If your home care agency isn’t actively requesting client reviews on search engines like Google and Yahoo or social media platforms like Facebook, you’re missing a big piece of the marketing puzzle.
Client reviews are very helpful resources for both prospective clients and prospective employees who are vetting your agency for themselves or a loved one.
Why do I Need Client Reviews?
Let’s look at this from a personal perspective. If you drove down the road trying to decide where to eat and you came across two restaurants, which would you choose?
- The venue that is painted and well-maintained with a parking lot full of cars
- The building that has peeling paint, a falling sign, and only one car in the parking lot
This analogy holds true for online reputation management as well. If you’re shopping around on the internet looking for a restaurant, are you going to choose the one with over 100 positive reviews or the one that has three stars and numerous negative reviews or no reviews at all?
What to Ask For in a Review
When your agency asks someone to take the time to provide a review, providing examples of what to put in a review can be helpful.
There are plenty of people out there who would be more than happy to send in a positive review of your company, but they might not know what to say or how to begin.
Providing suggestions like these might help get someone started:
- We’d love your feedback on the care we’ve been providing to you or your loved one.
- Would you be willing to share what your favorite thing is about the service we provide?
- Would you recommend our caregivers to your friends or family? If so, why?
- In a few sentences, can you tell us what you love most about your caregiver?
Always ask your clients to be honest because that assures them that you want their real feedback and that you have a genuine interest in their input. Having that type of insight into your services and staff members can help you fix problems you might not have known you had or confirm that your agency is doing its job right.
Another thing to keep in mind is how your agency chooses to word the request. Do you want a client review or a client testimonial? Keep that in mind when you ask for one.
Reviews include honest feedback from your client – good or bad. They are usually placed on online review sites, search engine listings, and social media pages.
Testimonials, on the other hand, are exclusively positive. They are typically used for marketing purposes such as a quote that can be used on your website or in a brochure.
When Should Your Agency Staff Ask For Client Reviews
One of the biggest challenges in asking for a review is to know when the right time is to ask for it.
Any time you have a good conversation with a client, you should ask for a review or testimonial. Whether it’s an in-person discussion or a phone call, make sure you tell the client you would value their honest feedback about their experience with your agency.
Be sure to inform them you’ll be emailing them a link to your review site so they know to keep an eye out for it.
How to Ask for Client Reviews
The process is as simple as asking, “Would you please give us a positive review on our Google Business Profile or Facebook page?”
Notice the word “positive” strategically placed into the request. It’s a subliminal way of asking someone to say something nice about your agency or staff. By adding that one word, you’re encouraging the testimonial or review to be positive rather than generic.
It’s also helpful to let the client know that providing a review or testimonial is an easy and quick process. Say something like this: “To make it super easy for you, here is the link for our Google Business Profile and here is the link for our Facebook page. You can simply click on Reviews and add yours to the list!”
Just make sure you have the links to those pages handy.
It’s also easy to create a QR code to put on business cards, brochures, or mailers. Just keep in mind not everyone knows how to use a QR code, especially older demographics. Providing a simple link in an email that says “Click here!” might be better depending on the situation.
Always Say “Thank You!”
It’s important to acknowledge the review you received from your client as soon as possible. Whether it’s a positive or negative review, never let a review go unanswered for more than one week.
Your agency wants to express interest in receiving reviews, but being responsive to reviews in a timely manner also helps with search engine optimization (SEO).
When your agency responds to reviews, try to include some of your agency’s marketing keywords in the reply.
Here are a few examples:
- We’re so happy to hear that you’re getting great care from Sally. She’s one of the many caregivers we have at our home care agency who truly cares about clients and feels her job is a calling, not a profession.
- The keywords in this response are caregivers and home care agency.
- Thank you so much for taking the time to send in this review about our home care agency. Thank you for being such a hardworking caregiver and providing such great care to your clients.
- The keywords again are home care agency and caregiver.
- We here at Healing Hands Home Care are so thankful for your review of our agency. More importantly, we’re glad to know you’re pleased with the care your mom is receiving from our staff. Thank you for letting us know!
- The keyword here is your agency’s full name.
Feel free to play around with your responses. Even using an AI tool like ChatGPT to help you craft your responses can be helpful, as long as you’re not including any private information or data in the response.
This can be helpful because you want each response to be unique and personal rather than repeating the same thing over and over. If your reviewers see the same reply to every review, it could make them feel like you’re not truly interested in their feedback because you didn’t take the time to provide an individualized response.
How to Handle Negative Reviews
Take negative reviews offline. Do not engage in a back-and-forth conversation with an unhappy client or former employee on a review channel.
If the person complaining continues to rant in the review space after you reply to them, you’ve shown by your initial response that you are open to having a conversation with them verbally to address the issues. If they refuse to contact your office, they obviously don’t have any desire to find a true fix to the problem.
Below are some examples of how you can take the discussion offline.
- We’re so sorry to hear your expectations have not been met. Please reach out to our office administrator as soon as possible, so we can get this issue resolved ASAP!
- We want to make sure you’re getting the best care possible, so please call our office as soon as possible so we can figure out a solution.
- We’d love to set up an exit interview with you to find out more about why you were unhappy at our agency. Please reach out to our office administrator soon so we can set that up.
In Closing
While asking for a client review can seem scary because you are opening yourself up to honest feedback, that information can be helpful for your agency in many ways.
From rooting out unknown problems to bolstering your reputation within your community, client reviews and testimonials are must haves for home care agencies, so make sure you’re asking for them frequently.
Does your home care agency have questions about sustainability and growth? If so, reach out to your home care software partner and have some strategic conversations to help you plan out and achieve your goals.