Whitepaper___Managing_Your_Reputation

Managing Your
Reputation in the
Digital World
GuildQuality’s comprehensive guide to tackling
the challenges that home builders, remodelers,
& contractors face in today’s digital environment.

Welcome to the Digital Age
The entire landscape of society, from economic affairs to social interaction habits, has changed in
response to the growth of the virtual world. Today, 97% of people search for businesses online,
and 85% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
In order to ensure your company has a positive online reputation, focus on delivering excellent
customer service, gathering authentic customer reviews, leveraging your customer feedback, and
responding to negative reviews.
What this guide will teach you:
• Techniques for rebuilding consumer trust
• How to manage your social media presence
• How to get more online reviews
• Best practices for dealing with negative reviews
About GuildQuality
GuildQuality helps builders, remodelers, and contractors manage their most valuable asset – their
reputation. Our members rely on our service to gather feedback, measure satisfaction and excel in
providing exceptional service. Supported by comprehensive reporting and marketing tools,
GuildQuality helps its members standout in a competitive market. For more information visit
www.guildquality.com.

Rebuilding
Consumer Trust
Section 1

Consumer trust
According to Edelman’s 2018 Trust Barometer, only 33% of consumers trust media, business, and
government institutions. This year marked the first time in Edelman’s history that media is the
least-trusted global institution.
“In a year marked by turbulence at home and abroad, trust in institutions in the United States
crashed, posting the steepest, most dramatic general population decline the Trust Barometer has
ever measured.” (Edelman 2018)
At the same time, Qualified Remodeler’s most recent Customer Satisfaction Report revealed that
consumer trust is the most statistically significant service trait among satisfied homeowners. In
other words, without a high level of trust between homeowners and contractors, there is a high
probability the customer will have an unsatisfactory experience.
These statistics are alarming for several reasons, but mainly because of their implications
regarding the growth of the home improvement industry.
In the past, it’s been too easy for bad contractors to mask their performance with a license or
bare-minimum code compliance — things that don’t even remotely forecast the quality of service
a client can expect. As a result, the level of trust between homeowners and contractors has taken
a hit.
The standards of quality in home improvement work are now much higher thanks to stricter
regulations and better accountability measures, but unfortunately, the reputation of the industry
still suffers and homeowners are still highly skeptical. Consumers are much more informed during
the buying process, and the methods that once worked to gain their trust are no longer helpful.
These three techniques can help builders and contractors rebuild consumer trust in today’s digital
world:
• Collecting online reviews
• Applying for industry awards, certifications, and other distinctions
• Offering incentives
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Collecting customer reviews
Nowadays, client testimonials can make or break the
reputation of a brand. According to Forbes, 90% of
consumers read online reviews before visiting a
business, and 74% of consumers say that positive
reviews make them trust a local business more.
When potential customers are considering your company for their project, they’ll most likely do a
Google search to learn more about you. They’ll probably find your website, social media sites, and
a few online review sites. When a prospective customer clicks on those links, make sure they find
information that’s helpful and honest, giving them a clear picture of what it will be like to work with
your company.
If you end up getting a few negative reviews in the process, that’s okay. They lend authenticity to
your brand and can even be a positive way to showcase how your business overcomes project
hiccups. As long as you have a plan in place to address negative reviews, you have nothing to be
afraid of.
How to start
Empowering customers to leave reviews and testimonials is a great way to develop a solid
reputation. Establish a process, like surveying with GuildQuality, to ensure your customers are
consistently given the opportunity to use their voice online.
When it comes to reviews, quantity does matter. Businesses with only a few, sparingly dispersed
customer reviews raise red flags for homeowners and buyers. Credibility comes with evidence
that your business does great work and has a solid customer base.
GuildQuality’s third-party customer satisfaction surveying enables our members to capture
unbiased feedback from their customers, including reviews. With our full suite of marketing tools,
contractors in our community of quality are able to publish comments and reviews from
customers to social media sites and their own unique profile pages that are listed in our Find a
Member directory.
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Applying for industry awards
Another powerful way to gain the trust of potential clients is to apply for industry awards and
designations. It’s one thing to tell people how great you are, but it’s another to be recognized by a
third party for your achievements. Receiving a prestigious award is a huge credibility booster for
consumers, so consider applying for a couple each year.
GuildQuality Awards
Each year, GuildQuality partners with organizations like NARI, James Hardie, and Remodeling
Magazine to power Service Excellence Awards. GuildQuality collects customer satisfaction data
on behalf of companies that apply for awards, and the partnering organization recognizes the
companies that receive outstanding remarks from verified customers
The annual Guildmaster Awards recognize GuildQuality members who consistently deliver
exceptional customer experiences. Since 2005, homeowners have relied on the Guildmaster
Awards to highlight companies that go above and beyond the industry expectations. Click here to
learn more about the Guildmaster Awards.
Best Pick Reports
Perhaps one of the highest distinctions in the home improvement industry, and therefore an
extremely valuable resource for building trust with consumers, is the Best Pick Certification. After
an extensive research process, Best Pick Reports selects the top companies in a wide range of
home service categories and features them on their website and in a guide that is distributed to
homeowners in metro areas across the US.
Best Pick Reports is so confident in their company recommendations that they stand behind the
work of these companies with the Best Pick Guarantee, which gives homeowners and companies
an avenue to achieving satisfactory outcomes on every project.
To learn more about Best Pick Reports, visit their website at www.bestpickreports.com or give
them a call at 877-906-7575. Click here to apply for Best Pick Certification if you’re in one of their
service areas: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Maryland, DC, Northern Virginia,
Philadelphia, or South Florida.
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Rebuilding Consumer Trust !6

Offering an incentive
One of the best ways to get your foot in the door with potential clients is to offer an incentive,
such as a free consultation or a complimentary service. This gives the prospect a chance to test
drive the real thing without any risk, and it provides your company with an opportunity to gain the
client’s trust. The key is delivering on all promises and exceeding all expectations, otherwise, the
client will not return.
In GuildQuality’s 15 years of experience, we have learned that giving people a chance to see our
service firsthand is a great way to initiate a relationship and prove our value. Many companies, like
GuildQuality member Sublime Homes, take the decision-making process very seriously and prize
the ability to try out a new service risk-free.
“ We’re a super small builder, traditionally closing about 12 homes a
year, so I am super careful with any investments I make with our
sales and marketing budget. ” - Amy Alexander, Sublime Homes
However, once Sublime Homes engaged with GuildQuality’s customer service team, learned about
the product’s features, and then actually started using them, it was more than enough to gain their
trust.
About 70% of the clients who engage in GuildQuality’s free trial come aboard as full-time
customers. We don’t require any credit card information and there is no obligation once the offer
expires. While our situation might be a little different than yours, the same principle still applies:
offer customers a free front-row seat and prove that you are a good fit.
If you want to try out third-party customer satisfaction surveying for yourself,
we’ll survey up to 20 customers on your behalf via our phone, email, and mail
card process. You’ll receive all survey results in real time and have access to our
reporting and marketing tools. The road to building your online reputation
starts here!
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Rebuilding Consumer Trust !7

Managing Your Social
Media Presence
Section 2

Social media and the reputation renaissance
A new era of reputation management began in the
late 1990s with the emergence of seller ratings on
eBay and book reviews on Amazon. Word of mouth
became exponentially more powerful without
geographical limitations, and soon enough, online
reviews would find their way to every industry and
every product everywhere.
Before long, sites like Kudzu, Yelp, Angie’s List, and dozens of others began soliciting user
reviews. Today, it’s easy for anyone to share a review about any company. Many of these review
sites were helped along by search engines (from its earliest days, Google has favored usergenerated
content), and today their influence has been magnified many times over by social
media.
Pacesetter’s Perfect Storm
Among the first construction companies to learn this the hard way was Pacesetter, one of the
largest window replacement contractors of the early 2000s. In late 2001, they sold some windows
to a web designer, and that relationship ended very, very badly.
The disgruntled client created a website, PacesetterSucks.com, shared his experience, and made
it easy for others to share their own stories. As it turns out, hundreds of Pacesetter customers had
similar accounts to share, the website attracted tremendous attention, and within four years,
Pacesetter had to close its doors. Read the entire story in Jim Cory’s fascinating article,
Pacesetter’s Perfect Storm.
Fast forward to 2018
Today there are hundreds of sites where consumers can leave reviews, discuss their buying
experiences, and compare companies. The reputation of your company now lies at the fingertips
of your customers, and they have the ability to influence your future business.
Social media is an incredibly powerful platform that millions of people have access to, so it’s
important that you learn how to manage it. Up next, we are going to discuss some of the most
popular social media platforms today and how to best utilize them.
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Social media sites
Facebook
With 2.3 billion active users per month worldwide, Facebook is easily the largest and most popular
social media platform that exists. As a result, there are several ways to utilize Facebook from a
business perspective. If you don’t already have a page set up for your company, check out this
quick tutorial.
Once your page is up and running, it’s important to frequently post fresh content. Today’s
consumers are exposed to media buzz everywhere they turn, so make a conscious effort to vary
the type of content you post while keeping it relevant to your audience. Here are some ideas for
your business page:
• Photos/videos of projects
• Links to blog content
• Educational information
• New products
• Community events
• Testimonials
• Special offers
Keep in mind that Facebook is also useful for communicating with customers. Traditional
marketing channels, such as television and print advertising, only allow for one-way
communication. With Facebook, customers can easily ask questions and give feedback by
sending direct messages, commenting on posts, and leaving reviews. If you do get a question or
comment, whether publicly or privately, make sure to respond in a timely manner.
Once you feel comfortable posting content and communicating with users, explore the various
marketing opportunities that Facebook has to offer. Compared to other channels, advertising on
Facebook is extremely cost-effective because you are able to narrow in on specific audiences,
easily manage your spending, and measure how the ad performs. To learn more about advertising
on Facebook, click here.
Give us a follow!
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Managing Your Social Media Presence !10

Twitter
To interact with your customers on a more personal level, consider utilizing Twitter for your home
improvement business. While it may not be the most popular social media platform out there,
Twitter still has over 326 million active users per month, so there is certainly potential to grow your
business if you use it correctly. If you haven’t already created your company’s profile, now would
be a great time to do so! Here is a simple walk-through to get you started.
In addition to interacting with customers, Twitter is excellent for increasing brand awareness,
driving traffic to your website, and keeping up with trends in your industry.
Discover the topics your audience is interested in, and engage with them in thoughtful
conversations. Twitter gives businesses the chance to show their personality through dialogue,
and consumers tend to be receptive to this form of marketing. You don’t have to sell your product
or service to your audience at all times to make an impact on future business.
Twitter is also useful for driving traffic and boosting website SEO. Tweets have a short lifespan
compared to posts on Facebook, which means the frequency with which you post should be
higher. Tweeting links to blog content, videos, pictures, webinars, and news stories is a great way
to direct users to your website. In turn, this helps to boost your company’s organic SEO, which is
extremely valuable!
Similar to Facebook advertising, Twitter offers a low-cost alternative to traditional marketing
channels. Click here to learn more about Twitter for business. Also, be sure to give GuildQuality
a follow!
GuildQuality Social Integrations
Keeping up with posting on Twitter and Facebook can be a full-time job, which is why GuildQuality
developed social integrations to make life easier. Comments and reviews from your customer
surveys can be published directly to Facebook and Twitter with the click of a button.
You can also set up auto-publishing so that every review and comment you receive is
automatically posted to your Twitter and/or Facebook page. This is a great way to stay active on
social media and provide potential customers with proof that your business is trustworthy.
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Managing Your Social Media Presence !11

Instagram
Pictures are worth a thousand words, and on Instagram, they’re worth an additional 2,200
characters! To date, the photo and video sharing platform has over 1 billion active users, making it
the third most popular social media site behind Facebook and YouTube.
Instagram is a great tool for craftsmen because the nature of the home improvement industry is
very visual. Your customers are inevitably concerned with how your work is going to look, so
pictures and videos are extremely helpful! However, poor-quality images can do more harm than
good. Make sure your images are clear and taken with good lighting. You’ll want to showcase your
work in the best way possible, so it’s worth the time to get the right shot. Here are some more tips
and tricks for best utilizing Instagram for your business. Feel free to check out our page for
some inspiration!
LinkedIn
While Instagram can be considered a useful tool in your social media belt, LinkedIn should be
considered an essential one. Your company’s LinkedIn profile will generally take less work to
maintain than your profiles on other social media sites, which is good news since it’s very
important that your business has a presence on this platform.
LinkedIn is essentially the professional version of Facebook, so it’s great for building credibility
with consumers. Make sure your business has a complete and accurate profile, and consider
occasionally posting updates to your followers. LinkedIn is one of the first places new and
prospective hires will look, so it’s a good idea to include photos, videos, and news about your
company culture. LinkedIn is also great for driving traffic, increasing brand awareness, and
communicating with customers.
Crew
Similar to Instagram and LinkedIn, Crew is a photo sharing app with one big difference: It’s
specific to the home improvement industry. Crew allows users to check in to projects, share what
they are working on, and endorse friends and colleagues.
Creating a Crew profile is a great way to showcase your hard work and commitment to the craft.
On top of that, your peers can vouch for your skill set and recommend you or your company to
others. Click here to create your free profile!
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Managing Your Social Media Presence !12

Getting More
Online Reviews
Section 3

The importance of online reviews
Your reputation is the foundation of your brand, both online and offline. As Pacesetter can attest,
there’s no marketing machine that can drown out the damage done to your brand by vocally
unhappy customers.
For companies that already have a great reputation, nothing accelerates their growth faster and
more affordably than happy customers sharing their stories. Take a look at some of these
statistics from a recent study conducted by BrightLocal, a UK-based SEO firm:
• 97% of people search for businesses online
• 85% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
• 90% of customers read online reviews before visiting a business
• 73% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
• 65% of people see online search as the most trusted source of information about
people and companies
As you can see, consumers rely on online reviews now more than ever to research companies and
make decisions. This is especially true for significant purchases, like buying a home or remodeling
a kitchen.
In addition to influencing consumer purchase decisions, online reviews also have the ability to
affect SEO. Local search rankings, for example, tend to favor companies with an abundance of
recent and relevant reviews. If one of your goals is to increase your company’s ranking in search
results, it’s time to implement a plan to start collecting reviews, whether you do so internally or
with a third party.
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Getting More Online Reviews !14

Surveying customers with a third-party
While we will always recommend that customer surveying for feedback and review collection be
done by a third-party, some home improvement professionals opt to conduct research
themselves. If you are considering developing a survey process of your own, there are several
things to keep in mind.
1. Time commitment
Administering customer surveys is time-consuming and labor-intensive. First, you have to design
the survey, and then you have to put a process in place to distribute it. Once you get the survey
back, you’ll need to review the results, follow up on any issues, and find ways to showcase your
reviews.
This may not sound like a lot of work, but keep in mind that surveying is a continuous process. It
requires time and energy that could be better spent reaching out to prospective customers,
finishing a project, or picking up new supplies.
With outside help, the whole process is streamlined
and efficient. Customer relationship management
(CRM) integration software makes it easy to input
project details and customer information. Then, a
team of customer service representatives is
available to conduct the survey with professionalism
and neutrality.
As soon as the survey is completed, the results are
sent to you in real time and the reviews are
automatically pushed to social media. Any issues or
customer complaints that come up during a survey
can be immediately addressed.
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2. Specialized skills and resources
Even if you decide to use technology to simplify your surveying process, a user-friendly, real-time
survey program isn’t easy to design. Remember, too, that a visually pleasing and simple-to-use
survey is going to get more responses, which means your return on investment will be greater. If
you aren’t an expert in coding and you don’t want to hire someone who is, then your best option is
to seek the help of a survey provider.
Also think about how you’ll store and parse through the information you receive during the survey
process. Once you get your surveys back, you will need somewhere to store the data and analyze
it, but a database with these capabilities is not cheap.
A third-party service gives you access to your feedback 24/7, and it tracks your performance over
time. You will be able to see which employees are performing well and those who are not. With
benchmarking, you can see how your company ranks against others in your industry. None of
these capabilities are possible by simply storing feedback on your hard drive.
3. Objectivity
In our experience, customers are more likely
to give honest feedback when speaking to a
third party. It can be uncomfortable to give
criticism to someone that you have worked
closely with, especially if the problem is small.
However, it’s the little things that separate
top-notch builders from the rest. Objectivity is
not only important for capturing honest
feedback from past clients – it also helps to
build credibility with future customers. A
trusted third-party surveyor ensures that the
reviews you have online are authentic.
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Tips for surveying internally
If you’re not quite ready to start surveying with a third party and would rather begin by creating a
system of your own, here are some tips to make the most out of your efforts.
Keep it short
According to a study by Microsoft, the average human being now has an attention span of eight
seconds. If your survey is too long and the questions are too complex, there’s a high chance it will
be abandoned. Only ask the most important questions that you believe will help your business
grow.
Tailor the questions
Not every project is the same, so not every survey should be either. For example, if you have
several project managers or salespeople on staff, insert specific questions about these employees
so you can gauge their performance. The same goes for project type (e.g., bathroom remodel
versus kitchen remodel).
Deliver feedback to your team in real time
One of the most valuable aspects of collecting customer feedback is being able to address
questions and concerns in a timely manner. The faster you can read and review survey responses,
the better.
Know your limits
There’s a reason that thousands of home improvement professionals use a third party to survey
their customers. In addition to being objective and unbiased, an outside company takes the strain
off and allows you to focus on running your business.
If you find that your internal survey process is requiring too much of your time or you are not
getting the results you desire, give us a call.
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Getting More Online Reviews !17

Dealing with
Negative Reviews
Section 4

Dealing with negative reviews
Negative reviews happen to everyone, even industry leaders. GuildQuality members George,
Jaime, and Leah have all experienced an unhappy customer who has shared what went sour
with their project online. All have survived and since mastered the art of responding to
negative reviews.
“ We address negative reviews head on at Thompson Creek. While our
goal is to achieve 100% customer satisfaction, not everyone is always
satisfied,” says George. “Negative reviews give us an opportunity to go
back and look at our process and also make any errors right. We’re able
to address our customer in a public forum, which shows we’re
committed. ”
The timeliness and tone of your response is something both your customers and prospective
clients are looking at as well. How you respond to a negative review can tell people more about
your business than the review itself.
“ If someone posts something negative about your company on a review site,
you need to respond. Before we respond, I do some research to try to figure
out what happened,” Jaime says. “It’s important that you don’t take the
negative reviews personally; instead, acknowledge their post and then try
to take it offline. Other customers are going to pay attention to how you
handle criticism, so it’s important that you respond in a polite manner.
Additionally, I will personally follow up when we receive a significant
review to make sure that our management team addresses the issue. ”
Leah echoes the approaches to negative reviews shared by both George and Jaime,
“ With negative reviews, our owner Scott Barr personally follows up with any
client who has expressed dissatisfaction to see if there’s any way we can fix
anything that isn’t yet right. We also go online and post our kind and truthful
responses to the negative reviews so that potential clients can see that we care
about making our clients totally satisfied to the best of our ability. ”
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Dealing with Negative Reviews !19

To recap, these are the steps to take after a negative review:
• Don’t ignore feedback that is less than complementary; address negative reviews
head on.
• Do your research before you respond to figure out where the breakdown may
have occurred.
• Don’t take negative reviews personally; be respectful and polite in your responses.
• Follow up with the customer offline with a phone call to ensure all issues have
been resolved.
Although one bad review out of hundreds may not indicate that you need to rethink your entire
business model, it likely points to there being room for improvement. Think about every negative
review, or even every suggestion you’ve ever received, and do what you believe is necessary to
strengthen your customer service and better your business.
Keep in mind that a negative review, even if unseen by potential customers, will still contribute to
your company’s ranking on Google and other search engines. In other words, the more feedback
you receive — regardless of its nature — the more visible you are when a potential client is
searching for a business to perform a job.
Next stop: Managing your customer relationships in the digital world
Now that you’ve learned why it’s important to manage your online reputation and how to do so
effectively, it’s time to move on to your customer relationships. Getting reviews is easy, but getting
excellent reviews is an art. Stay tuned for our next Whitepaper, titled “Managing your customer
relationships in the digital world,” to learn how to:
• Communicate with customers throughout every stage of the buying process
• Make customer service a cornerstone of your business
• Measure and improve your levels of customer satisfaction
Managing Your Reputation in the Digital World | Dealing with Negative Reviews !20

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This report was written by Lauren Wallace, Marketing Associate at GuildQuality, and edited by Julia Clem,
Content Editor at Best Pick Reports.
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