Ask for reviews.
The business reviews on Google Business Profile
are going to determine who's top rated and who isn't.
So obviously, the business with the most reviews
are going to be the top rated.
So if you click that tab, this pops up.
This is an absolute game changer for you
building up your customer reviews.
And I'll explain why.
When you finish your project and you
ask a customer to leave a review, they might nod and go,
yeah, sure, I'll leave you a review.
Obviously, you need to do a good job.
That goes without saying.
So we're assuming that you're good at what you do.
You keep the job clean.
You tidy up afterwards.
And you've left an absolutely perfect job for the customer.
That will set you up strong for getting a five-star review.
So of course, you've got to tick that box, make sure
you're good.
Asking them to leave a review, some might.
However, what I've found is over the years,
typically, this is how it would go in the past.
Thanks ever so much for doing the job.
You've done a lovely job.
I'll tell all my friends and family about you.
If you've got a card, I'll hand them out for you, et cetera.
You give them a few cards.
You never hear anything.
People are busy and they live busy lives.
So even if you turn around and say to them,
could you please leave a review for me on Google,
some of them might, most of them, will have good intentions.
They might want to leave you a review.
But if you just say, leave me a review on Google,
now they've got to go onto the internet.
They've got to find your business, search for it,
find your Google business profile.
Then they've got to click on your profile.
Then they've got to find and scroll down
where they leave a review to find the review tab.
So you've just created four hurdles
to jump over, to try to leave your review.
And to be honest, most of them are not
going to be asked to mess around doing that as sad as it sounds.
Because they might try to, and they'll think
that's too much aggro on their give up.
So this link here is going to be a game changer
for getting your customer reviews.
And this is what I use.
What I've actually done with this link,
I've embedded it within my CRM system,
which means that when I complete a job
and I send the final invoice, this link is actually
embedded into that last email that I send.
Saying, thank you very much for your business.
Please find and attach your invoice for the final balance,
blah, blah, blah.
Oh, by the way, if you've got five minutes,
we'd really appreciate it if you would leave us
your feedback on the job that we did.
To leave your feedback, simply click
this link, which will take you straight
to our Google review page.
Thank you very much if you find the time.
It's much appreciated.
Something worded like that.
And underneath that paragraph, you'll put this link.
All they've got to do now, I mean, they're already on the email
because they have to read the email because it's
got the invoice on there.
They're already there.
Now all they've got to do is get that thumb and press click.
And that link will take them straight
to your Google business profile.
So if you're going to take away anything
from this short video today, it will be this tab here,
Ask for Reviews, because this is going
to be what you use to build your reviews up.
If you haven't got CRM system, simple, just copy and paste
that little link.
Text it to them.
I would suggest texting it to them and emailing it to them.
Again, make sure it's a polite, well-written paragraph.
And if you don't need anything back,
because normally they'll do it within a week or so when they
get five minutes, they'll do it.
What I've found is within our trade, the Plasturine trade,
in the domestic arena is customers
like to see your plasterwork drying out or dried
before they leave a review.
Some of them don't.
Some of them just go, bang, there's your review an hour
after you finish the job, which is fantastic.
And they're not first.
But a lot of people, a lot of customers,
they like to see the plaster dry, so they know.
OK, it's fully dry.
There's no issues.
Why is that?
I think it's just human nature, isn't it?
Curiosity, they want to know that plasterwork's
dried, ready for paint, and then they can fully inspect it,
check it's all good.
Then they might leave a review.
Some people like to paint the plasterwork first,
and then they'll leave a review.
So if you don't get one straight away, don't panic.
Give it a couple of weeks and give them
a little polite reminder again.
Just check in with them.
I hope you're all good.
I hope the renovation project is going well.
Just wanted to touch base with you again,
and ask kindly if you'd mind leaving a review on the job we
did.
I hope you're happy with everything we've done.
Hope you're well, kind regards.
Keep doing that.
Now, it's not begging it.
It's you being strategic in your ranking on your Google
business profile, because those reviews are gold dust.
The customer doesn't know this.
The customer is just busy getting on with their lives.
They've got no idea about running a business and marketing.
So keep it polite, but keep on to them.
Keep reminding them.
Keep adoring them that you want this review.
And eventually, they will do it in the early days.
I purposely did a lot of small patch ups,
because by me doing a small, tiny, little half a day patch
up might not be the best earning job in the world.
But I'd always get a five-star review,
because I'd make sure that the job was absolutely immaculate.
My customer service would be on point.
My communication would be on point.
I'd be clean, friendly, reliable.
I'd go above and beyond.
If I can give you one tip for getting more customer reviews,
it'd be to over-deliver on your jobs, over-deliver.
I'll give you an example of what I mean.
If you're doing a job and the customer turns around and says,
oh, while you're here, I was wondering
if you could do something with this hole that I've got
on the stairs.
Well, I moved this handrail, and now there's
this little golf ball-sized hole.
I wondered if you could, you know,
why you've got some plaster mixed up.
I wondered if you could fill it in.
Now, you and I know that's going to be an absolute ball
like, because you've got to sheet up and prep that area.
And it's going to probably be in another part of the house.
So there's a bit of prep work and a bit of master clean up
after and being on the stairs, for example, is Ball Lake.
We know that.
However, if you do that, it might take you 40 minutes,
half an hour.
If you do that little job for her, or him,
at the end of the job, they might say to you,
oh, let us know what the extra is for that little hole
that you filled on the stairs there.
Rather than you say, no worries, I'll add that to the bill,
which you're entitled to do, by the way.
And of course, if it's a lot more work,
you're going to have to charge for it.
But if it weren't too bad, and it took you 20 minutes,
half hour, what you could do is turn around and say,
listen, there's no charge on that.
But what I'd really appreciate is if you wouldn't mind
just leaving us a five-star review,
that would be fantastic and help me out a lot.
Here's the link, actually.
You could get your phone out.
This link's already saved in your notes.
And you could immediately send that link to the customer.
Now, that way, because you've already done them a favor
that wasn't listed on the job,
you've helped them out,
they're going to be naturally inclined to reciprocate your help
and help you out with the form of a review.
And that's how I've been able to build up
a lot of these reviews by literally over-delivering,
up often beyond what I was supposed to be doing on the job.
You probably do these things anyway,
if you have decent spread, because you help people out
and that's why you're busy with your jobs.
You could be screwing a light-fitting back on
after you've plastered the ceiling.
They don't know that.
You probably have put the light-fitting back in a way.
Over-delivering doesn't mean you're doing more
than you would normally do.
It just means that you're creating a perception
to the customer that you're doing more.
So in their mind, they're thinking,
oh, he's done that, done that little favor
and he didn't have to do that for me.
So big emphasis on customer reviews,
that's how you're going to get ranked top-rated.
Plasterer, that's how you become the top-rated contractor
within your local area, guys, is the customer reviews.
So big focus on your customer reviews.