Happy customers that lead to opportunities and long-term relationships should be the goal of every paving contractor. We all know that is not the case with a good number of asphalt paving companies. However, if you are reading this, you have some desire to learn. Whether you be another contractor, looking to get into the industry or even a customer yourself, you have a desire to understand what constitutes a quality paving or sealcoating company that is looking to prove their quality work and values to their customers.
Over the last three years, we have formally and informally studied the benefits of seeking and gaining more customer reviews on Google. The process started off feeling a bit tedious having to add a task to the ever-growing list of things to do. But, as someone who has decades left supporting his workers and is also a father in a third generation company, some things come up too often to ignore. When interacting with other businesses, you can tell they are making a concerted effort into growing their popularity on the Google search engine. The paving industry will not be an exception and I did not want to miss out on opportunity to get more people finding ADC Paving on the internet.
Below are three quick piece of advice if you haven’t started with Google Reviews
Here are three short tid-bits that have helped us with Google:
Think of The Customer
When someone is looking for your product, a great majority new customers are going to simply search Google for an industry professional. There are other outlets such as word of mouth, neighborhood guides, and mailbox fliers but more that 50% of our leads at ADC Paving come through search engines and 95% of that traffic is from Google. Customers are going to Google to look for your services. So, it’s best to let Google know you are there and to show Google that you are making customers happy.
Respond to All Written Reviews
When a customer takes the time to leave you a review they are going beyond the business dealings. They have paid you (or the relationship has ended) and the transaction is complete. Therefore, they are making an extra effort in spending time writing a review. Thank the happy customers and, for the negative comments, explain how you tried to resave the issue in a polite way. Even if you are infuriated by a negative, illegitimate comment, a professional response will go a long way to the next person seeing the review. Most people understand that not every customer is rea
sonable and if you take the time to give an honest, detailed response it could actually work out in your favor.
Google My Business
If you don’t know the first thing about the internet or how to attract customers on it, no worries. We all know the power of word of mouth when we are starting and it can carry a company for a while. I would encourage you to
at least claim your business on Google. You do this by signing up for Google My Business.
Whether you choose to take an hour or two of your time or ask someone who is internet savvy, submitting your company information helps Google identify your business as a legitimate business and they want to put legitimate businesses and on the top of their list. You can find plenty of YouTube videos and articles on how to set it up and the effort will be worth it.
With a ton of different companies for customers to choose from, it can be hard to stand out against competition. However, this massive digital informational network called Google does provide a human aspect. People are writing and reviewing companies knowing their names and photos will be listed next to their words. If you provide quality work they will say kind things about you. If they say kind things about you, the next prospective customer on Google will see it. Happy customers sharing their positive interactions means more opportunity for your company.
