Yelp is one of the most famous directories for people to research and review companies. Many property owners utilize it as one of their initial tools when searching for a plumbing contractor. If you have not optimized your Yelp listing, that should be on your to-do list right now. After widespread storm damage, many property owners’ initial reaction is to instantly go online and research professional plumbers to evaluate their property. They find that the plumbing company is based on recommendations from a trusted service-related review directory like Google My Business or Yelp. Such directories give a first-time glance at your plumbing company to customers.
Yelp is a review tool that has increasingly become powerful in recent years. This post will discuss how plumbers can get more Yelp reviews and make the most of word-of-mouth advertising. Keep reading to find the expert-approved tips you have been searching for.
Create a Quality Yelp Profile
The first step you need to take is to create a quality Yelp profile for your plumbing company. After all, this is a tool for helping prospects discover your company as easy as possible.
Simply put, your Yelp profile is your brand’s face when property owners search for plumbing products or services. Note that this process does not have to be expensive or tedious. You only need to use high-quality images and a clear description that promotes your services.
Learn about Yelp’s Advanced Features
Yelp has lots of features that can assist your business in attracting potential customers. Thus the more you educate yourself about how to navigate and use them, the more chances you will have of driving relevant traffic to your plumbing business. For instance, you can provide Yelp deals, collect payments, or create prepaid vouchers.
Provide the Best Plumbing Service or Product Possible
This one may sound obvious because it is vital to operating a successful plumbing company and taking your profitability a notch higher.
In other words, the best approach to increase positive Yelp reviews is to provide the best service or products possible.
After all, it is no secret that word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. Prospects get excited when they learn about something they love and spread the word to their family and friends.
When clients have an excellent or poor experience, they want to inform others about it. Yelp has developed an ideal tool for clients to share this type of detail so prospects can know which plumber to support or avoid.
Encourage Your Clients to Leave Yelp Review
When interacting with your clients, never hesitate to request them to leave a review on Yelp. This is particularly crucial when they tell you how much they loved your service or product. You don’t have to be pushy, but a polite request to rate your plumbing company online is generally acceptable.
Engage with Clients Online
Yelp also helps your business engage with customers online. Thus, you can build friendships and relationships with faithful clients and know those who are yet to visit in the future. Online interaction is a useful tool that should not be taken for granted. Besides, it is fun listening to positive experiences from your previous clients.
Never Pay for Reviews
As a plumber, you might be tempted to pay some of your clients to leave a positive review on Yelp. It might seem a quick and easy way to get glowing reviews for your business, but that’s a bad idea as readers can tell when something does not smell right so this tactic will produce unfavorable results.
How to Optimize Your Yelp Listings
Here are some things that you can do to make your Yelp Listing better:
- Check All Your Business Details on Yelp: There might be missing or incorrect business details on your listing; therefore, ensuring that all the information is accurate and cleaning it up should be your initial step. This means that you check the phone numbers, business names, hours of operation, addresses, and websites.
- Add a Relevant Project Image or Your Logo as Your Profile Photo: If you don’t brand your company correctly on Yelp, it will be easier for prospects to forget you. Include a logo so that people can have something that they can associate you with.
- Add Photos: People respond well to visuals than texts. Upload quality photos of your completed projects, team photos, pictures of your office, or something people would like to see.
Handling Negative Yelp Reviews
If you are like most plumbing contractors, the mere thought of getting a 1-star review can be worrisome and intimidating, but if you understand how to handle negative reviews on Yelp, you can somewhat turn them into something positive.
While you cannot control clients who leave a bad reviews, you can reduce them by exercising precautions and professionally responding to them. Such precautionary measures include maintaining positive interactions with clients and generating as many reviews as possible. Responses should be solution-based and should paint your company in a positive light. It would be best if you did not use an argumentative tone or profane language when responding to a Yelp review.
Final Verdict
We cannot overstate the importance of online reviews to your plumbing company, which separates successful plumbers from the average ones. As a plumber, you should focus on getting reviews from the three significant directories like Yelp, Google, and Facebook.
If you need any help managing your plumbing business’s online reputation, kindly schedule a free strategy session with our growth experts today.