Recommendations from satisfied clients, whether they’re in person or online, provide an excellent way to generate leads. Although negative comments are always a concern, there are a few things you can do to reduce that risk.

Make It Easy for Customers to Submit Testimonials for Your Construction Website

At the conclusion of the project, send an email to clients and ask them to provide a testimonial for your construction website. If you create a standard testimonial request email, it will only take a few minutes for you to send the request. In some cases, you’ll also need to send a quick follow-up email to remind clients of your request.

Review Testimonials First

It may sound like an obvious step, but it’s important to ensure that submitted testimonials don’t go live on your site until you review them. If your website includes a testimonial form, ask your website designer to ensure that testimonials appear hidden from view until you physically activate them.

Don’t include testimonials on your site if they aren’t completely favorable. Even if 90 percent of the testimonial is positive, prospective clients may only remember the negative portion. If your customer raves about the quality of the work, but mentions having to clean up cigarette butts from his yard, clients may think twice about using your company.

When you get a testimonial with mixed messages, contact the client to find out what you can do to increase his or her satisfaction. If you just ignore those comments, you may later discover that the client has posted similar comments on online review sites.

Reducing Negative Comments on Review Sites

Unlike your own site, you have no control over what clients post on Yelp and other review sites. Unfortunately, an unfavorable review can affect your company’s sales. Eighty-six percent of people surveyed by Dimensional Research reported that reading negative online reviews impacted their buying decisions.

Although you can’t completely prevent negative comments, there are several things you can do to reduce the risk, including:

• Contact Clients at the Conclusion of Projects: Get in touch with clients and make sure they’re happy with the work. Ask if there is anything they would change. If you promptly correct any problems you learn about during this conversation, you’ll head off negative reviews.

• Ask Satisfied Clients to Post Reviews: When you send the email requesting testimonials for your construction website, also ask clients to post positive reviews on Facebook, Yelp or other sites. If you do get a negative review occasionally, prospective clients may be more swayed by all of the positive reviews they see.

• Provide an Easy Way for Clients to Get in Touch with You: Give clients several methods to get in touch with you, such as office number, cell phone number and email address, and respond promptly when they contact you. If you are willing to address issues and correct problems during the construction process, clients will have nothing to complain about when the project is completed.

Testimonials and positive reviews offer a simple, free way to build client confidence in your company. Why not take advantage of them to improve your market share?