As the name suggests, reputation management is the practice of owning and influencing your own reputation or that of an organization or person. It’s a practice that originated in the world of PR, at a time when consumers learned about brands through either advertising, media coverage, or word-of-mouth.

With the growth of online media and communication and the widespread use of search engines, reputation management has since become much broader and has taken on an important digital dimension. The social media boom played a particularly important role. Thanks to the popularity of social media channels, customers can now broadcast and share their opinions of a brand without the need for a media publication to provide a platform.

Between social media, search engine results, user-generated content, reviews and the traditional media, there’s now a larger and more varied aspect of content in the public domain than ever before. All of it can either help or hurt your brand, whether it’s the words of an individual through conversation or even a bad review on Google.

Why is reputation management so important:

Think about whenever you look into going to a new restaurant or even looking at a hotel or Airbnb to stay in. One of the first things you are going to do before you make your decision is read the reviews. The same goes in the trades industry. Reviews have a huge impact on how customers will view your business. In addition, the home improvement industry is known for having a lot of fraud and deceit when it comes to working with a contractor. With that notion, customers are even more hesitant when selecting a contractor as they do not want to get burned. Therefore, how your customers and the public view your company could make or break the success of your business. This is why it is so crucial to have reputation management at the forefront of your business goals.

How do you create a strong reputation:

Creating a strong reputation is more than just doing one or two things right. You need to be a well rounded business that handles everything with precision and urgency. When starting your business, these are the key things to focus on when looking to build a strong reputation in your community:

1. Do good work This one is simple. The quality of your work should speak for itself, so be sure to hold yourself and your crews accountable to providing a good service. Make sure the homes are painted well and you uphold your promises to the customer.
2. Underpromise, overdeliver - One of the biggest things I learned early as a business owner, was to be selective with what I tell customers. The less I promise, the less opportunity for disappointment a customer has. Never make a promise to a customer unless you know for certain that you can deliver on that promise.
3. Always Communicate - Lack of communication is one of the biggest complaints customers have when working with contractors. Oftentimes, lack of communication leads to much bigger issues with customers and can cause a simple problem to explode into a long drawn out issue with a customer.
4. Show up on time - Whether it is an estimate appointment or the first day of production, make sure you and your team are on time. Customers grow increasingly frustrated if you are not present when you say you will be. Most bad reviews come from irritated customers, so do not irritate your customer by showing up late. Understandably, things outside your control come up that cause you to be late. In that case, remember the bullet from above and always communicate, even if it is just by a few minutes.
5. Be prompt and polite when issues arise - It is not a matter of if something goes wrong, but when. Things do not always go perfectly according to plan, so when something does go wrong, ensure you are there quickly to help solve the problem. Some of my best references were customers who had a problem with my work, but I quickly and politely worked to resolve the issue.
6. Always pay subs and suppliers on time - Your reputation goes beyond just your customer base. Building a strong and trusting relationship with your crews and suppliers is equally important. The better you treat them, the more likely they will be to work with you.
7. Document your work - Customers always like to view work that you have done in the past. Taking before and after pictures is crucial to building a strong reputation. You can post them on social media or even add pictures to your customer’s reviews. I would always have a portfolio of before and after pictures that I could share with my clients during estimates.
8. Generate reviews - Generating reviews has become one of the most important aspects for a small, local business to thrive in their industry. You should be working to get at least 50% of your customers to leave reviews. Always make sure you start building up one platform with many reviews before working on any others. Having 20 reviews on google is a lot better than having 20 reviews spread across multiple platforms.
9. Set up a BBB Account - We will discuss more about the BBB later in this playbook, but being accredited by the BBB helps build confidence and reassurance with your customers.

Where to generate reviews:

There are many places you can have customers leave reviews, but I found a few select places are the best for the home improvement industry. Remember to build these platforms up one at a time. Generating reviews does take time, but it will help your business in the long run. These are the platforms you should focus on - ranked from the most important to least important.

1. Google My Business - This is the staple for most businesses across multiple industries. Google reviews is the first name that comes to mind for most people when they are looking to research a specific business. This should be your number one priority for generating reviews. You will need to have a Google My Business account set up to allow customers to leave reviews. Follow the steps in this Google Support article to set up an account.
2. Facebook - Building a strong social media presence starts with Facebook. This is where you can post your before and after pictures and have customers leave reviews about their experience with you. If you are thinking about building a marketing campaign through Facebook, it is important you have a strong review presence to maximize the effectiveness of the campaign. Facebook is also a great place to generate referral leads from customers you have worked with in the past.
3. Home Advisor/Angie's List - This lead generation site is a great place to have reviews as many potential customers will use it to research local contractors. When a business uses Angi, it allows customers to find highly rated contractors in their area. Though this website is effective, more customers will see your reviews on the two options listed above.
4. Better Business Bureau - The BBB is another website you want to ensure you are monitoring. Baby boomers and some millennial customers will use the BBB as a source of truth for whether or not a business is reputable. Reviews are important on the BBB, but maintaining your accreditation rating is a higher priority.
5. Yelp - This is a common review website, but not commonly looked at in the home improvement industry. This review platform is designed more for the retail and restaurant industry. Definitely try to focus on the four listed above before building up your reviews on Yelp.
6. Local sites - Some local markets may have a platform where you can post reviews. This is common in some larger markets, but similar to yelp, focus on the platforms that have more natural traffic like Google and Facebook.

How do you generate reviews:

Now that you have an understanding of where you want your reviews live, let's dive into how to generate them. To start, it is important to set a goal for yourself around review generation. A good goal to set is to have about 40-50% of your customers leave reviews. If you service 50 customers in your first year, that will get you around 20-25 reviews. The top end of the range is 50% because it can actually be quite challenging to get customers to leave a review for you, even if you ask. Therefore, it is your responsibility as a business owner to make it as simple as possible for your customers to leave review. Follow the steps below to help increase the likelihood of customers leaving you a review:

1. Make sure you or a member of your company is at the final walkthrough meeting with the customer. After you do your final walkthrough, sit down with them to finalize the contract. When you are doing this, ask them about their experience working with you to get a gauge if this is a customer you want to have leave a review.
2. If they respond positively, you want to get a commitment from the customer that they will leave you a review. This is what you should say: “Great, I'm glad you had a good experience! Would you be able to do me a favor?” Typically, customers will respond with a “yes” to this question if they had a good experience.
3. Ask them directly if they can leave a review and give some context on why that is important to you. “Awesome, I am working to build up my online reputation to help me earn business to keep my team busy throughout the year. Would you be able to leave us a google review?” Make sure you are direct with the ask.
4. Text or email them a link to your review platform to ensure they have easy access to it. Then let them know you will provide some sort of reward like a gift card for leaving the review. You want to create buy-in for the customer to actually leave the review. It takes them no more than 5 minutes to do so.
5. Once you verify the review was placed, you can send out the gift card. If after a week you still do not see a review from them, give them a quick follow up call to remind them.
6. If you forgot to offer the incentive at the final walkthrough of the job, it is still acceptable to follow up later to offer them the incentive of leaving a review even if it is a month or two later.

The importance of managing your reviews and reputation:

Reviews are not always a good thing in your business. There will be times where you receive a bad review. When this happens it is crucial that you act quickly to resolve the issue. A business that consistently manages and follows up with their reviews, will always have a better reputation within the community. Customers are more motivated to leave a review if they have a bad experience, than customers who have a good experience. Here are few key notes to remember when maintaining and managing your review platforms:

1. Consistently check your review platforms for new reviews. Ideally this is once per day or once per week at a minimum. Many review sites offer notification services when a review is left for your company.
2. Always respond to your reviews within the same day if you can, whether they are good or bad. The easiest way to respond to a positive review is to address the customer by name and say something like, “It was a pleasure doing business with you! Thank you for the kind review and please refer us to any friends or family that might want a similar service that you received.”
3. If you receive a bad review, respond to the review and then follow up with a phone call directly to the customer. You are not going to resolve the complaint through the review website, so it is best to call and schedule a time for you to meet them in person to come to a resolution. The best way to respond to a bad review is to address the customer by name and say something like, “I am sorry you had this experience, I will do everything I can to make it right to leave you with a positive experience.”
4. Remember this: if a customer leaves a review, they always have the ability to change it. So if they leave a bad review, you should do what you can to improve their experience. Studies have shown that 33% of customers who receive a response from a bad review change it to a better rating, while another 34% take down the bad review entirely.
5. Some review platforms allow you to challenge the bad review. In some cases, a customer may be in the wrong and they are leaving a bad review for something that was not your fault. In this case, you can refute the accusation and put the review into investigation. If you are able to show that you did not do what the customer was stating, you can typically get the review removed from the platform. This is another reason why it is so important to ensure you take proper documentation of everything you do for a customer.

Better Business Bureau:

The Better Business Bureau acts as a mediator for complaints, among other things. When customers submit a negative review to the BBB, the office that covers the region will investigate. As the business owner, you can address the complaint, whether that means proving it to be false or working with the customer to resolve it. Accreditation is another essential part of the Better Business Bureau's mission. Obtaining one will benefit your small business by giving you an advantage when disputing negative reviews. Obtaining accreditation is simple, but you should consider whether it is the best option for you.

In today's world, review sites are riddled with fake or paid submissions planted by business owners to persuade customers to trust them. Many consumers know these practices and place less value on reviews, particularly those on the company's website. The Better Business Bureau has several programs aimed at protecting consumers, the most visible of which is its accreditation system. This initiative seeks to vet businesses before potential customers decide to do business with them.

In essence, the BBB acts as a third party watchdog for the consumer. Many homeowners look to the BBB to ensure they are protected when working with a contractor. So if your business is not accredited with BBB, some homeowners might avoid working with you since they won't have the assurance of the BBB accreditation. You can look more into the pros and cons of the BBB by reviewing our training lesson on the BBB in the customer service section of the Hoist Business Training.

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