Learn how to effectively manage the online reputation of your HVAC business with our comprehensive guide. Discover expert strategies to enhance customer satisfaction, handle negative reviews, and build a positive brand image in the competitive HVAC industry.

What do customers think about your HVAC company? That’s a big question you must answer.

Statistics show that 63% of a company’s market value depends on its reputation. In other words, if customers don’t have positive thoughts about your HVAC business, you’ll lose more than half your potential revenue.

To ensure that’s not the case, you must invest in reputation management. Here, we’ll discuss how you can develop a working strategy and the tools to employ.

Importance of HVAC Reputation Management 

Investing in reputation management for your HVAC isn’t a mistake. And here are why:

Building trust

According to Natalie Doyle Oldfield, a Forbes Councils Member:

“No longer is it good enough for companies to have the best product or the best service. To grow and succeed, companies must have the trust of their customers…”

And we agree with that.

The reason is customers want to deal with brands they trust. And that’s where reputation management comes in. It provides you with an action plan to gain customer trust.

Controlling the narratives 

Not every customer will be happy with your services.

Sadly, some of them will spread the word about your business, negatively impacting your reputation. And this could mean lost potential sales since most consumers read reviews before buying.

A solid reputation management strategy provides you with action plans to deal with this kind of issue, allowing you to control the narratives.  

Retaining customers

Reputation management helps you retain existing customers.

This is good because it’s far more affordable to sell to existing customers than to convert new ones. Also, research shows that about 80% of your revenue will come from about 20% of your customers.

Additionally, the top five brands across several industries boast a 94% customer retention rate. So, having returning customers is crucial to business success.

And this is not possible without a reputation management strategy.

Improving conversion rate

The average global conversion rate is 3.68%.

It means that only four in 100 people will buy from you after visiting your website. And this is scary. 

However, investing in reputation management means you don’t have to worry about this. It lets you leverage word-of-mouth marketing and social proofs to improve your numbers. Also, a solid online reputation means you don’t need to spend much to convince customers to patronize you.

How to Manage Online Reputation For HVAC Businesses

Action these tips to create an actionable reputation management strategy for your HVAC business:

Strategy #1: Optimize Your Website

Begin by optimizing your business for search engines, most especially Google. Also, ensure that your site is fast-loading and easy to navigate.

Research keywords your customers are most likely to enter when searching for your services online to optimize your pages. Pay attention to the search volume and trend to ensure you don’t waste time on keywords with less potential. Also, we recommend you mark up the pages with  HVAC schema to provide more context to search engines, improving your ranking.

Next, build quality backlinks to the page to improve your rankings. Our favorite platform for this Adsy. You can check out our Adsy review to see the exact ways we use this tool. 

Pro Tip: How to rank on the Google First Page

Strategy #2: Leverage Online Listings

List your business on all relevant online business directories. 

These include platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, Angi, and others. Importantly, ensure the details you enter on the platforms are consistent.

The reason is, if you claim to be an HVAC split system expert on Yelp and a duct-free system specialist on Google My Business, customers will find it difficult to trust your brand, even Google. 

Avoid this by ensuring a consistent NAP citation.

Pro Tip: Here are over 100 local directories to list your HVAC business.

Strategy #3: Provide Quality Service

Quality services are essential to reputation management. 

Businesses that fall short of expectations often end in customers’ bad books.  A study found that about 66% of customers expect companies to understand their needs, which is critical to offering a good service.

Note that providing quality transcends the material standard of your HVAC products. It’s also crucial to maintain a professional, courteous, and transparent profile when dealing with clients.

Pro Tip: Use Collect Chat to understand what customers want and exceed them.

Strategy #4: Collect Positive Customer Reviews

Getting lots of positive reviews can enhance your online reputation. Stats show that 49% of customers will only patronize a business with up to 4-star ratings. 

Tell buyer B that your products are the best and they may remain skeptical. But if they get the same info from buyer A, doubts easily fly out the window.

So, you need as much positive feedback as you can get from existing customers. Ask satisfied clients to drop reviews and ratings, then, add their comments to your website and online directories.

Pro Tip: Build a referral marketing strategy

Strategy #5: Follow Up Feedback

Not all customers will drop a positive review. 

So, ensure you reply to the customer to control the narrative. Try to know what went wrong and proffer a win-win solution. Continue to engage until you are sure the customer is satisfied. 

Besides, responding to customers’ reviews shows you care.

Additionally, it increases brand engagement, rating, and visibility. And may also turn happy customers into brand advocates. 

Pro Tip: Reply to all customer reviews. 

Strategy #6: Engage on Social Media

Much talk about your HVAC business will happen on social media, especially Twitter and Facebook. 

If you don’t have a strong presence on these platforms, controlling the narrative becomes challenging.

Prioritize the platforms your target audience is most active on. Also, display your major recognitions and awards on your profile, and engage customers via comments and DMs.

Put out quality posts, guides, and videos that show your expertise in the HVAC space from time to time. 

Also, track your mentions and quickly address narratives that may damage your reputation. Occasionally, share positive reviews from happy customers to influence public perception.

Pro Tip: Use Sendible to manage social media.

Top 8 HVAC Reputation Management Tools

Here are our favorite tools for managing HVAC online reputation. 

1. Sendible 

Best use case: know what’s the talk on social media and manage your profiles as a pro

Sensible is a social media management solution. You can employ the tool for strategy #6 to automatically engage customers on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. The tool will also work for monitoring mentions. 

2. Collect Chat 

Best use case: get customer feedback

Here’s a tool for sourcing customer feedback and reviews in real-time. So, we recommend it for strategy #4 and #5. With Collect Chat, you can hear from your customers via chatbots, forms, surveys, and more.

3. Loyal Zoo: 

Best use case: Build engagement and customer loyalty for repeat businesses

Loyal Zoo works to launch loyalty programs — where you reward your best customers. Therefore, it can help you offer a quality HVAC service, making it workable for strategy #3.

4. Surfer SEO 

Best use case: create quality, high-ranking content for thought leadership

Strategy #1 deals with search engine optimization. And when it comes to SEO, there are not many platforms better than Surfer. The tool will work for crafting original content with the right keywords, placing your HVAC site atop SERPs.

5. Adsy 

Best use case: guest post on high-authority blogs to build positive digital footprints.

Influencers control the narrative on social media nowadays, making investing in influencer marketing highly rewarding. Adsy can help with that as it connects you with hundreds of HVAC industry publishers.

6. Trustpilot 

Best use case: get positive customer reviews for trust-based marketing.

Trustpilot is arguably the most popular online review platform. Your HVAC customers most likely visit it. Therefore, you should encourage satisfied customers to drop reviews on the platform for maximum visibility.

7. Google Business Profile 

Best use case: Appear for local searches and get reviews from nearby customers.

Many online business directories will work for strategy #2. But if you’re to use just one, it must be Google Business. The reason is that it’s a sure way to highlight your business on Google search results. 

8. TrustIndex WordPress Plugin

Best use case: embed customer reviews on your pages to instill trust.

It helps to display the Trustpilot or Google My Business customer reviews on your website. The WordPress plugin makes it effortless. 

Final Thought On HVAC Reputation Management Strategy

Reputation management isn’t a one-time activity. It’s continuous because your HVAC business must always maintain a positive image to succeed.

We recommend that you stay flexible with your strategy. Adjust it accordingly as you uncover more opportunities to show your HVAC brand in good light. Also, keep an eye on our HVAC marketing page to always know what’s trending in the industry.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Does HVAC Brand Reputation Management Work?

HVAC brand reputation works by spreading positive information about your business. You can do this by meeting customers’ expectations and collecting favorable feedback.

What Are the Essential Elements of Reputation Management for HVAC Businesses?

The essential elements of reputation management for HVAC businesses include:

• Requesting feedback
• Monitoring and addressing online mentions
• Providing quality service
• Maintaining consistent info on online listings 

Are Customer Reviews Essential for Online Reputation Management?

Yes, customer reviews are essential for online reputation management. A customer will not believe you’re a reliable HVAC business because you say so. But they’ll readily agree if the information is coming from a co-customer.

How Much Does HVAC Reputation Management Cost?

HVAC reputation management cost depends on the tools you use. However, generally, it’s at least $500 per month.

How Do I Get Enough Customer Reviews for My HVAC Website?

You can get enough customer reviews for your HVAC website by requesting ratings from multiple channels. Use chatbots, landing pages, surveys, email, phone, social media, and online directories.