Local service Ads and Stanley Steemer

[Lehighrug]

I bought a carpet business in a decent size town and area but not a big city(they are 1 or more away. The person I bought the business said he tried local service ads but didn't like them when they first started up. In the last year or more I have noticed a downtrend in calls. I also noticed Stanley Steemer has gone in 2 years from under 40 reviews to well over 400!!

I wonder if not having local service ads has been the reason for this. I recently setup for local service ads and they went live on Friday. Got my first call today and booked a nice job. I was wondering a few things(By the way you HAVE to pick your zip codes you want that are top zip codes for any google ads to cut down on getting calls from lower end customers that are just searching price!)

1- Any tips for other improvements to make local ads work better?
2- How have people dealt with the competition from stanley Steemer?
3-I believe that the reason STanley has gotten so many reviews is that google uses local ads to push for reviews of the companies that are called is this true?(important)

Anything else that will help me compete against Steemer and do better with google ads please let me know and thanks!

 

[pgcleaner]

I get a lot of business from GLSA. I am usually right at the top. My advice:

Pay the most for a lead. Charge a lot for your service.

You will only close 50% of leads because half of all the people that call you are looking for the $99 dollar special. The other half would happily pay you a small fortune to solve their problem.

In my experience, there are 2 types of customers. The first wants the absolute cheapest price, and they will call every single carpet cleaner in your town, until they find that poor soul so desperate for work, that they will come clean a whole house for $76.

The second type of customer does not care about price at all. They usually don't ask for an estimate over the phone. I'm other words, they trust you.

Just know that you can't stop the cheapos from you calling you, even at $29 per call, lol. Just gotta deal with it.

Please note, this formula won't work if you charge cheap prices. You have to charge a good rate to make up for the lost lead costs.

 

[TMD]

I get a lot of business from GLSA. I am usually right at the top. My advice:

Pay the most for a lead. Charge a lot for your service.

You will only close 50% of leads because half of all the people that call you are looking for the $99 dollar special. The other half would happily pay you a small fortune to solve their problem.

In my experience, there are 2 types of customers. The first wants the absolute cheapest price, and they will call every single carpet cleaner in your town, until they find that poor soul so desperate for work, that they will come clean a whole house for $76.

The second type of customer does not care about price at all. They usually don't ask for an estimate over the phone. I'm other words, they trust you.

Just know that you can't stop the cheapos from you calling you, even at $29 per call, lol. Just gotta deal with it.

Please note, this formula won't work if you charge cheap prices. You have to charge a good rate to make up for the lost lead costs.

Exactly. Rug leads are local services are the worst too.

 

[John Rockwood]

You will not win in trying to compete with Stanley. You need to understand that they have their business model and you should develop yours.
Think of ACE vs Home Depot. Ace has built their business model on personal service and expert advise not selling pallets of lumber at a discounted price.
When I go to HD I'm not looking for expert advise or personal service but when I go to ACE or local building suppliers I am and don't mind paying a higher price.

You could tell price shoppers upfront that they should call SS for price and select you for being local, honest, have the experience and you're not going to try and pull the wool over their eyes for a hundred bucks.
Being honest with people will do more for you than you will ever imagine.

Referrals and repeats are the 100% guaranteed best business model you can develop.

 

[OxiFreshGuy]

Agreed - Stanley Steemer is the lower quality option - set yourself apart, don't be afraid to come right out and say you are high quality and all of your costs are built in, while Stanley usually has extra fees when they show up.