How to Get 5-Star Reviews for Your Lawn Care Business

Most of your clients read your reviews before they buy your services, which means it's VITAL that you know how to get 5-star reviews for your lawn care business.

While there are many fantastic ways to promote your lawn care business, 5-star reviews can actually help market your business for you.

If your clients like what you do, they’ll tell other people about it. They’ll tell friends, family, coworkers, or neighbors. They might even talk you up on social media or post a great online review about you.

When it comes to online reviews, you want two kinds of them: 5-star reviews and new 5-star reviews (and lots of them!).

5-star reviews for your lawn care business serve as free advertising, give your business greater visibility, set you above your competitors, and can increase your revenue.

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How 5-Star Reviews Work for Your Lawn Care Business

Generally, 5-star reviews are considered the modern day equivalent of word of mouth referrals for the internet age.

Nearly 90% of consumers read online reviews to determine the quality of a local business, and 39% do so on a regular basis.

Here's the deal, consumers read online reviews because they trust them:

• 88% say they trust online reviews as much as recommendations from neighbors and friends
• 70% say positive reviews make them trust a local business more
• 85% of customers will only trust a business with at least 10 positive reviews

However, just as positive online reviews create trust in a business, negative online reviews have become the #1 factor that causes consumers to form negative opinions.

While nearly nine out of 10 consumers will base their buying decisions on online reviews, 80% will change their minds based on negative reviews.

Additionally, only 14% will even think of doing business with a company with online reviews averaging two stars or less. Plus, 19% will take their business elsewhere after reading a single bad review.

5-start reviews for your lawn care business have the power to do many things:

• Drive up your overall average rating
• Clients are more likely to disregard negative reviews if it's surrounded by positive ones
• Make your business appear higher in search engine rankings in places like Google or Bing

In turn, positive, online, 5-star reviews are critical to any local business, especially lawn care owners.

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The Most Important Places to Have Online Reviews

Did you know, the location of your online reviews is just as important as the quality of them?

These are the main places to get reviews:

• Facebook business page
• Google Business
• Yelp

Also, small business listings are a great place to collect reviews, generate leads, and get referrals.

At a minimum, make sure your lawn care business is listed in these places:

• Thumbtack
• HomeAdvisor
• Angi (formerly Angie's List)

5 Pro Tips to Get More 5-Star Lawn Care Business Reviews

Always remember, your main goal is to make it as easy as possible for your happiest clients to leave reviews.

While you shouldn't be afraid to ask your happy clients for reviews, you don't want to pester them either.

As a general rule of thumb, don't ask for a review when you send them the bill, and don't try to get all of your reviews at once.

Instead, try these pro tips to increase your 5-star reviews for your lawn care business:

1. Ask for a review in-person after a client is really pleased with your work. Appeal to their empathy. Tell them how much a 5-star review would mean to you. Before you leave, don't forget to give them your lawn care business card or flyer so they know where to leave reviews for you.
2. Ask for reviews on your website—but only where your satisfied clients go.
3. Include links to review sites in your email signatures.
4. Request a review by email or text after they’ve returned a positive survey (you can easily do this using Service Autopilot!).
5. Find ways to offer incentives in exchange for reviews. Try online review competitions or raffles. For example, everyone who writes a review will be automatically entered to win a gift card, iPhone, or a free lawn care service. However, to avoid legal implications, keep in mind that you have to offer the same incentive to everyone - even the bad reviews.

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How to Respond to Your Lawn Care Business' Online Reviews

In general, online reviews are a great way to build relationships with your customers, maintain your reputation, and show your leads that you have the best, high-quality lawn care services around.

Reviews come in three categories:

1. Good
2. Lukewarm
3. Bad

Here are some tips for responding to each type of online lawn care business review...

Good Reviews - 4 Stars or Better

1. Gather any information you can about the client. Try to find out who they are without stepping on their toes.
2. Within a week or less, thank them for their time and kind words. Let them know you'll be sharing their review with your team. This will reinforce your company's commitment to customer satisfaction.
3. Write a clever, original response for each good review. Give a few sentences highlighting the lawn care services and other key information other leads might be interested in. If you can, use keywords.

Lukewarm Reviews - 3 Stars or Less

1. Within 12 hours or less, address the review.
2. Gather as many details as you can to find the client and contact them directly. If you can't, provide a way for them to contact you.
3. Let the client know you hear and empathize with their concerns. Ask for more details without making excuses, deflecting responsibility, or assuming you know about everything that happened.
4. Highlight—and thank the client— for the positive aspects of their review.
5. Acknowledge and repeat any positive elements of their comment.

Bad Reviews - 1 Star

1. Respond as soon as possible, try to directly contact the client, and gather as many details as possible. If you can't identify the client, let them know in your public response.
2. Tell the client that you take their concerns very seriously. Let them know this type of situation doesn't typically happen and that you're acknowledging their concerns. Also, inform them you'll be discussing this issue with your team to resolve it in the future. Don't lecture, attack, accuse, or patronize the client. Use caring, yet professional, language in your response.
3. Assume nothing. Ask for as many details as possible - without making excuses or deflecting responsibility. Document all the steps you take to address and rectify the issue.

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Use 5-Star Reviews to Grow Your Lawn Care Business

Always remember, don’t let negative feedback bring you down.

If you put in the work and make your lawn care clients happy, you're more likely to get more referrals and 5-star reviews for your lawn care business.

If you follow these simple strategies, pretty soon, all you'll have to worry about is how you’re going to get all your work done with your new influx of clients, and that’s a pretty great problem to have...

Related: Lawn Care Marketing: The Best 11.5 Ideas

Originally published Jan 25, 2017, updated June 8, 2021 8:51 AM