Internal Survey: Customer reviews help create new business opportunities

• 98.34% of consumers give skilled tradespeople positive ratings
• Just 1.66% give negative ratings, with 81.72% of negative ratings being accompanied by a written comment
• Active requests for feedback produce 34 more ratings on average

BERLIN, November 14, 2018 — Skilled trades are booming in Germany, but the next generation of craftsmen are too few to fill the rising demand. For tilers, painters and other skilled tradespeople, this trend has clear implications: a good reputation goes a long way to attracting customers and, perhaps, young talent as well. According to an internal survey conducted among skilled tradespeople by the ratings and reviews platform ProvenExpert.com, customers who avail themselves of skilled trade services are very vocal about their experience. More than half of consumers respond to requests for feedback, often providing more than a mere numerical rating. „Feedback from customers is accompanied in 69.46% of cases by a written review“, says Remo Fyda, CEO of ProvenExpert. This exceeds the average seen in other industries. Matthias Schultze, managing director of the Hannover-based professional painting service provider HEYSE Malerfachbetrieb, understands the importance of leveraging these high rates of feedback for the good of his businesses — today and in the future. He's convinced: „The brand is growing as the number of reviews and ratings increases“.

The right place at the right time: customer reviews build trust

When customers want to get a good haircut, build a house or repaint their living room, they do their research first — and they mostly do it online. 97% of consumers use the Internet to find local businesses. Having an online presence is therefore essential to increasing exposure and attracting new customers. And for skilled trades, customer feedback rates are particularly high — 98.34% of that feedback is positive, with 69.25% of ratings being accompanied by a written review. „Particularly remarkable here is how often dissatisfied customers leave detailed comments“, says ratings and reviews expert Fyda. According to ProvenExpert's internal survey, 81.72% of negative ratings are accompanied by a written review. However, proportionally speaking, the amount of negative feedback is extremely low at just 1.66% of all ratings. Customer ratings are worth their weight in gold — even the bad ones. What matters is how you respond, says master painter Schultze. Schultze actively uses customer feedback across all online customer touchpoints, including his blog, website and social media channels. „Integrating customer reviews and ratings has paved the way for lots of new business for us. Not to use it would be simply reckless.“

Customer opinions: it never hurts to ask

From haircuts to painting to electrical work, according to ProvenExpert's internal survey, most ratings of skilled trades are left on Google (12.68%) and Facebook (12.23%) and are linked to individual user profiles. These are followed by KennstDuEinen (2.30%), golocal (2.04%), yelp (1.77%), houzz (0.80%) and myhammer (0.62%). Knowing what people are saying about your business, and where they're saying it, enables you to respond quickly. „And that makes you more accessible online and off and, hence, more credible“, says Fyda. Schultze is also a fan of using a wide range of online channels to collect customer feedback. What matters most is that you respond quickly and consistently: „All the reviews and ratings we get are displayed on our ProvenExpert profile. This gives potential customers a quick and comprehensive overview.“ According to ProvenExpert's internal survey, skilled tradespeople tend to their online reputations very actively — 48.7% use industry-specific surveys to request feedback from their customers. And it's paying off: active requests for feedback generate 34 more ratings on average. The painting specialists at HEYSE Malerfachbetrieb send feedback requests with 10% of the approximately 80 invoices they issue each month. „Normally, 98% of these result in positive feedback, and customers are fine with taking the time to respond“, says Schultze. Getting feedback can be a slow process at times. But it's worth the wait.

Endless possibilities: taking control of your image

Consumers on the hunt for a quality skilled tradesperson perform only 1 to 3 online searches. According to ProvenExpert's internal survey, the overall average rating for skilled trades is 4.68 stars ("VERY GOOD"). Users who actively collect ratings via ProvenExpert have an even better average rating of 4.81 starts. And it isn't just stars — customers always leave words of appreciation with their ratings, says Schultze. With 571 ratings and an average score of 4.94 stars ("VERY GOOD") at the time of writing, Schultze certainly has a reason to be proud. Authentic reviews and feedback act as a credible and extremely important business card for skilled tradespeople. Schultze explains: Since we have such a positive online reputation, we're able to demand higher prices because our customers know we're worth it. . Looking to the future, the benefits of customer feedback may also help make skilled trades an attractive option for the next generation.

About ProvenExpert

Together with Remo Fyda as CEO, ProvenExpert.com has become one of the best-known online platforms for qualified customer feedback and review aggregation in the region of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Since 2011, the referral marketing platform offers targeted industry surveys that companies can customize and use in a matter of minutes to start collecting feedback from customers. The surveys provide detailed insight into the needs of customers and their satisfaction levels, as well as helping to uncover new business potential. The resulting feedback can be easily used for online marketing purposes with ProvenExpert's rating seal and profile and combined with customer reviews from over 370 websites like Facebook, Google, and other platforms. Nearly 50,000 freelancers, entrepreneurs and large companies use ProvenExpert.com's online surveys to collect customer feedback.