What Homeowners Actually Look for Before Hiring a Local Service Company

Jump to The Front of the Line with A Trusted Referral

Want to bypass all of the searches, proving your trustworthiness, building contractor website trust, being interviewed, and more? When one of your satisfied customers talk positively about your home services business, it’s like having the greatest salesperson working for you for free!

Yes, referrals are king. Because referred leads arrive with built-in trust and pre-qualification, they close at rates of 3 to 5 times higher than cold leads. Even better, referred leads have much shorter sales cycles.

Attracting more referral business starts with the quality service you perform for your customers. Do the job you say you’re going to do. Always be available for advice and to answer questions. Be professional, polite, and care about your customers’ results. And be fair and transparent when it comes to pricing. Meet those goals with your customers, and your business from referrals will grow. While referrals remain powerful, understanding how homeowners choose contractors online is equally important for long-term growth.

Another tip to increase your referral business is to actively ask your satisfied customers for referrals. Even better, run a referral campaign where you incentivize each referral they bring.

On the other hand, if you’re rarely getting sales from referrals, it means some part of your business is broken. Perhaps your operations, your people, your pricing, or the quality of service you perform. Fix it.

Most of Your Prospects Start with An Online Search 

What happens when people search for your home services business in your city on Google? Are you showing up near the top?
Are you buried beneath your competitors?
Are they seeing your ads before the first search results appear?

Search results are everything. You know this because how often do you scroll all the way to the bottom of page one or even venture over to page two. Probably never. Well, your prospects act similarly when looking for a local home services company.

Whether it’s through organic search or paid advertising, your home services business MUST show up in Google’s top four results or your homeowner prospect probably won’t find you.

Fortunately, Spartan Digital Solutions delivers proven home services marketing, including search engine optimization strategies, organic search tactics, and paid search opportunities that can put your business right near the top of results. 

Reviews Are Often the First Trust Signal

Now, even IF your home services business is near the top of Google searches and receives ample website traffic, the real question is: Will your prospects TRUST your business, your people, and the results you promise?

Here’s how much online reviews and testimonials matter when it comes to improving contractor website trust:

• 72% of consumers cite trust as their absolute top priority when selecting a home services contractor.
• 74% of homeowners research personal reviews and testimonials online before making a phone call.
• 81% of homeowners rely on review platforms like Google Reviews to decide if they will use a home services company.

Now, what do your prospects see when they search for proof regarding your company’s trustworthiness? Do they see just a handful of Google Reviews or even a few negative reviews? Do they scour your website without seeing any reviews? Or do you proudly boast dozens or hundreds of 5-star reviews and glowing testimonials?

To drive more business through positive online reviews, you need to revisit the level of service you’re providing to your customers. Secondly, you should be actively asking for 5-star reviews, positive testimonials, and even video testimonials after every completed job. Boosting your contractor website trust is essential to your success.

Your Prospects Want to See PROOF of Quality Work

If you’ve ever sauntered up to the world of online dating, you know there is often a big difference between the dating profile you see and your first face-to-face date. That 6-foot-4, fit and tanned stock broker may walk into Applebee’s as a 5-foot-8, pudgy shy guy who hasn’t worked since Blockbuster let him go.

Because your prospects have been burned before, they visit your website with a shield of skepticism. So, even if you talk a good game, they want PROOF.

Real project photos, team pictures, branded vehicles, and before-and-after images help homeowners feel more comfortable hiring your home services business. Authentic visuals and videos create transparency to help customers picture what working with your business will actually be like.

Don’t make the mistake of replacing your local team, customers, and projects with a polished stock photo. No matter how attractive you think the stock photo is, it doesn’t provide the proof and confidence that your real-life images create.

Is Your Service Clear or Confusing?

Now your prospect is ready to learn more about the services you offer, your process, your pricing, and next steps.

But, if you’re like many home services businesses, your website, blog content, and social medias are littered with complex industry terminology. Always keep in mind, your prospects care less about the products you use, the service you deliver, and the process. What they DO care about are results.

They want their AC to blow cold air in the summer.
They want their lawns to win “Yard of the Month.”
They want their roofs to protect their family without leaking.
They want their painted walls to make an incredible first impression.

Therefore, make your website easy to understand. Focus on the results you deliver for them. Make sure you are clear with:

• The variety of services you offer
• The different areas you serve
• What makes your company different/better
• What are the next steps if they’re ready to get started

Confusion leads to hesitation. And offering too many options can kill the sale. The easier you make the process, the more likely people are to reach out.

Speed, Availability, & Responsiveness Matter

Customer service today seems to be at an all-time low. Customer support has been outsourced overseas. Phones aren’t answered. Emails don’t get responded to until days later. People show up late, if ever. Yet, when the job is done, they want to be paid fast.

If you think responding to a lead within 24 hours is good enough, it’s not. Not by a long shot. Here are the stats proving just how valuable speed of responsiveness is to your future sale:

• Responding to a lead within 1 minute yields a massive 391% boost in conversion rates!
• 1-5 minutes — 21x more likely to qualify a lead
• 5-10 minutes — Odds of qualification plummet by 80%
• 10-30 minutes — Conversion chances decrease by 400%
• 1-24 hours — Less than 5% of potential value remains

Answer your phone. Respond to emails immediately (even if you can’t get them a quote yet). Always show up on time. And if there’s ever a problem, address it quickly and completely.

Turn More Prospects Into Customers and Raving Fans

As you can see from this blog post, your home services company is scrutinized in lots of ways before they even pick up the phone. In other words, it’s not your salespeople that are winning or losing you business. It’s your home services MARKETING!

That’s right, your online marketing must be on point to provide the proof, trustworthiness, and clarity your prospects need to see before they choose to do business with you.

Whether it’s help with your online search results, website clarity and presence, social media reach, paid ad results or review optimization, Spartan Digital Solutions is your team.

But, don’t take our word for it, prove it to yourself. Request your FREE Lead Generation Battle Plan, and discover why partnering with Spartan Digital can impact your bottom line. Through this Lead Gen Battle Plan, we will review your website, SEO, Google and AI visibility, paid ads, reviews, and conversion path. Then, you’ll know what’s holding your local service company back from generating more qualified opportunities.

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