3 Ways Your Contractors Can Kill a Potential 5-Star Review

Most restoration companies, if they’ve been in business long enough, have been subject to a 1-Star, bad customer review. No company can hide from scorned customers leaving reviews online when they feel they haven’t received the service they felt they deserved.

We analyzed over 1,000 bad reviews left on Google for restoration companies across North America, and the lessons we uncovered prove that any one factor can nuke an otherwise good experience, but also that almost every issue is solvable.

One of the most common reasons we found customers were inclined to leave a bad review was "contractor drama" -  a remarkably negative interaction between a customer and a frontline worker. Whether they’re officially members of your team or just sub-contractors, they will have a massive influence on a customer's positive or negative experience.

1. Moral and Ethical Concerns On The Job Site

One common factor from our analysis was customers reporting moral and or ethical concerns about a contractor. This includes accusations of theft, substance abuse, intoxication, and even stories of a spouse cheating with their contractor.

Yikes.

Whether these reviews left on Google are true or not is somewhat irrelevant: either way, it’s still visible to the public eye and reflects poorly on the business. For instance, this review shows just how important it is to vet your contractors before they even start the job, and have well-defined processes for employee conduct:

“They came out to some of our units after a water flood. During the process of removing the wet flooring, the temp workers stole items from several of our units. The temporary workers stole items from more than one unit. They also appeared intoxicated. Some of the missing items included alcohol. It was a mess and awful. The police came out, just a complete circus.”

Once again, yikes.

The key learning any business can take away from an unfortunate incident like this is the need to have tightly defined processes surrounding hiring, employee discipline, customer service expectations, and more.

2. Contractors Disrespecting Customers

Oftentimes, a restoration business can do a 5-star job restoring a home, only for the customer to give it a 1-star review because of a bad interaction with the contractor. Considering customers are already stressed and upset over the damage to their property, feeling disrespected by a contractor will likely color the way they feel about the entire experience.

In our analysis, we saw everything from contractors making racist remarks, to treating personal items carelessly. There were also a number of bad reviews related to contractors not following COVID-19 protocols correctly, making the customer uncomfortable.

Once again, even though these reviews were directed toward a contractor, unfortunately they reflected poorly on the business as a whole.

The best thing you can do to hold your contractors accountable is to ensure they are following your customer service processes to a tee, and can easily access them wherever they are. As Michael Pinto, CEO of Wonder Makers International told us, “Even the best projects can go awry if the contractor cannot communicate clearly to the client in line with their specific needs”.

3. Sloppiness On The Job

No industry is immune from sloppiness that can seep in over time.When you have up to 20, sometimes 50, employees working on various sites across town, it’s hard to monitor quality work. This sloppiness appeared a number of times while customers were venting about a bad experience in their reviews online.

Avoid 1-star reviews from customers by setting expectations with your employees early, and making accessible tools that will help them know exactly what needs to get done, when, and to what standards. Hold tension to those expectations by monitoring employees' work on a daily basis, as this could potentially mean the difference between a 1-Star review, and a 5-Star review.

As we can see, in the era of online reviews, it’s more important than ever that your business has clearly defined processes your employees follow in order to avoid sloppy performance on the job site. Having these processes defined, and easily accessible to every employee will improve your consistency, and lead to more regular 5-Star reviews.

Download our e-book Delivering 5-Star Restoration Experiences: An Analysis of 1,000 Bad Online Reviews in the Restoration Industry online for free to find other tangible ways you can start improving your online ratings instantly. This e-book will give you exclusive access to never-before-seen research of over 1,000 bad online reviews left for Restoration companies across North America. Learn from your counterparts in the industry, and find out how you can eliminate 1-Star bad reviews. Download the e-book here.