Have you ever wondered what traits your potential customers seek when hiring a tradesperson? Have you also wondered how your business can win customers and achieve your growth goals by fine-tuning how you present yourself? Thanks to new research, we can bring you the most sought-after characteristics that tradespeople should hold to ensure your business succeeds.
Thanks to the teams at ElectricalDirect and My Local Toolbox, they combined to review over 10,000 online reviews of tradespeople to determine the most common attributes customers have listed about their tradespeople. Let's look at the top 10 and find ways to help your business achieve these qualities.
Running a trade business is a challenging feat. You wear many hats and handle various areas, all whilst managing customer expectations. Ensuring that your customers are happy with you and your work is the most important aspect of your job. Analysis showed that customers value professionalism above everything else. More often than not, more than two in five (42%) commented about the professionalism of their tradesman or woman and how they prefer this trait.
Professionalism may seem like a throw-away term, but you must work at it to achieve it. Listening to various tradespeople online, professionalism stems from everything, including your appearance, timekeeping, how long the job takes, communication, how well you do the job, your knowledge and how clean you keep the site.
Therefore, professionalism can be seen as the tree trunk, and every other trait is a branch coming off of this. With that said, the second trait most customers prefer is the quality of work, with 34% responding with this and punctuality being a distant third, with only 13% of respondents saying of its importance.
When examining all trades, customers scored Electricians as their number one pick for their perceived value for money, the third best for replying to queries, and the top five for arriving on time.
Electricians, in particular, come under the spotlight when assessing the data. This is because customers appreciate that when they hire a tradesperson, they are punctual and arrive on time. The report even goes as far as to suggest that customers prefer this more than the quality of work aspect - colour us shocked!
It could be for this reason that customers prefer to offer Electricians and Plumbers the most amount of tea when they are on the job. We found data to suggest that customers treat Electricians and Plumbers better than other trades in the industry.
The chief characteristics customers value in their Electricians:
To get a better understanding of what customers prefer, especially when it comes to Electricians, the figures showed the following to be the top 10 in order of valuable traits:
Presenting your trade business as professional, dependable and trustworthy takes time and effort. From your replies to messages to your persona on-site and the overall way you present yourself will ultimately win over your prospective clients. Areas you can work on include:
Let's get visible
Tradesmen and women need to be visible online and offline. That means ensuring you have a thriving social media presence showcasing the variety of work you do. Post before and after pictures of your work, film yourself on-site, share knowledge about a specific area of your trade, and let people see who you are and how you conduct your business.
It also involves more tangible areas like ensuring your van is wrapped with a decal that presents your business professionally. Feature your name, phone number, social media profiles and services provided. On top, keep your van clean; customers want to avoid messy tradespeople in their property. Likewise, dress impeccably. Wearing custom-made workwear that is clean, tidy and fits is a sure way to catapult yourself to the professional-looking stratosphere.
There are many ways to build your brand online and demonstrate your professionalism. Learn more from our blog post here.
Register on listing websites
Technology is your friend as a tradesperson, so take advantage of it to build confidence in prospective customers. Registering for sites like Google, Trustpilot, Apple Maps and more trade-related websites like Book a Builder and Check a Trade will help share up-to-date information on your business.
Creating profiles on each platform will allow you to share your company address, working hours, contact details, and customer testimonials. You can even share your profile for available work on the more specific trade websites.
Ask for reviews
The significance of customer feedback cannot be overlooked, and plenty of tradespeople within the industry state how much reviews help with their business. Trust is key in the trades, and positive feedback will not only help with your brand but also helps people gain a perspective of what you are like to hire.
When finishing a job, ask your clients for a review and inform them where to leave it. This will help to build strong and positive online awareness of who you are, how you do business and what future customers can expect from you.
Rhino Trade Insurance has over 2000 five-star reviews complimenting us on our insurance services and more.
Remember to advertise that you are fully insured
Tradespeople need to be sure to share that their business is fully insured so that the customer can have peace of mind that everything will be covered in case of an accident.
The trade industry is beset with risk; one wrong move could spell disaster for your business. Ensuring you are fully covered and protected in various circumstances will help keep your business strong and the doors open.
The team at Rhino have trade insurance experts who can provide bespoke coverage options for your business ranging from Public Liability Insurance, Employers' Liability Insurance, Personal Accident Insurance, Tool Cover and many more valuable options.
Find out more by contacting one of our wonderful team today.
Rhino Trade Insurance focuses all our time and efforts on the trade industry. Because of this, we can offer top-quality, tailored insurance coverage at an affordable rate. We speak to thousands of tradesmen and women from across the UK daily and mould our offerings to fit the latest industry requirements.
If your business is looking for a comprehensive trade insurance suite, call our team today on 0116 243 7904 or head to our straightforward quote engine to get a price in just 60 seconds.
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