Getting reviews for your landscaping or lawncare business has several benefits. It builds trust before the phone even rings and increases the chance that a prospect will contact you. You can also charge a premium price for your work by having great reviews. Reviews are an important aspect of landscaper marketing and should be one of the initial things that you focus on when starting to market your business. The good thing is that once you change your process to include getting reviews you’ll find that there’s not much effort required to do it on an ongoing basis.
Where to Collect Reviews
The most common place to collect reviews is on your Google Business profile. These reviews help you rank higher in local searches. You can also collect reviews through Facebook and it can be a good idea to have a few reviews on that platform if you are active there. Additionally, you can have unassociated reviews that you just collect offline or through email. These are looked as less credible by the general public because they can be more easily faked.
How to Ask for Reviews
It’s important to make asking for reviews part of your process. At the end of every landscaping project ask for a review. If doing lawn maintenance then ask at the beginning or the end of the season. You can ask through multiple channels such as in person, via email, over the phone. If you make it part of your process you will find that you collect more reviews. While you are asking for reviews make sure to also ask for a referral.
How You Ask Matters
Make sure to give a reason. People are more likely to take action if they know the reason. Include a link so it’s easy to leave a review. Otherwise they have to take the extra step of finding your Google Profile to leave a review. Many people will forget to leave a review or will have other priorities. So don’t be afraid to ask a couple of times. However, don’t be pushy. If you are active on Facebook then ask for reviews there too.
You should also include a link to leave a review in every email communication. You can update your email signature to include the link for any platforms where you want to collect reviews. Your billing emails and other automated emails should also include a link to leave a review. If you send out paper invoices or other offline messaging to customers then be sure to include the link there as well.
Here’s a simple example of how to ask for a landscaping customer to leave a review:
Would you be willing to leave me a Google review? I’m trying to grow my landscaping business and this makes it easier for customers to find me on Google and to trust that I do a quality job.
To get your Google Review link first lookup your Google Business Profile. Then click on the Google Reviews link and click Get More Reviews. Then click the copy button.
