Reviews and Reputation Management for Pest Control
Online reviews can either make or break a pest control company. The key is to develop a positive review strategy.
Positive reviews can speed up your pest control business growth and are essential to building a credible reputation online!
Pest Control Reviews and Reputation
Positive online reviews drive new business and revenue!
Once upon a time, many pest control companies relied upon word of mouth to get new business. The best source of advertisement is having somebody who tells somebody else that you are a good and reliable pest control company. Well, word of mouth is now online and it’s on steroids! If you are a pest control pest control owner or manager, the reviews you have may keep your business growing or not growing.
Online Reviews for Pest Control
In the modern day and age, Google, Facebook, Yelp and other platforms have taken the place of more traditional word of mouth. The results of this online source of referral can be a gold mine or a catastrophe depending upon the importance you place on the reviews that show up about your company in the digital world.
The Numbers on Reviews for Pest Control
According to Bright Local’s Consumer Review Survey 2022:
- More consumers are reading online reviews than ever before. In 2021, 77% ‘always’ or ‘regularly’ read them when browsing for local businesses (up from 60% in 2020).
- 67% will consider leaving a review for a positive experience, while 40% will consider leaving a review for a negative experience.
- 89% of consumers are ‘highly’ or ‘fairly’ likely to use a business that responds to all of its online reviews.
- 57% say they would be ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ likely to use a business that doesn’t respond to reviews at all.
- More consumers use Google to evaluate local businesses than ever before. In 2021, 81% did, but the year before that, just 63% did.
- The amount of people who only pay attention to reviews left in the previous two weeks has dropped from 50% to 22%.
- In 2021, just 3% said they would consider using a business with an average star rating of two or fewer stars. That’s down from 14% in 2020.
- 62% believe they’ve seen a fake review for a local business in the past year.
- The top sources of fake reviews, according to consumers are: 1) Amazon; 2) Google; 3) Facebook.
- Only 7% of consumers say they’re ‘not at all’ suspicious of reviews on Facebook.
Are Reviews a Big Deal for Pest Control?
When you consider the importance placed on local reviews of your pest control company, it is very clear that they MUST be a significant part of your overall marketing strategy.
It doesn’t take too many people to say that your technicians are lazy, or your billing department won’t call back to make others move on to the next company. It really doesn’t matter whether the reviews are accurate or not, if you don’t have a good number of positive reviews, it will cost you dearly in new business losses.
How Does a local Pest Control Company Grow Positive Reviews?
Google Business Profile, formerly Google My Business — This is the most important review site, so if you only have time to focus on encouraging customers to post in one place, this is that place. Why? Google is clearly the most heavily used search engine in the United States today, the most visible of them all; and, when using this search engine, 46% of users are looking for local companies. Because these reviews may well be one of the first things a potential client sees, having strong reviews on this site is crucial.
The first thing you must overcome is being tentative about asking for a review. If you feel confident that your customers are receiving a quality experience with your company, then there is nothing out of the ordinary to ask than to provide you a positive review. Most people understand that many local businesses’ very survival depends upon their online review scores.
Create a strategy and use well-known software to help you and your team automate the process. Even if it seems futile because you only have a few good reviews, just consider the math. If you receive 30% activity from those that you seek a review from, it doesn’t take very long to accumulate. By asking for 10 reviews per week you will generally receive 3 reviews. In a given year, that can account for as many as 150 new reviews! Now take that number and consider that everyone in your company is now tasked with asking for reviews and using the software specifically to run review campaigns and you are well on your way to significant online word-of-mouth advertising.
The Powerful Role of Reviews in the Buyer’s Journey
To completely understand the importance that your online reviews have on your pest control company, you need to think about the buyer’s journey. Today, online reviews are a big part of the decision-making process… regardless of when they check those reviews, you must have positive ones.
Check out this example:
Anna finds a spider in her closet or ants in the bathroom. She knows she needs pest control service. What does she likely do? …
… pulls out her mobile phone and looks at Google for a pest control company.
The first listing Anna sees is an ad for a local pest control company that is offering $50 off the first service , she clicks on the ad and is taken to the company’s website.
Anna wants to be sure she’s choosing a reliable pest control company, so she does a search for the company’s name with the word “reviews”, and here’s what she finds…
…A rating of 2.5 stars. Anna immediately questions her choice of this business. That’s when she decides to start checking out other pest control companies.
The Best Marketing Campaigns Can Be Lost by Bad Reviews
Anna’s story is all too common. Your pest control business may be doing a lot of things right with your online marketing—creating a well-optimized website, running ads that reach out to your perfect buyer personas, engaging with the right people on social media, creating highly-focused content, etc. — but won’t matter because some bad online reviews will stop a new customer prospect dead in their tracks, causing them to choose your competitor over you.
Don’t let the lack of a review and reputation strategy slow your growth potential. If you need help with a reviews strategy you can contact us today at (866) 661-4107
Or you can download our guide on creating a great pest control reviews strategy and get started right away. Click on the link below.
How to Build a Profitable Online Review Strategy for Your Pest Control Company
Reviews might be the single most important thing that is keeping you from growing your pest control business. Learn how to set up a positive review strategy today!
