Kitchen & Bath Business - February/March 2017 - 18

Hot Topic

we didn't fully understand how your customers were interacting with them.
For instance, we wanted to know if customers were reading the reviews or
just depending on the average rating for a snapshot of your performance.
Plus, we wanted to know how many reviews customers would read before
they were convinced. To settle these questions, we surveyed more than
1,000 homeowners across the U.S., and the following is what we found.

Review Time
Homeowner survey shows you may

Zero
One
Two to Three
Four to Six
Seven to 10
11 to 50
51 or more

need more to gain customers
WE KNOW THAT REVIEWS PLAY A KEY ROLE in how
customers choose their kitchen and bathroom
remodeling professionals. Like a portfolio of beautiful design photos or word-of-mouth referrals,
they prove to your customers that you have a track
record of success.That social proof gives you a head
start in earning trust with your potential customers and ultimately growing your business.
So we understand that reviews are valuable, but

How many online
reviews do potential
customers read
before they trust
a remodeler?

TONY MORELLI is the director
of sales at Spectrum, a digital
marketing agency and software
development company for the
home improvement industry.

1.0%
0.5%
10.3%
23.6%
30.0%
26.6%
8.1%

Zero
One
Two to Three
Four to Six
Seven to 10
11 to 50
51 or more

Practically All of Your Customers Read Reviews. A scant 1 percent of homeowners we surveyed are ignoring your reviews altogether, but the overwhelming majority of your customers are reading your reviews before
getting in touch. Accordingly, time spent building your reputation
online is time well spent.
Most Customers Are Happy with 10 Reviews, but Having 50 Is Better. How
many reviews do you need? Most customers are convinced after reading
up to 10 reviews, about 65 percent of our respondents. A large minority - the other 35 percent - is doing deep research into your reviews and
reading more than 10.When you think about the horror stories we've all
heard about home remodeling projects gone awry, this should come as
no surprise. With as many as 50 reviews, you have enough for even the
most demanding potential customer.
Review Quantity is Competitive. Reviews are a tool for you to compete
with other remodelers as well. We asked homeowners to select a remodeler from a list, with the only difference between companies being
the amount of reviews. A huge majority of respondents, more than 87
percent, selected the remodeler with the most reviews.
Not only are customers reading your reviews, they are also using quantity of reviews as a quick qualifier to choose you in the first place.There are
two likely reasons for this - first, a customer can place more confidence in
the reviews if the average holds true over hundreds of reviews. Second, a
customer can place more confidence in your company if they know you've
been around long enough to collect many reviews. If your customer ever
needs to use your warranty, they know they can count on you still being in
business. From our survey data, we know customers prefer higher review
totals, even higher than 300 reviews. We suspect it holds true beyond that.
With this data in hand, you now know exactly how many reviews you
need.To be as competitive as possible, you should compare with what the
best remodelers in your market are doing.The competitor with the most
reviews is your target. Start requesting reviews from your happy customers
and working your way toward that target.
If you don't already have a team member in charge of reviews, it's time to
pick one of your savviest marketers for the task. Keep tabs on their project
with routine check-ins so that you are making constant progress toward your
goal.With a measureable and systematic approach,you can build the reviews
you need just like you would build any other aspect of your business.
z

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Kitchen & Bath Business - February/March 2017

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