Would You Hire Your Home Services Company?

How much time and mon­ey do you spend try­ing to attract web­site vis­i­tors and leads each month? Prob­a­bly a fair amount. But when was the last time you looked at your dig­i­tal pres­ence while ask­ing your­self: Would YOU hire this company? 

Ask­ing this ques­tion and inves­ti­gat­ing the answer can pro­vide immense­ly valu­able infor­ma­tion. From bro­ken lead forms to lan­guage and pic­tures that don’t ade­quate­ly con­vey your val­ue, this exer­cise can help you find and elim­i­nate fric­tion in your lead gen­er­a­tion process.

“Typ­i­cal­ly, the first sig­nif­i­cant inter­ac­tion your cus­tomers have with your com­pa­ny is your web­site,” says Kristin Kniss, own­er of Alpine Design, a firm ded­i­cat­ed to build­ing strong dig­i­tal user experiences. 

This means it’s crit­i­cal that your web­site make a great first impres­sion. Depend­ing on what vis­i­tors see and feel when vis­it­ing your web­site, they can choose to either take a step toward book­ing, sit in lim­bo, or move on. If that first inter­ac­tion doesn’t go well or just isn’t com­pelling, it’s hard if not impos­si­ble to recov­er. So you want your web­site to grab atten­tion, build trust, and dri­ve vis­i­tors to the next action.

Site Con­tent

As you are review­ing your web­site, ​“ask your­self if the pages on your site move you toward a pur­chase or if you would go else­where,” advis­es Kniss. 

A few things to ask yourself:

• Does this com­pa­ny under­stand my problem?
• Do I feel this com­pa­ny can solve my problem?
• Am I excit­ed about the fin­ished product?
• How do oth­er peo­ple feel after work­ing with this company? 
• Can I move for­ward quick­ly and easily?

But don’t just look at the con­tent. Take the time to actu­al­ly sub­mit forms and request an esti­mate. Review auto­mat­ed and per­son­al respons­es to ensure that those com­mu­ni­ca­tions fur­ther instill confidence.

Build­ing Trust

For home ser­vice pro­fes­sion­als, poten­tial cus­tomers aren’t pur­chas­ing a sim­ple prod­uct. They are pur­chas­ing a ser­vice that requires them to invite strangers into their home and give them access to one of their largest and most impor­tant investments. 

Kniss notes that this is why home ser­vice com­pa­nies ben­e­fit from incor­po­rat­ing authen­tic­i­ty and a human touch into their websites.

Ask your­self what might make you feel com­fort­able enough to invite a crew into your own home. What do you need to know about the peo­ple, their qual­i­fi­ca­tions, and how they’ll treat your property?

Then build trust through trans­paren­cy. Blogs that dis­cuss the achieve­ments of your crews, real pic­tures from real job­sites, and a page ded­i­cat­ed to cul­ture and val­ues are all exam­ples of ways you can tell YOUR AUTHEN­TIC story. 

Check out our blog: The Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence Starts Long Before the First Esti­mate for more ideas!

Mechan­ics

Expe­ri­enc­ing your web­site from the view­point of a prospect not only helps you ver­i­fy that vis­i­tors will WANT to pur­chase your ser­vices, but that they CAN take the next step to pur­chase your service. 

Kniss says to check your forms and fun­nels month­ly at a min­i­mum. ​“Whether you have an agency, a con­trac­tor, or an employ­ee keep­ing up with the site, you should have a main­te­nance plan.”

• Check to see that your forms are sim­ple and invit­ing, and more impor­tant­ly, con­sis­tent­ly check that they actu­al­ly work. 
• Check to see that the respons­es to your lead forms and esti­mate requests are clear, prompt, and con­tin­ue to com­mu­ni­cate your unique value. 
• Ensure that your staff is edu­cat­ed and respon­sive and that there is a process for human fol­low-up. After all, there is no point in bring­ing in a lead if no one is going to respond to them. 

Final­ly, don’t for­get to check these things on desk­top and on mobile. ​“Depend­ing on the cus­tomers you serve and ser­vice you pro­vide, your traf­fic is typ­i­cal­ly going to be 50/50 or ⁶⁰⁄₄₀ favor­ing mobile,” says Kniss. ​“Mobile is important.” 

Test It Out

Don’t stop at read­ing this blog! Test it out! Look at your web­site as if you’ve nev­er heard of your com­pa­ny. Look for the ser­vice you need, decide if this is a com­pa­ny you feel you can trust, and request an esti­mate. Write down ques­tions that didn’t get answered and pay spe­cial atten­tion to every point that requires extra work or makes you hesitate. 

Grant­ed, this exer­cise takes time, but every dol­lar you spend dri­ving prospects to your web­site is poten­tial­ly wast­ed if the web­site is their final des­ti­na­tion. It’s wise to cor­rect obsta­cles that keep vis­i­tors from becom­ing pay­ing customers. 

As Kniss wise­ly says, ​“It’s worth being famil­iar with your dig­i­tal pres­ence, because your prospects are.”

Feel­ing over­whelmed? At DC Mar­ket­ing Group, we spe­cial­ize in the art, sci­ence, and dis­ci­pline of mar­ket­ing for home ser­vice busi­ness­es. Need help with all of it? We do that. Need a lit­tle help in just one area? We do that too. Sched­ule Your Free Con­sul­ta­tion Call Today!