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You Can’t Just Wing it When it Comes to Collecting Online Reviews

When blogging was still a novelty, I wrote a silly little blog for friends and family with what I like to call my “quippy observations.” One of the regular features was movie reviews that used a chicken wing-based rating system.  I know,…

Coke – A Lesson in Branding for Service Contractors

No matter what your deep-seated opinion about what the best soda may be, Coke has a premium brand that all service contractors can both appreciate and strive to reproduce. Coca-Cola’s march to market domination was driven by forced ingenuity…
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Modern Tools for Service Contractors, Part 3: Outbound Sales and Marketing

Both residential and commercial service contractors rely heavily on new sales for growth. Where residential contractors rely on converting inbound leads, commercial contractors lean on a mix of inbound and outbound tactics. This post lays…
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Modern Tools for Service Contractors, Part 3: Outbound Sales and Marketing

Unlike residential field service companies, commercial service contractors rely heavily on new sales for growth.  For the residential contractors reading this post, please skip to the section below about MailChimp as it contains insights that…

Modern Tools for Service Contractors, Part 2: Inbound Marketing

When folks ask me about working in a small business, I point to the imaginary hat rack in the corner and say "I get to wear every single hat on that rack depending on the weather."  This analogy is especially true for owners and managers in…
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Online Customer Engagement is Bad Yelp Review Kryptonite

I found this story on “Yelp Terrorism” amusing.  It seems that the owner of a Massachusetts jewelry store, George Pelz, was “terrorized” by an anonymous Yelp reviewer that claimed all manner of poor customer service, fraud, and malfeasance.…
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Google Home Services and its Impact on Small and Medium Businesses

As we’ve been talking about for a while, Google is making a move into home services. This week we have a first look at how Google may be inserting itself into service delivery for customers who are using the search engine to find a vendor. Google…

Time-Saving Tips for Managing Social Media

Let’s assume that you’re active in social media because you know that service contractors need to be visible beyond the times when you’re at a customer’s facility. Let’s assume that you know how important it is for a service company…
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Nearby Now & ServiceTrade Can Improve Your Local Search Results

Consumers no longer turn to the yellow pages, newspaper ads, or direct mail to find the best service contractors. Instead, they turn to Google to answer the question "Who should I call?"  To address this change ServiceTrade is happy to announce…