What's happening Plastures, it's Stu here from Trial Talk again and today I want to talk to you
about customer reviews and I'm going to give you guys three tips on how you can gather more
customer reviews and this is following a private message from one of my coaching group members
that has told me that he's been asking for customer reviews after finishing his jobs but
for whatever reason the customer is not sending them reviews and they're not putting them reviews
up for him. So I'm going to talk to you today about some of the reasons that your customers might not
leave you a review and again I'm also going to give you three tips. So the first thing I want to say
is in today's world your customers are probably busier than they've ever been before. We're bombarded
with notifications, messages, whatsapp messages and emails, phone calls all day, bombarded with
information and ads and videos on social media and we're also working crazy hours, more hours than
we've ever worked before. So give your customers the benefit of the doubt if you're asking them for
a review and they're not giving you a review, chances are they're just busy and they've forgot.
Okay but if that's not the case and you've reminded them a few times now and they're still not leaving
you that review, it could be that they're unhappy with something in the job or they're unhappy with
something to do with how you've ran your business and how you've done this job for them. Okay so
that's why it's really really important that we work on ourselves and the delivery of our products
and services to make sure that we're leaving no stoned unturned when we're doing these jobs for
people and I'm speaking directly to domestic plasterers and trades people, not so much the
sight bashers and the reason for that is when you are doing your domestic jobs you are the main contractor
on that job and that comes with a high level of responsibility and it also means that no you can't
pass the book to anybody so oftentimes and I'm speaking from you know my own experiences as well
and I'm not trying to knock the sight spreads because they do a damn good job. They're fast
efficient and they can get the job done but they don't need to worry so much about the the prep,
the sheeting up and the cleaning up, how loud the radio is, they don't need to be courteous and polite
the way that you have to be when you're on your domestics okay it goes without saying and that
was my first tip be respectful so be respectful and courteous and polite to your customers to make
sure that you make that great first impression when you start in the job because you cannot put a price
on first impressions when you first go into the customer's home and remember guys we can never take
for granted that we're working in their home and they've opened the door to us and allowed them
into their home that's a big thing that's a big deal for a lot of people so if we can win their respect
early doors when we start the job get the roll and stroll down on the carpet running up the stairs
immediately before you do anything else get the roll and stroll down and carefully sheet up their
belongings and their furniture and their ornaments and show respect show courtesy show consideration
and to their home the more respect that you can show to their home the more impressed that they'll
be with you for that first impression as a domestic plasterer and you'll win them over by showing respect
not only by you know sheeting up and looking after their carpets and things like that the basic things
but also with your language because if they hear you swearing and effing and blinding on the phone
or if they hear you swearing in conversation some customers could take that as a sign of disrespect
even in 2025 okay so be careful with your language as well be professional i'm not saying you have to be
a choir boy and be you know all politically correct with everything you say but try not to f-bomb and c-bomb
and be using foul language on your jobs on these domestic projects because it's not going to go down well
and it could sometimes cost you the review especially if the customer is of an older generation
where that kind of behavior is frowned upon and they're not going to appreciate it at all
so be respectful with your language as well so that's the first one guys be respectful if you're
respectful to them and their property then they'll show you respect back they'll be respectful to you back
second tip is mention your reviews and how important that they are to you mention how important your
reviews are and how you rely upon your reviews to generate new business and how proud you are of your
five-star reviews whether you're getting them on facebook on trust pilot on google whatever your go-to
platform is to gather your reviews mention it say oh did you did you find us on facebook did you have a read
through our reviews is that how you found us just drop it into conversation or if they ask you
um so how do you get your work then do you advertise or because that's a common question you know that
comes up when you're doing the job they might ask you about your business and then that's your
opportunity then to plant that seed and tell them how important your customer reviews are to you and what
that does is it indicates to them that you might be asking them or have an expectation of them to leave you
a review it's something as simple as saying every time we finish a job we always um ask our customers
you know to leave a review so if you don't mind once i've finished the project if you're happy with
everything and if you wouldn't mind leaving us a review we'd really really appreciate it if you can
get that conversation in early doors at the beginning of the project and then mention it again at the end of
the project then this this is going to go a long way in setting up that verbal agreement for getting
that um review okay and also guys you can get links now okay for trust pilot facebook and google that you
can text straight over to the client as soon as you finish the job or you can even get yourself some
review cards with a qr code on so that the customer can just simply scan it and then leave you a review so
if it's a case of they don't know how to leave you a review you know they haven't got time to go on
searching for your business online and finding you know the right platform etc then there's no real
excuse anymore we've got these links and these qr codes and these cards that we can use now my final
tip for you is to start the job strong but also to finish strong as well the start of the job is crucial
because if you can start strong get everything prepped make a good impression be respectful you know win the
customer over that way by starting the job strong and that's going to go a long way in getting that
review but if you can finish strong as well this is going to secure that review 100 and when i say
finish strong what i mean is make sure that that place looks absolutely immaculate and the customer is
100 happy with the project before you leave and if there are any little extras that you can do for that
client putting the rad back on or putting all the sockets and light switches back on an extra little
wipe down of the skirting and the arcus and the doors and the windows and the glass maybe squirting a
bit of winder lean on the glass take you five minutes whatever it is if you can go that extra mile
and leave that job looking absolutely amazing and immaculate that is going to mean that you're
finishing strong now to do that you're going to need adequate time on that last day that you're on
the job leave adequate time when you're doing these domestic jobs don't bash out the job and rush it on
the last day and trying to load up that van and get everything thrown in the van at you know 6 pm
because what you'll do is you'll exhaust yourself if you're doing a set if you're getting a mix on
and having to snag the job finish load up clean up wipe down hoover up and do everything in a day
it could be that you're too exhausted and stressed and tired and you've burnt yourself out that now
you're not going to really be arsed in going over the entire job carefully and slowly and checking if
everything's absolutely immaculate and having that extra 10-15 minutes with the customer to talk through
um the job and if they're happy and you know the final invoice and things like that you know leaving
your business cards and having that energy and that the power left um to do that because these again
these are mistakes i've made where i've tried to shoehorn in a job get it done quick and so that i can
go on to the next job because i've got another one starting in the morning or i've got another job
starting later in the afternoon and i'm trying to rush finish strong is what i'm saying that's the last
tip for you so those tips will hopefully help you and to gain more customer reviews because ultimately
we rely on these reviews online today in 2025 for our organic ranking positions online and the more
reviews that we can gather organically it means the less money that we're having to spend on paid
advertising like checker trade my builder facebook boosts and all these other companies that promise us
the world but deliver very little results for a lot of money and this can keep us working seven days a
week on low profit margins and spending out thousands of pounds that we don't have on advertisement guys
so listen if any of this helps you today and you're interested in joining our coaching program if you
can spare 80p a day that's all it's going to cost you you can come and join our group of 100 plasterers
where we're all trying to get our businesses ranking first page of google we're all trying to improve
ourselves we're all trying to build our brand and build our reputation up in our local area and working
on these kind of systems that i spoke about today working on ourselves and our professionalism and our
skills and our training if this is something that interests you and you're a self-employed plasterer
in the domestic market or you're looking to move from site plastering to domestic plastering and you feel
that this kind of information and guidance could help you then hit the link below and you can come
and join the group for as little as 80p a day and i look forward to seeing you in a group again my name
is stew roberts and i'm the founder of trial talk community online which is a facebook community and
a coaching program i've also got the podcast and the youtube channel we're also on tick tock as well
so you should be able to find more information and watch some more content on any of those platforms
thanks for watching i'll see you on the next one