both.


Think that’s cheating? 


Here’s why it’s not.

They BOTH will have taken different positives away from the service you provided.

Maybe the best thing Mrs Jones loved about the work you did was how you stuck to schedule and completed everything you promised when you said you were going to.

Maybe Mr Jones’ favourite thing was how respectful you and your team were around his home in terms of cleanliness and keeping noise to a minimum so as not to wake the baby.

Same job. Different people. Different experiences.

This doesn’t just work for domestic clients.

Think commercially too.

Estate or letting agents, architects, property/facilities managers.

How many team members from a company have you worked closely with? They may have been in different departments or even different offices.

Just because they are the same company doesn’t mean there’s only 1 review left on the table.

What different things will each individual favour about how you worked with them and made their lives easier and their clients happier?



Think +1. Always.

4. Leverage your Networking Meetings to increase Reviews in Your Trade and construction Business.

I know many Trades are part of networking groups.

Many of which give members the opportunity to present testimonials to each other for great work.

If someone is going to sing your praises and say how epic you have been, don’t let all that review goodness get contained in a room of 20 or so people never to be seen or heard again.

So tragic.

Ask the person who presented you with that testimonial to post it on your online platforms!

Let’s get more eyeballs on this review goodness, let’s get it carved in stone (online at least) and make those words work for you while you sleep.

Word of mouth is great, but mouths have a bedtime. Thankfully.


Online reviews are 24hours.


Capture these opportunities. 


(Again, if you download our Trade Review Toolkit, surprise surprise, we have a specific email template in there to use for asking your networking contacts to transfer their testimonial to an online review.)

5. Ask Your Fellow Trade and construction for Reviews for Your Trades Business.

Having great reviews from the end client is FANTASTIC.

But let’s not overlook the power of reviews from other Trade companies.

ESPECIALLY if they have a shit hot brand and reputation themselves.

Imagine how great it looks on you if an established, respected Trades or construction company have spoken about how impressed they were with you on site and went into all the juicy specifics?

What might that lead to for your business?

Ask these guys to get involved and leave you a review too.

Genuine, reputable trades companies ONLY.

Don’t take this as an opportunity to get all your mates in the Trade to leave you a review to bump up numbers.

Mates are welcome to leave you a review, but ONLY if you have been on a professional job together.

And ONLY if they have a reputable Trades company that aligns with everything you do and value in your business.

Otherwise, don’t ask them.

You only want your company to be associated with like-minded businesses if you want to go after a certain type of clientele – especially if they are high-end.

Having Trades leave you reviews will bode well for OTHER Trades in those industries.


To hear how well you can work together on site and give THEM the confidence to refer YOU.


Imagine nailing relationships with complimentary Trades that don’t clash with your business as on-going introducers of work?

Winning.

I’m not saying your entire review library should be made up of other Trades.

Unless of course that is how you are setting up your business and ONLY want to be contracted via other Trades or construction companies. I mean this all does come back to ideal clients.

But having a balance of delighted end-client reviews and reputable Trade companies who’s brand you can bounce off of will go a long way in helping you build your Trade through reviews alone.

5 TIPS TO GET MORE REVIEWS FOR YOUR TRADES BUSINESS RUNDOWN:

1. Start asking.
2. Back date asking past clients you did a great job for.
3. Think +1 – there’s often more than one person you can ask per job you complete.
4. Leverage the testimonials you receive at networking meetings.
5. Ask your fellow Trades!

Need a little more help nailing reviews for your Trades business?

Course you do.

Want bite-size tip videos on how to get more reviews? Yes.

What about knowing where to put them, time-saving tricks to get them and ideas on how to they can do much of the hard selling for you? Let me at it.

How about done-for-you COPY & PASTE templates to get MONEY-MAKING reviews from your current and past clients? (Because ‘Great job. Highly recommend’ is dull and NOT a game-changing review for your Trades business). You read my mind!

You need our TRADES REVIEW TOOLKIT… your COMPLETE guide to managing reviews.

Ready to 2X, 5X or even 10X the amount of reviews in your Trades business?

Get your toolkit now…