The home service industry is going through tremendous growth. Most homeowners hire home service providers for help due to time constraints and a lack of the right skills. As a result, many giant conglomerates, including Google and Amazon, have gotten in on the action.
I've worked in the home service industry to build a growing eight-figure garage door repair and service business. It hasn't easy, and there have dozens of obstacles in the way, but I've been able to make it happen. If you're also in the home services industry - or are thinking about entering it - here are six ways you can jump on trends in this booming industry.
Cater to "Aging" Baby Boomers
- Always offer specific discounts for AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) or retirement areas -- we got the best results by offering 10 percent off.
- Get listed on Bing. Most people focus only on Google, but since many baby boomers use Internet Explorer and Bing is its default search engine, you'll be able to get more baby boomers to know about your service by making sure that you rank high on Bing.
- If you're a family business, include the phrase, "Family owned and operated" on your site. Baby boomers grew up in a time where this was very important - this can be the deciding factor for them when choosing a company.
Tap Into Your Customer's Needs Using CRMs
CRMs (customer relationship management tools) make conducting business easy and convenient. In fact, they have become integral to modern business, as business owners can analyze and meet customer needs more easily. Now, we can track our clients' feedback, get an accurate estimate of our marketing ROI, send out customer surveys, and have daily reports in real time to let us know how our employees are performing.
Hire the Right People: Always Be Top Grading
- Post an ad everywhere: on Linkedin, Craigslist, Indeed, Career Builder, Monster and ZipRecruiter.
- Perform a personality test (e.g. DiSC profiling) to match the candidate's personality to the job.
- Conduct a background check and drug test each applicant - we use IntelliCorp. Your employee is the face of your business. Most of the time they will have to enter your clients' homes, so trust is a crucial factor.
Take Advantage of Technology
Always be aware of the cutting-edge technology in your industry. Offer it to your customers and see how well it performs. For example, innovations in our garage door industry, like Liftmasters MyQ technology, allows homeowners to see from their mobile device if their garage was left open. We tested new marketing campaigns and offered it as an upgrade to every customer. Needless to say, the technology helped boost sales and changed the game for us.
Build Your Reputation Online
- List your business name, address and phone number on as many directory sites as possible. This helps the search engine find you.
- Have clients who are friends and family leave a review (just make sure you actually did work for them).
- Create profiles on every social media site out there: Google+, Facebook, Instagram, Houzz, Pinterest and more.
Follow the Market Booms
- Job growth (new cities that are attracting large companies)
- Low costs and high wages, which indicates a lucrative area
- A good ratio between rents and purchase prices
- Good climate (baby boomers tend to retire in areas with nicer weather)
Tommy Mello is the owner of A1 Garage Door Service, a ten-million-dollar per year company. He is a partner of Highest Cast Offer and a partner or owner of over 14 other businesses.