Angie’s List remains a consistent “up and comer” in the home remodeling and home services industry, providing consumers with business recommendations reviews, and insights. As it currently stands, more than two million households subscribe to Angie’s List, using the service to find services and health care professionals in more than 720 different categories – it’s nothing to scoff at. As with any review service, Angie’s List can drag your business down or boost it to new levels of success – so how do you ensure it’s the latter?
Angie’s List: The Basics
To use Angie’s List to your business’ benefit, you need to first understand the basics of this service. First, know that it is completely free to your organization – consumers do pay a subscription fee, but listed business available for review do not. Like other review sites, all customers can actually review and rate businesses but only subscribing customers’ reviews are published and ratings are used to calculate business ratings. However, unlike most review sites, only paying subscribers are able to actually research businesses. Subscribers can review businesses on the local level, rating each business on an A to F scale – though non-member reviews will not impact a business’ rating.
From the business perspective, in order to participate, you first need to add your business to the Angie’s List directory. Registration is quick – simply visit https://business.angieslist.com/Registration/SimpleRegistration.aspx, then enter your business name and zip code. Once the site has located your business, you will need to create an account – simply provide your name, email address, and password. This login is your free access pass to monitoring your business’ reviews and ratings.
Using it to Your Advantage
Since Angie’s List acts as a research tool to paying subscribers, your business has a smaller potential reach than on other review sites – but, since subscribers pay for the service, they are more likely to be actively looking for a service and looking to procure that service in the very near future. This means a shorter sales cycle for you – but making that interest turn into a sale is largely in your hands.
Truth of the matter is, you can’t filter out bad reviews – and you can’t control what people say, either. However, setting up a free Angie’s List business account and actively monitoring your business is a free way to keep eyes and ears on the ground.
Word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective types of marketing there is – so by simply using the service, you are opening a line of marketing for your business. In theory, the more positive reviews and good ratings your business receives, the more new business you should secure — Angie’s List has the potential to be a great lead source for your company.
You will gain direct insight into what consumers are saying about your business which is invaluable in itself. Use the feedback to address any concerns and to rectify any issues – by addressing the issues upfront and correcting them in your business, you will be able to avoid future comments about the same issue and hopefully even turn them into positive reviews.
Perhaps one of the most valuable features to businesses is the ability to respond to reviews. If you do receive negative comments, you are able to respond back to the reviewer. To make the most of the opportunity, we recommend that you avoid getting defensive and instead approach it as opening a dialogue as a genuinely concerned business owner. Not only will this give you an opportunity to rectify things with that customer, but you will let other subscribers know that you care and have great customer service – not to mention that issues, should they have one, will be remedied. This response feature is a great way to turn a negative into a positive – don’t miss the opportunity.
By adding your business to Angie’s list, you do open it up to customer dialogue – but the reality is that this dialogue is likely to happen anyways; why not foster it in a controlled environment where you can know what is being said?