Over the years, we’ve seen the effect Yelp reviews have on a businesses revenue. There have been a handful of case studies that deep dive into this topic; by Michael Luca of Harvard Business School, Max Woolf of minimaxir, and Melissa Parietti of Investopedia to name a few.
Key Takeaways
We’ve learned from Luca’s case-study that the difference between at 4 and 5-star review can increase a businesses revenue between 5 and 9 percent. While the model he developed was applied to restaurants specifically, the same model is even bigger for contractors and service professionals as well.
According to Home Advisor, homeowners spent an average of $281 per plumbing repair job. With the average Breezeworks plumber doing five jobs per week, this is a revenue loss of $70-$126 weekly. Multiple that by fifty-two weeks in a year and we’re up to $6,552 total.
Keep in mind the math above is counting for only one person. If you’re running a team of employees the loss of revenue adds up quickly.
For even bigger teams, the loss amount approaches almost $100k over the course of one year.
Enabling your business with technology will increase the likelihood of a 5-star review by delivering an exceptional customer experience.
A Nice Way to Ask for Reviews
We’ve seen two common factors among pages with tons of reviews averaging between 4.5 and 5 stars.
- They provide a high-quality customer experience every single time.
- They ask for reviews knowing when they’re more likely to get them.
Most businesses we work with know that asking for reviews is a good idea, but they’re not sure how to ask without it feeling a bit awkward or uneasy. One thing we’ve seen from businesses doing well is that asking for a 5-star review isn’t the end goal. Their goal is to provide an exceptional experience no matter what because consumer tech savvy and likely to voice their opinions online, both positive and negative. If anything they’re taking a page out of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” and acting accordingly in the digital age.
We’re seeing a rise in similar Yelp-related sites like Facebook, Thumbtack, and AngiesList. With Yelp not being the only review site, providing great service is important across every channel.
Facebook Reviews are Growing Fast
From 2005 to 2013, Yelp was the main site that people were reading and writing reviews. Since then, Facebook opened up their version of local business pages, allowing customers to check-in and leave reviews for any business. We’re bullish on Facebook and have seen many Breezeworks customers feel the same way for the following reasons.
1. Facebook Business pages sometimes outrank Yelp pages in google search results.
2. Facebook profiles are attached to people’s real name and identity, making them a more trustworthy source.
3. Facebook users are much more active than Yelp users. This makes it easier for businesses to get discovered. For example, when someone “likes”, “shares”, or does a “check-in” to a business, it shows up on that individual’s news feed for all of their friends to see.
4. Most people have Facebook logged in on their smartphones all the time, making it easier than ever for them to leave a quick review.
A Breezeworks Case Study
We recently chatted with Justin from Diamond Detailing of San Antonio about his mobile detailing service. He was very open with us about his thoughts about using Facebook to earn reviews and attract new business.
Like must successful owners, Justin believes 5-star reviews are part of his businesses brand. If you asked him ten years ago that wasn’t the case, but today the 5-Star experience is part of the whole package. Reviews go hand-in-hand with uploading pictures of completed jobs like the post below:
Work Hard while Working Smart
Since April 6th, Justin and his team have processed over 120 new payments on the Breezeworks app bringing in $17,677 in new revenue. They enjoy how Breezeworks confirms the appointment with the end customer by sending an email. Breezeworks also makes it easy for Justin’s team to send and get invoices paid instantly. Justin’s favorite part about Breezeworks is that it stores every customer at his fingertips.
If Diamond Detailing continues the pace they’re at, they’ll add over 700 new customers to their Breezeworks app by the end of 2016. They can then text or email all of those customers to earn repeat business.
