Home Service Review Guide, Part 1: Review Generation

For home service businesses, reviews are essential for building trust and attracting new customers. However, waiting for reviews to come in organically can hurt your online reputation. As Christian Jones, Chief Operating Officer at Snoball, explains, businesses must be proactive and intentional about their review strategies. "You don't have a choice. If you're just going to sit there and you're going to wait for reviews to come in unsolicited, they're going to be negative. Our records show that eight out of ten organic unsolicited reviews are negative reviews," he emphasizes. 

To be intentional about generating online reviews for your home service company, we highly suggest following Christian’s advice.

1. Correctly time your review requests
2. Integrate with your CRM
3. Personalize each request
4. Nurture the conversation over time

1. Correctly Time Review Requests

Timing your review request is critical. According to Christian, "Your window to ask them for a review and to actually get them to leave that review is actually quite small. So make sure that you know the point in time when your customer is going to be the most happy, most delighted with your service." While that might seem obvious, it’s true, and many companies don’t take advantage of asking for reviews when their customers are happiest. 

So ask yourself — when are my customers happiest? It may be right after a successful service has been delivered or when they see the benefits of the service. For example, if you install a solar system, following up when the customer receives their first reduced energy bill is an ideal moment to ask for a review. 

But don’t limit yourself to only asking for reviews after you’ve finished the service. As Christian suggests, “There's earlier stages where they might be really excited about working with you. Perhaps you just demoed something in their home or they signed a contract.” While it might seem counterintuitive to ask before you’ve finished helping them, Christian continues, “Don't be nervous about asking for a review at those earlier stages because you might as well ask early. If they say no, they're going to have a lot more meaningful touch points with your company after that, and those will be natural times for you to follow up with them and ask them for a review.”

2. Integrate with CRM

Integrating your CRM into the review request process is a game-changer. This allows you to track key customer milestones and set automated triggers for review requests at optimal moments. Christian further illustrates, "Have something that’s tracking in the CRM that says this thing happened and boom, trigger a review solicitation for that individual.” This not only saves time for your team but ensures that your review requests are timely and relevant.

Pro Tip:

Integrating with your CRM allows review requests to be triggered at very specific moments in the customer's journey.

3. Personalize Each Request

While automation can help streamline the process, personalization makes a big difference in the outcome. You would probably agree that these days, most text messages you get from companies are very obviously from automated robots. When a customer can immediately tell it is not a real person texting them, they won’t bother to respond. Because of this, Christian encourages making your outreach as personalized as possible, He explains, "When your initial solicitation is natural and organic and then you have subsequent follow-ups with them, they're going to realize, oh, I'm not talking to a robot here… This is a real person who actually really needs our review and is expecting something of me.” 

Christian Jones

COO @ Snoball

 

 

“When your initial solicitation is natural and organic... they're going to realize, oh, I'm not talking to a robot here.”

So how can you make sure customers recognize your genuine review request? He recommends including specific details, like:

• Use the individual’s first name
• Reference the name of the person the customer interacted with from your company
• Talk about the actual interaction
• Mention products they purchased
• Bring up a recent holiday

A personalized outreach including these details might look like:

Referencing real experiences and using names not only warms up the message but also increases the likelihood of receiving a thoughtful and positive review.

4. Nurture the Conversation Over Time

The process of collecting reviews shouldn’t end with the first request. Christian explains that multiple follow-ups are essential: "The main reason a lot of reviews aren't generated after the first request is because we're human. We need multiple reminders to do things. We're used to having follow-ups and we in some ways expect follow-ups sometimes before we do something." In other words, don’t be discouraged if the first request doesn’t lead to a review. Sending gentle follow-up reminders — especially tied to key moments in the customer’s journey — can lead to a higher response rate.

For instance, if a customer didn’t leave a review after their roof was installed, think strategically about the next time you’ll ask for a review. Christian suggests asking yourself, "What subsequent touch points are they going to have with our company where they're going to feel delighted and happy?" Plan your subsequent follow-up accordingly, and don’t forget to personalize those follow-up messages too.

Combine Automation, Personalization, and Nurturing with Snoball

If following all of these best practices feels overwhelming for you, that’s okay! Snoball makes review generation easier by doing it all for you. Our platform automates the timing, personalization, and nurturing of requests. Christian highlights that Snoball’s system goes beyond just asking for reviews: 

"We ensure that our solicitations are coming out at a time where that customer is most happy, most thrilled with your company. We also then automate pulling in other data points from that customer's record in your CRM to enrich our review solicitation. We also have that personalization of real people at Snoball who are managing the ongoing conversations and the nurturing of that conversation.”

By combining the efficiency of automation with the warmth of personalized follow-ups, Snoball helps home service businesses not only get more reviews but also ensure that those reviews are a true reflection of their happiest customers.

Looking for some advice on what to do after you’ve received online reviews? Stay tuned for part two of this Home Service Review Guide where we’ll dive into properly responding to negative reviews and utilizing positive reviews in your marketing efforts.