The home services industry is home to businesses that provide services in moving and storage, concrete, landscaping, flooring, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), and plumbing. It boasts a $400-billion market value, including companies whose services can be availed through online bookings.
With how big the home services industry is, you’d know that there are a lot of entities to beat when it comes to putting your company’s name and reputation above them. Getting homeowners to trust what your business can provide when it comes to making their homes better isn’t an easy feat when you have thousands of other companies vying for the same thing.
To make it a little lighter on your business’ side, here are a few tips you can follow to provide what your consumer base is looking for:
1. Quick but excellent results
It should come as a no-brainer that very few consumers have the patience when it comes to getting goods and services from businesses. They want things done easy and quick while expecting results that are nothing but perfect.
To yours and other people’s business, this may not be easy to achieve. But it’s something you can’t tell your customers. To get around this, the best thing to do is to set the customer’s expectations. Don’t paint unrealistic ones in their head; doing so will make them expect a little too much from you.
The last thing you want is to end up with a negative review after you fail to meet the timeline and quality expectations you set yourself. To avoid this, set expectations you know you and your business can meet.
2. Accessibility through technology
As homeowners become more aware of how technology is going to help them improve their home lives, it’s no surprise that businesses in the home services industry are running in order to catch up with the technological advancements homeowners are looking for.
At this time and age, you’d want your business to be as accessible as possible to the tech-savvy consumer base who wants everything done seamlessly with a few taps. Build up a good website, an online reputation, and be reachable.
There’s nothing like the convenience of having a roofing service company come to your house without you having to visit them beforehand.
3. Stay in touch with your customers
A business transaction doesn’t end after the project’s finishing touches. It goes on until your consumer knows everything is settled. They may come to you for concerns that arise after the project is done, meaning you’d have to keep in touch with them as much as you can in order to address their concerns.
Making your business reachable to consumers and potential clients is a good way to keep them coming to you. Have a hotline, a website, and an email address that answers promptly and efficiently to customer queries.
4. Employ professionals
As your business works with people’s dreams — their homes — the last thing you want is to receive complaints about your staff. It can be because they were rude, or they failed to meet the project’s expectations.
Your best bet would be to train your team when it comes to managing the expectations of your clients, to meet them with their best efforts, to communicate with people while bearing the business’ name, and to be professional at all times.
You would want your business to be regarded as a trustworthy and professional home services provider.
5. Use social media
Social media’s undeniable ability to make businesses go big and go home makes it an extremely powerful weapon for businesses new and old. It doesn’t matter if your services were spearheaded by mom and pops, social media can help you gain a bit more visibility to your consumer base.
Target the people you want to work with, produce social media content you know they’ll like, be consistent, and stay on top of social media trends.
It won’t be an easy feat without a special team to manage the business’ social media presence, but it’s worth investing in a pool of talent that is in charge of managing your business’ online reputation. These days, the internet is where you’ll be getting a high portion of your clients.
As the industry ages and is bombarded with new advancements, customer expectations on outputs also rise. As a player in the home services industry, you need to adjust your model in order to meet the increasing expectations. This isn’t really a bad thing. Why? You’d have reasons to find room for improvement even if you think there isn’t any.
