How do you optimise your online profile so that consumers are likely to choose you over one of your local rivals on ‘Find a Tradesman’ websites? TradeSparky gives five tips to ensure you stand out from the crowd.
Spend time on your profile
Your profile is likely to be one of the first things consumers see once they have inserted the service they require and their location into a ‘Find a Tradesman’ search engine.
Therefore, it is important that adequate time is spent creating our profile so that it is as effective as possible. This is especially important for websites which require a fee in exchange for the privilege of being listed.
Take a look at the two profiles below taken from the site:
Profile 1
“Electrician, Electrical Contractors, Electric Cookers, Electric Gate Wiring, Electrical Installation Condition Report (Periodic Testing), Immersion Heater Installation and Repair, Smoke Alarms, Electric Showers, Storage Heating, Electric Boiler Installation & Servicing, Electric Heating, Rewires, Electric Radiators, Fuseboards and Consumer Units…”
Profile 2
“Welcome to my ‘Find a Tradesman’ page. My name is Andrew Sparky. I have over 15 years of experience as an electrician and pride myself on providing a professional and quality service to both the domestic customers and commercial contractors.”
The first profile immediately gets across the sort of jobs this particular electrician is willing to take on.
However, ‘people buy from people’, so consumers are much more likely to put their trust in someone who gives the impression that they are friendly and personable. This is demonstrated in the second profile.
It is worth taking the time to look at the profiles of other electricians on the platform to see which ones appeal to you before making your own.
Seeking feedback from a third party once your profile is organised is also recommended.
Take control of reviews
Writing reviews on behalf of customers would not be condoned, but making the review process as simple as possible for them is advised.
For example, following the completion of a job, emailing a link and instructions regarding how the customer can leave a review can increase engagement significantly.
This not only makes the process easier for the client, but also serves as a reminder for them to go to the website and leave a review following your departure from the job.
Also, providing cut and paste answers to sections that don’t require the customer’s opinion can make the process even easier and improve the accuracy of the answers.
Examples of cut and paste answers include: ‘Best description of the work done’ and ‘How many days did the job take?’
Herd mentality
When buying items on Amazon or other online retailers, the initial filters shoppers use to narrow down the options available are price range and rating.
The third factor is how many people have reviewed the item. For example, if you were trying to decide which headphones to buy, would you buy the five-star-rated headphones with 7000 reviews, or the five-star-rated headphones with 6 reviews?
People may even choose the product with a slightly lower review score if it has a significantly higher number of reviews, such is the power of herd mentality.
This is the same for your online rating as an electrician. Even if you have 10 on Checkatrade, a potential customer is likely to choose a competitor with the same rating, or even a slightly lower rating, if they have more reviews. Volume matters!
Also, no matter how good an electrician you consider yourself to be, nobody is completely immune to the possibility of a negative review.
However, the more positive reviews you have, the less impact a negative review will have on your rating.
Photographic evidence
Some ‘Find a Tradesman’ sites allow you to upload images and videos to demonstrate your work and/or to put a face to your profile, but not all registrants take advantage of this.
However, the more information consumers have access to regarding you and your work, the more likely they are to contact you over someone with a lesser profile.
Therefore, it’s important to make your profile as complete as possible. Just ensure that the photography is of high quality, as poor photos can reflect badly on your workmanship.
Multiple platforms
Checkatrade is probably the most high profile ‘Find a Tradesman’ website due to its large advertising budget and catchy jingle.
A simple Google search reveals similar platforms, such as ‘ratedpeople.com’, ‘mybuilder.com’ and ‘trustatrader.com’.
It is beneficial to have a profile on as many sites as you can manage to maximise your exposure.
Get an idea of how each site works before creating a profile; this will help you optimise your information for each platform using some of the techniques that have already been discussed above.
For more information on TradeSparky, visit: www.tradesparky.co.uk
