Every business depends on its reputation, and construction ventures are no different. In the past, a bad word of mouth for a construction contractor would make acquiring new work a tall order. Many times, they would need to offer huge discounts and multiple assurances to win over clients.

Reputation remains an important factor for construction businesses in today’s internet-driven world. In fact, today, word of mouth doesn’t remain limited to friends, families, and colleagues. An unknown user leaving a bad review of your company on any online platform can shape people’s opinions about your business anywhere in the world. 

As a construction contractor that offers their services online, you need to be very serious about managing and improving your online reputation. Many construction companies go online to break out of the limited scope of conventional referrals and win new customers over the internet. Your construction business can only experience that client base expansion if it boasts a good online reputation. 

In this post, we will try to cover all those measures you can take to improve the online reputation of your construction company. 

Get More Happy Customers to Review Your Business

We all know that majority of customers like to read reviews instead of writing them. One research suggests that, on average, only 6% online customers write reviews. Among them, the majority of consumers are the ones who are not satisfied with the product or service they have brought from the given business. 

In short, angry customers are more likely to leave a scathing review. Meanwhile, happy customers usually don’t bother writing anything good about the business. How to deal with angry customers and their negative reviews? We will come to that later. First, let’s try to understand why happy customers don’t leave reviews and how you can persuade them to share their experience of working with your construction company with others. 

To begin with, many customers don’t understand the power of review. They believe that their good words don’t mean anything to the business. So, first, try to dispel that notion among customers. You can do that by subtly add a line time and again in your correspondences that their review means the world to your business.

Many happy customers understand the importance of a review. However, they don’t like to get in the hassle of writing a review when it entails a long-drawn-out process. To get all those satisfied customers to write a resounding review of your construction business, you need to make the process as easy as possible. Reputation management software and applications can come in handy in this regard. They let you offer the easiest path to customers for leaving a review.

If you think using a reputation management tool is an overspend for your construction business, you can still facilitate reviewing through your Google My Business (GMB) profile page. You can add your google review link in messages to the customer by the end of the project. It has been observed that more people leave a review on the GMB profile of a construction business when they are provided a direct link to it.

Level Up Your Social Media Game

Besides collecting more positive reviews by roping in more happy customers to write about your construction service, you also need to improve your social media performance. By improving your social media performance, we mean you have to get proactive on your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profiles. 

These are some measures you can take to ace your construction company’s social media performance for a better online reputation. 

• Try to answer every query made directly on the timeline, in the comment section, or DMs. Also, make sure the reply to that query answers the customer’s question instead of asking them to take further steps and actions. For instance, if customers ask you about your flooring services and what materials you work with, answer the question rather than giving them a link to your service or blog page.
• Engage your followers even if they are not your potential client. Post videos and pictures of your construction projects, and ask for users’ feedback. This will generate positive engagement on your social media and contribute to your online reputation in a good way.
• Run a competition, quiz, or anything along similar lines on your social media pages for prizes and goodie bags. This also helps improve the image of your construction company.
• If your construction business is involved in any Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity, don’t forget to highlight it on your social media.

Don’t Leave It All to Automation

Automated customer management software comes in handy when you experience many customer queries on your social media profiles and website. A construction company usually serves a limited consumer base and doesn’t have its communication lines blipping all the time with customer calls and queries. Therefore, it is better if you have a real human representative who attends online visitors. When people see that an actual employee is replying to their queries, it just makes them more comfortable and increases your construction company’s rank on the trustworthiness index. 

Don’t Evade Negative Reviews

Last but not least, don’t run away from negative reviews. No matter how good your construction company delivers, there will always be some negative reviews. Instead of getting discouraged and frustrated by those negative reviews and trying to get rid of them, take them on. Reach out to that angry customer, apologize to them, offer re-service, or refund (if possible). 

If a customer is satisfied with your answer and the following corrective actions, you can gently ask them to remove that negative review. Even if a customer doesn’t agree to anything, your apologetic and conciliatory approach to those reviews will not go unnoticed by all those customers appraising you in the review/comment section.

If you already have too much on your plate, you can hire the expertise of Business Marketing Solutions Group to take care of your online reputation management. The company can also help you with a range of other digital marketing services.