December 9, 2024 • 28 mins
Unlock the secrets to mastering reviews and setting your business apart from the crowd. Join us on the Standing Out in Ohio podcast as we promise to transform your approach to year-end planning with strategic insights for real estate professionals and entrepreneurs. Discover how understanding your numbers, particularly in marketing, can equip you with a powerful roadmap for the year ahead. We emphasize the untapped potential of referrals and share actionable advice on how you can become a magnet for them. Our candid discussion extends to the invaluable experiences gleaned from mastermind groups, offering fresh perspectives and solutions to whatever challenges you may face. Moreover, we delve into the world of client reviews, underscoring their vital role in boosting your business’s visibility and credibility in a saturated market.
Navigating the often tricky waters of customer feedback is a journey in itself, and we're here to guide you. Ignoring complaints can inadvertently validate them, which is why we focus on the art of responding to negative reviews with integrity and tact. Learn how a well-crafted response can transform even the harshest criticism into a golden opportunity for growth. We share real-life incidents of going above and beyond for clients, underlining the moral obligations tied to honesty in business. While not every client will always be satisfied, our conversation reinforces the importance of sticking to your company’s core values and responding constructively. Tune in as we chart a course through the intricate landscape of customer interaction, ensuring that you not only survive but thrive in this competitive environment.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Two-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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For home buyers: What to expect from a home inspection. YT video for home buyers
Home Buyer and Seller Resources | Habitation Investigation
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If you would like to be a guest on the podcast contact us and let us know. You can visit Home (jimtroth.com) and go to the podcast page or message Habitation Investigation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey everybody, Welcome to the Stand Out Live
podcast.
This is Jim, Of course.
With me is Laura, the officegoddess.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
All right.
So, Laura, I don't know whatthe date is.
It really doesn't matter.
First week or so of DecemberSlowing down, it's that time of
year.
First week or so of Decemberslowing down, it's that time of
year you start thinking Secondweek or so of December.
Yeah, Time of year where youstart planning what you're going
to do.
I know on our, if you get ouremail, you get our list of CE
(01:01):
classes that we offer and then acouple couple just like
presentations.
But tomorrow I know we'rehaving something where it's just
kind of an open forum tocontact us and hey, you want to
talk about your plans for nextyear, what went well this past
year maybe, what didn't go well,kind of planning.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So it's kind of a little bit of a mastermind,
pretty loosely formed and it'swith somebody that doesn't have
a vested interest in yourcompany.
Just kind of a sounding boardto you know.
Bounce some ideas off of.
This is how this went this year.
What do you think?
Things like that?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
yeah, you and I've been involved in masterminds.
I've been involved in sincelike 2012.
We know how they run, we knowhow valuable they are, so we're
not bad pieces people to talk toin order to get some feedback.
Yeah, and I've been amastermind where everybody's in
the same type of business, andI've been other where
everybody's in a differentbusiness, and either way they're
(01:58):
valuable.
But anyway, this time of yearyou kind of start evaluating
what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
This is where it's important to know your numbers.
Know your numbers.
What did you spend on marketing?
What specific areas did youspend for marketing?
How did you get a return onthose?
What was it?
Yep.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And you start thinking about what can I do
better or try and get more ofnext year?
And I want to hone that towardreferrals.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
A lot of people.
They do not get a lot ofreferrals.
Maybe they don't know how toget referrals and when they get
them, especially bad ones, theydon't know how or if they should
respond, and we will talk aboutthat.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
But first let's listen to this Habitation
investigation is's listen tothis For a great home inspection
(03:02):
.
You really can't go wrong.
Visit HomeInspectionsInOhiocom.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
All right, laura.
How many reviews do we have Ifyou add them all, all combined?
Can we have some on Google, wehave some on Facebook.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Listen360.
Yeah, listen360.
Facebook Over 3,000, easily, ohyeah, easily, over 3,000.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I kind of think we have like 4,000, something like
that Right now we almost have.
We have about 1,700.
Just Google reviews, justGoogle reviews, just google
reviews, just google reviews.
If I look here, there's 2100 onlisten 360 so that we got 4000,
(03:55):
yeah, and then I kind ofthought there was 500 no, I'm
sorry, 200 and some on facebook,facebook.
So we have a 4000 review.
So then we know how to getreviews.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Obviously, and it really is not difficult to get
reviews.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
It has to be a consistent manner, though.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, well, and here's this what is somebody's
motivation to give you a review?
Often, if it's average, they'renot going to go out of the way
to give you a review.
They need to be motivated, orit has to be very easy for them
to do it yes in order to make iteasy for them, you need to send
(04:36):
the client that you worked witha link to.
Hey, please give me a review.
Here's the link.
Do and hopefully it's so simplethey just click and review.
They click speak in, say it's ontheir cell phone, they can
speak into it, give the reviewand then it's submit, and that's
it.
There are programs that you cansend them for them to give you
(04:58):
a video review.
Nice, okay, they've been outfor a couple years, you get very
low engagement yeah very lowengagement, which is a lot of
people are not into that,they're.
I don't want to say shy, but Ido well, dude, how many times
we've had, we've had any podcastguests for a while.
(05:19):
We got some that are wanting todo it, but we haven't really
scheduled them yet.
But I've had people who aregoing to be on the podcast
nervous about the video.
I'm like, dude, we're not goingto do a video on you, we're
just going to.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
It's just a Zoom recording so that we can record
it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
We could do a video, but we're just going to do it
this way.
And they're like oh okay,because they didn't want to come
, because they were afraid ofthe media.
Right, but you don't get goodengagement on those, so you need
to get them.
You need to ask and have asimple way of doing that, and
that could be just an automatedemail that you send out that has
a link to hey.
(05:56):
Here's a review site and if youlike what we did, please give
us a nice review.
If you didn't like, hey, emailme back, let me know.
Let me know what the problemwas so we can fix it.
People appreciate that, but youneed to ask for reviews.
Yes, and Lauren, I've noticedover the years that not a whole
lot of real estate agents have abunch of reviews.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
It's very rare that they get reviews.
Yeah, yeah that they getreviews.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, let's look up a search for home inspection
reviews.
Here's somebody in the south.
We'll say it's somewhere inOhio.
They got 12.
Here's one that has a decentnumber 85.
It's not showing a whole lot ofyou popping up, no, in the area
that I'm looking on.
It's not showing me all I needto pop it up in the area that
I'm looking on.
(06:48):
But we've looked at real estateagents and oh, there's a Rate,
my Agent.
Yeah, but the one we've seen,they don't have a whole bunch of
(07:09):
reviews.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
No, zillow has the ability to have people reviewed.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
All right, I'm on Zillow page right now.
This is Columbus, ohio.
These agents here got a decentnumber.
They got a couple hundred, butyou know what?
You scroll down just a littlebit and now you're seeing some
lower ones.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
We know a lot of these Yep.
We got a lot of good agentsthat definitely recommended us
for things.
But you get lower and lower.
But what do you do if you get abad review?
That's the question.
This is a lot of people.
What am I going to do if I geta bad review?
(08:03):
What's going to happen?
They wanted this, so there's abook out.
It's called hug your haters.
Uh, jay bear b-a-e-r.
That's how he spelled last name, jay Baer.
I thought I was going to hatethis book.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
You thought you were going to hate the Hug your
Haters.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I was going to hate the Hug your Haters book.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Because I?
Because it's how to embracecomplaints and keep your
customers Like all right, I gotsomebody who's complaining.
Do I really want to embrace thehater?
Do I want to embrace?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
the hater.
Do I want to?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
embrace that?
No, because like, oh, I reallydon't want to, because we do get
some bad reviews.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
But they're rare.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's very rare.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
And it's usually not a client.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
We definitely have to have that people.
It's not an actual clientthat's complaining and we're
going to get those to disappear.
But man, we've had like dude,that's in the report.
Or we've had an agent give us abad review and he was
complaining that it was like thereport wasn't organized the way
(09:22):
he would prefer it.
I'm like dude.
If you go to the review andlook at it, that's your summary.
That makes it super easy.
If you want us to write thingsup by order, this is what I
sound like.
You wanted order of severity,so the more like.
You wanted Order of severity,so the more serious issues at
(09:44):
the top of the report.
All right, now this report isgoing to be a nightmare for you
to write a request to remedy orsummarize.
It's a nightmare now for you.
We do our inspections by area,but the report is by system.
So like electrical is one area,plumbing is one area, but the
report is by system, so likeelectrical is one area.
(10:04):
Plumbing is one area.
So if you say electrical is bad, you have an electrician that
the client wants to use, you goall right.
Well, here's all the electricalissues, right here, instead of
reading the whole freakingreport trying to pull out every
electrical.
Yeah, our system it's easy, it'sa good system.
This agent wanted to give a badreview because it wasn't simple
(10:27):
enough for his simple mind.
I don't know.
I don't think he's a good agent.
I never met the guy.
I never heard of the guy.
He could have just called hey,is there a way?
It's a summary report righthere.
This is why it's organized thisway.
But anyway, Hug, your Haters,tells you that if you get a bad
(10:49):
review, you need to engage themon that review.
And Laura's looking at me likewhy in the heck would you do
that?
And this is why and I'll,Because here's what I want to
avoid you don't want to get onthe review.
Let's say Google debating withthem.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Because then it's just a shit show.
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
And whoever it is giving a bad review, which, if a
client is mad, that's theirmotivation to give you a review.
So people only review you ifthey're extremely happy or
extremely pissed.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Or extremely pissed.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Those times they will motivate themselves enough to
go give you a review.
If you make it easy, well,pissed off, people always give
you a review.
If you make it easy, well,people always give you a bad
review anyway.
But the generally happy peopleare more likely to give you a
review if you make it easyBecause they're not.
I mean, they're satisfied,they're happy, but they're not
overly motivated.
(11:54):
So you've got to make it easy.
But anyway, when you get a badreview, you're supposed to
respond to them.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
And what is his rationale for that?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Because if you do not respond when the public reads
it well, if you don't respond,the public reads that complaint
and you're not addressing itthen that somehow adds
credibility to that complaint.
And you're not addressing it,then that somehow adds
credibility to that complaint.
You're not a responsible enoughcompany to take care of the
(12:29):
issue, gotcha, I can understandthat.
So they want you to reply tothem and take it off offline.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Okay, so you've got somebody who's upset and they
post a review and you go online.
I'm so sorry to hear that youhad an issue.
Please contact our office atthis address and someone will be
in touch with Correct.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Correct, and I know we have.
I don't think it was on on areview or it was just the email.
I know we got business becausesomebody liked how we responded
to a complaint.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Oh really, I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I'm trying to actually pull up some of these
reviews.
I'm trying to get the wholelist of all the Google, the
Google.
There was a page where I couldpull up all the rank them by
lowest to highest.
When I can't, yeah, I don'tknow, but sometimes when we get
(13:40):
a bad review, the item that Icomplain about is actually in
the report.
Most of the time it is in thereport.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
You would be amazed how many times somebody just
calls to complain and Amy willask if they read the report and
their comment is, well, no.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Well, that makes no sense.
Why would you not read thereport?
Speaker 3 (14:06):
What you paid for?
Yeah, there's several, andAmy's like you need to read your
report.
What you paid for?
Yeah, there's, there's several,and amy's like you need to read
your report.
It's in there.
Look at these line items that'sinsane.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I did not know.
There's a lot of people justyeah, so they're calling to ask
about the inspection or complainor they're calling.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
They're calling to complain that we missed
something, and so so Amy willpull up the report because, you
know she does, she does herthing and she'll be like dude.
Did you look at?
You know numbers X, y and Z?
And he's like, well, I didn'tread the report.
Well then, how do you know wemissed anything?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
You are.
You, as the client, areresponsible for reading your
report.
Your agent may guide you andhelp you, but as the client and
the homeowner, you need toeducate yourself about the house
that you're purchasing.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Well, remember we had one buyer call us ask, wanting
help, because her agent wouldnot look at the review and look
at the report report and nothelp her out I spent an hour
going through the report withher yeah, trust me, we're
getting the referral for thefuture.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
That age is not because you provide well, no
that agent has been an agent fora very long time and I was very
surprised that they, like they,just refused to talk to them.
So I don't know if there wereextenuating circumstances.
There might be a backgroundstory to that, but yeah, I spent
a good hour going through thereport with them and helping
(15:39):
them with questions that theyhad.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So yeah, I don't know what to do on that, but yeah,
there's some background story,but anyway, you need to tell
them.
Hey, I'm very sorry that you'rehaving this issue.
Please go to this page so wecan look into that.
You know, I haven't been intime.
I was a little irritated withthis one.
Somebody put a post, a review,and said, hey, you guys missed
(16:05):
this and I'll get carbonmonoxide.
Could have killed me saying allthis crazy stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I was like, well, alright, I'm going to look at
the report.
Every single thing they talkedabout was in the report and as
safety items and not in a waythey were leveled up as an issue
.
They were on the summary.
So my response I'm like, I'msorry you have this issue, but
(16:33):
did you even read the report?
And here's number like 43, 47,68.
All dealing with what you werecomplaining Talk about this
issue and I said I don't know ifyou didn't read the report, but
if somebody read the report foryou and told you there's no
issues, they either lied or theydon't care about you.
(16:53):
You need to go talk to them.
And that person took down thatreview because they realized oh
shit, they told something gotmissed there somewhere at what
point do we not sue them forslander right?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
but they're's provably false and it is there.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
So you are supposed to always reply.
I gotta tell you there's onereview I have not replied to and
this is the one where they wereseemed a little crazy and they
were seemed a little crazy alittle out there and they were
upset and the inspector eventalked to us after the
(17:37):
inspection yeah, after theinspection, before the report
was even sent out, that theperson was might be a potential
issue, because they were upsetthat the inspector would not
exaggerate issues with the housebecause the dude wanted to get
a special deal in negotiations.
Yeah, so basically, the clientwas upset because we wouldn't
(18:02):
lie to help him get a betterdeal.
So even when you use thingsperfectly and morally correct
you can still get a bad review.
So a couple bad reviews meansnothing right, you're gonna get
that you.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
You cannot please everybody all of the time.
You just do your best, whatyour company morality is, and
you abide by that and you makethat consistent yeah, it was
just anyway.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
So that one I'm like man, that one I struggled with,
I'm like do I even engage thisbecause it was so?
like that one was the one like Ithink I had email with back and
forth with this person as well,trying to help them out, trying
to clarify things, and there'sno down.
There was no, there's no likelogic.
(18:54):
So I'm like, dude, there's noteven a point.
But nope, nope, nope, so justignored it on google.
That's the only time I've everlike not responded.
Sometimes it takes me a coupleweeks to respond to things like
I get busier or it gets late atnight.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I'm like, alright, I need to do this tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, I need to do it tomorrow, then tomorrow comes
and goes.
But we do have some reviewsright now that I have not
responded to.
They're good reviews, I justhaven't responded to them.
Well, somebody did.
Did you respond to somethingthat says thank you Two days ago
(19:37):
I?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
wanted to do something, and I thought you'd
already responded to it, becauseit came through.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Somebody.
I thought you'd respond.
Anyway, somebody you know,maybe our website guys.
Okay, but anyway, alwaysrespond to reviews, the negative
ones.
You're you're you're respondingto them is not to satisfy them.
(20:05):
Well, it's not.
Your reason for responding to abad review is not to satisfy
them A hundred percent.
The reason to respond to themis so that potential customers
can see that you respond andyou'll, you're likely to take
care of them.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
That's why you respond.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That's the whole message Hug your haters.
There's no way I'm going to hugall the haters.
They're crazy.
I had them go.
Hey, you guys didn't reportabout the whole of the floor.
I'm like whole of the floor,that seems crazy.
It's in the report.
I'll say douchebag, never tookit down.
I'm like dude, you're wrong.
(20:42):
But they're still not going toadmit it.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
No.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But here's a good thing If you get a couple bad
reviews but you have a systemset up where you're constantly
asking for reviews and if youwork with enough clients, they
will get buried.
It will get buried, yes, like Iwas going through our um
reviews the other day.
Look at, look at some.
I think we have.
(21:08):
We have a list of them, butit's not like huge.
But even going through I don'tknow how many they give on
google, maybe 20.
They'll show you at one timebefore you go to the next page.
Within that first page we'relike I'm looking like two years
ago.
So we don't get a lot of badreviews.
We really don't.
We get some that are likethey're all pretty good.
(21:30):
We get some that just make nosense at all.
Some of the bad reviews arelike one star, they go hey,
everything was great.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, I see at all.
Some of the bad reviews arelike one star they go hey,
everything was great.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, I see that, and how can you really can't reply
back to that, because I haveresponded back to them like hey,
thank you for the review.
Uh, the one star is actuallybad.
Can you change?
That to a five and they go oh,I'm sorry, can you do it again?
They go yeah, everything wasreally awesome.
They rephrase what they'resaying.
Still, the one star.
I don't know.
They don't get it.
I'm like, all right.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
It still says, it was good.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, those are just weird ones that don't show up
all that well.
We have over 4,000 reviews.
I think it's still there forsomebody who's involved in real
estate to not use us or have uson their list for home
inspections or mold testing orVOC testing or turbine
(22:29):
inspections, radon tests I don'tknow if I said that or not.
Sewer scope, chimney scopes.
Sewer scope, chimney scopes.
I think the only homeinspection company in the state
that does chimney scopes theonly one that I I'm aware of,
anyone I know of.
Yeah, I'm going through that.
Have you seen anything lessthan five stars?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
not for a long time I'm like 14 weeks ago a lot of
our inspectors are all mentionedby like.
All of them have been mentioned14, 17 weeks.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, I see.
Maybe Google changed it.
I just better look at thelowest ranks.
Yeah, some of these just makeno sense.
Would they get a bad one forsomebody who I think it was a
(23:24):
walk, was it?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
final walks or maybe a walk through.
That was the one that theychanged it three times on us.
They did the the schedule andwe weren't able to go out
because stuff wasn't done firstand then I can't remember what
all it was, so like it wasactually rescheduled three times
(23:47):
by them yeah, so I, yes, it'sfunny, I don't, don't make any
sense at all one.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
One other thing we got, you know and this may have
been right at the same time,while I was trying to do that.
The one person seemed like theywere upset that we did not.
It was a new build.
They were upset.
We didn't beat up the houseLike we'd be overly critical of
(24:14):
the condition of the house.
I mean, do it If you'rebuilding a good job.
They did a good job, Be gladthat Be happy about that.
And don't be mad that we'regoing to make up issues for you.
We're not going to.
I don't know.
I'm not going to lie for anyagent.
We're not going to lie for thesellers.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
We're not going to lie for the client.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
It is what it Like.
Yeah, if you want us to lie,then you just need to go
somewhere else, which is onereason why I think it's a sign
of integrity if an agent or aloan officer anybody has us on
their list of recommendations.
We're the only company I knowof in Ohio that has won Best in
the Midwest two years and thenwon the Consumer Choice Award
this year for Columbus Air.
So ifus or so if somebody'shaving some of their
recommendation list and I'm likeall right, they're a little sus
or they haven't heard about usyet, and that needs to be
(25:06):
rectified that could be.
They have not heard about us.
Well, all right.
Why would you ever keep us asecret, secret?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Well, if they're newer, like if they're a newer
agent, I know and there are alot of newer agents- If you're a
newer agent and do your ownresearch, just don't go.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
who's my teacher, who's my teacher used?
Your teacher may have beendoing real estate for 15 years
and have their favorite guy.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
They probably do, they all do.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And, trust me, inspections are different than
they were 15 years ago and theyneed to stay.
Stay up on things.
Yes, so they're like yeah, whatI'm not finding any bad under
the one that matt the man thatwe would beat up the house.
So I think I'm done for thisone.
But, yeah, you need.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
You need system to ask for reviews and then you
need to reply to the reviews andthen we'll seize that.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, always say thank you and then if you get a
bad review, take it off a littlebit of empathy to where they're
going through.
If you need, if you need to, orif you're able to or don't,
respond for a little bit to yourlittle bit of that empathetic
to them hey, I'm sorry you'rehaving this issue.
(26:25):
You don't need to admit guilt.
No, never admit guilt.
Odds are you're not guilty ofdoing anything wrong.
So if they say, hey, sorry,you're having this issue, email
me and maybe give an email, goor email me, or here's the link
to the form contact us so I canhelp figure this out for you.
(26:46):
Right, that way you take itoffline.
So they're a little crazy andthey just want to try to make it
look bad.
They're not like littlekeyboard warriors trying to do
their thing.
I like that and they can't tryto make you look bad, right,
because there's no, there's noway there's no win for that, but
there is a win if you have abad review and you're here, you
(27:08):
are offering professionaloffering to help them out, but
they just need.
They just need to contact youyep that's it, so always respond
to your reviews, and thatreminds me probably tomorrow
morning.
I'm going to reply to our latestreviews, which are all happy
reviews.
I like to hear that.
I see it, it was a couple weeksago and somebody's replied to
(27:30):
these.
Our website guy may havereplied I'll have to find out
about it but that one needs tobe replied to.
There's a couple I need toreply to, but that's about it
for this one.
All right, thank you everybody.
All right, bye-bye, bye.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on Spotifyor Google Podcasts to get new,
fresh episodes.
For more, please follow us onInstagram, twitter and Facebook,
or visit the website of thebest Ohio home inspection
company athomeinspectionsinohiocom or
jimtroffcom.
(28:11):
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
Until next time.
Learn and go do stuff.
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Hey everybody, Welcome to the Stand Out Live
podcast.
This is Jim, Of course.
With me is Laura, the officegoddess.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hello everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
All right.
So, Laura, I don't know whatthe date is.
It really doesn't matter.
First week or so of DecemberSlowing down, it's that time of
year.
First week or so of Decemberslowing down, it's that time of
year you start thinking Secondweek or so of December.
Yeah, Time of year where youstart planning what you're going
to do.
I know on our, if you get ouremail, you get our list of CE
(01:01):
classes that we offer and then acouple couple just like
presentations.
But tomorrow I know we'rehaving something where it's just
kind of an open forum tocontact us and hey, you want to
talk about your plans for nextyear, what went well this past
year maybe, what didn't go well,kind of planning.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
So it's kind of a little bit of a mastermind,
pretty loosely formed and it'swith somebody that doesn't have
a vested interest in yourcompany.
Just kind of a sounding boardto you know.
Bounce some ideas off of.
This is how this went this year.
What do you think?
Things like that?
Speaker 2 (01:35):
yeah, you and I've been involved in masterminds.
I've been involved in sincelike 2012.
We know how they run, we knowhow valuable they are, so we're
not bad pieces people to talk toin order to get some feedback.
Yeah, and I've been amastermind where everybody's in
the same type of business, andI've been other where
everybody's in a differentbusiness, and either way they're
(01:58):
valuable.
But anyway, this time of yearyou kind of start evaluating
what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
This is where it's important to know your numbers.
Know your numbers.
What did you spend on marketing?
What specific areas did youspend for marketing?
How did you get a return onthose?
What was it?
Yep.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And you start thinking about what can I do
better or try and get more ofnext year?
And I want to hone that towardreferrals.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
A lot of people.
They do not get a lot ofreferrals.
Maybe they don't know how toget referrals and when they get
them, especially bad ones, theydon't know how or if they should
respond, and we will talk aboutthat.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
But first let's listen to this Habitation
investigation is's listen tothis For a great home inspection
(03:02):
.
You really can't go wrong.
Visit HomeInspectionsInOhiocom.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
All right, laura.
How many reviews do we have Ifyou add them all, all combined?
Can we have some on Google, wehave some on Facebook.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Listen360.
Yeah, listen360.
Facebook Over 3,000, easily, ohyeah, easily, over 3,000.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I kind of think we have like 4,000, something like
that Right now we almost have.
We have about 1,700.
Just Google reviews, justGoogle reviews, just google
reviews, just google reviews.
If I look here, there's 2100 onlisten 360 so that we got 4000,
(03:55):
yeah, and then I kind ofthought there was 500 no, I'm
sorry, 200 and some on facebook,facebook.
So we have a 4000 review.
So then we know how to getreviews.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Obviously, and it really is not difficult to get
reviews.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
It has to be a consistent manner, though.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, well, and here's this what is somebody's
motivation to give you a review?
Often, if it's average, they'renot going to go out of the way
to give you a review.
They need to be motivated, orit has to be very easy for them
to do it yes in order to make iteasy for them, you need to send
(04:36):
the client that you worked witha link to.
Hey, please give me a review.
Here's the link.
Do and hopefully it's so simplethey just click and review.
They click speak in, say it's ontheir cell phone, they can
speak into it, give the reviewand then it's submit, and that's
it.
There are programs that you cansend them for them to give you
(04:58):
a video review.
Nice, okay, they've been outfor a couple years, you get very
low engagement yeah very lowengagement, which is a lot of
people are not into that,they're.
I don't want to say shy, but Ido well, dude, how many times
we've had, we've had any podcastguests for a while.
(05:19):
We got some that are wanting todo it, but we haven't really
scheduled them yet.
But I've had people who aregoing to be on the podcast
nervous about the video.
I'm like, dude, we're not goingto do a video on you, we're
just going to.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
It's just a Zoom recording so that we can record
it.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
We could do a video, but we're just going to do it
this way.
And they're like oh okay,because they didn't want to come
, because they were afraid ofthe media.
Right, but you don't get goodengagement on those, so you need
to get them.
You need to ask and have asimple way of doing that, and
that could be just an automatedemail that you send out that has
a link to hey.
(05:56):
Here's a review site and if youlike what we did, please give
us a nice review.
If you didn't like, hey, emailme back, let me know.
Let me know what the problemwas so we can fix it.
People appreciate that, but youneed to ask for reviews.
Yes, and Lauren, I've noticedover the years that not a whole
lot of real estate agents have abunch of reviews.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
It's very rare that they get reviews.
Yeah, yeah that they getreviews.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, let's look up a search for home inspection
reviews.
Here's somebody in the south.
We'll say it's somewhere inOhio.
They got 12.
Here's one that has a decentnumber 85.
It's not showing a whole lot ofyou popping up, no, in the area
that I'm looking on.
It's not showing me all I needto pop it up in the area that
I'm looking on.
(06:48):
But we've looked at real estateagents and oh, there's a Rate,
my Agent.
Yeah, but the one we've seen,they don't have a whole bunch of
(07:09):
reviews.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
No, zillow has the ability to have people reviewed.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
All right, I'm on Zillow page right now.
This is Columbus, ohio.
These agents here got a decentnumber.
They got a couple hundred, butyou know what?
You scroll down just a littlebit and now you're seeing some
lower ones.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
We know a lot of these Yep.
We got a lot of good agentsthat definitely recommended us
for things.
But you get lower and lower.
But what do you do if you get abad review?
That's the question.
This is a lot of people.
What am I going to do if I geta bad review?
(08:03):
What's going to happen?
They wanted this, so there's abook out.
It's called hug your haters.
Uh, jay bear b-a-e-r.
That's how he spelled last name, jay Baer.
I thought I was going to hatethis book.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
You thought you were going to hate the Hug your
Haters.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I was going to hate the Hug your Haters book.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Because I?
Because it's how to embracecomplaints and keep your
customers Like all right, I gotsomebody who's complaining.
Do I really want to embrace thehater?
Do I want to embrace?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
the hater.
Do I want to?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
embrace that?
No, because like, oh, I reallydon't want to, because we do get
some bad reviews.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
But they're rare.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
It's very rare.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
And it's usually not a client.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
We definitely have to have that people.
It's not an actual clientthat's complaining and we're
going to get those to disappear.
But man, we've had like dude,that's in the report.
Or we've had an agent give us abad review and he was
complaining that it was like thereport wasn't organized the way
(09:22):
he would prefer it.
I'm like dude.
If you go to the review andlook at it, that's your summary.
That makes it super easy.
If you want us to write thingsup by order, this is what I
sound like.
You wanted order of severity,so the more like.
You wanted Order of severity,so the more serious issues at
(09:44):
the top of the report.
All right, now this report isgoing to be a nightmare for you
to write a request to remedy orsummarize.
It's a nightmare now for you.
We do our inspections by area,but the report is by system.
So like electrical is one area,plumbing is one area, but the
report is by system, so likeelectrical is one area.
(10:04):
Plumbing is one area.
So if you say electrical is bad, you have an electrician that
the client wants to use, you goall right.
Well, here's all the electricalissues, right here, instead of
reading the whole freakingreport trying to pull out every
electrical.
Yeah, our system it's easy, it'sa good system.
This agent wanted to give a badreview because it wasn't simple
(10:27):
enough for his simple mind.
I don't know.
I don't think he's a good agent.
I never met the guy.
I never heard of the guy.
He could have just called hey,is there a way?
It's a summary report righthere.
This is why it's organized thisway.
But anyway, Hug, your Haters,tells you that if you get a bad
(10:49):
review, you need to engage themon that review.
And Laura's looking at me likewhy in the heck would you do
that?
And this is why and I'll,Because here's what I want to
avoid you don't want to get onthe review.
Let's say Google debating withthem.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Because then it's just a shit show.
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
And whoever it is giving a bad review, which, if a
client is mad, that's theirmotivation to give you a review.
So people only review you ifthey're extremely happy or
extremely pissed.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Or extremely pissed.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Those times they will motivate themselves enough to
go give you a review.
If you make it easy, well,pissed off, people always give
you a review.
If you make it easy, well,people always give you a bad
review anyway.
But the generally happy peopleare more likely to give you a
review if you make it easyBecause they're not.
I mean, they're satisfied,they're happy, but they're not
overly motivated.
(11:54):
So you've got to make it easy.
But anyway, when you get a badreview, you're supposed to
respond to them.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
And what is his rationale for that?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Because if you do not respond when the public reads
it well, if you don't respond,the public reads that complaint
and you're not addressing itthen that somehow adds
credibility to that complaint.
And you're not addressing it,then that somehow adds
credibility to that complaint.
You're not a responsible enoughcompany to take care of the
(12:29):
issue, gotcha, I can understandthat.
So they want you to reply tothem and take it off offline.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Okay, so you've got somebody who's upset and they
post a review and you go online.
I'm so sorry to hear that youhad an issue.
Please contact our office atthis address and someone will be
in touch with Correct.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Correct, and I know we have.
I don't think it was on on areview or it was just the email.
I know we got business becausesomebody liked how we responded
to a complaint.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Oh really, I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I'm trying to actually pull up some of these
reviews.
I'm trying to get the wholelist of all the Google, the
Google.
There was a page where I couldpull up all the rank them by
lowest to highest.
When I can't, yeah, I don'tknow, but sometimes when we get
(13:40):
a bad review, the item that Icomplain about is actually in
the report.
Most of the time it is in thereport.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
You would be amazed how many times somebody just
calls to complain and Amy willask if they read the report and
their comment is, well, no.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Well, that makes no sense.
Why would you not read thereport?
Speaker 3 (14:06):
What you paid for?
Yeah, there's several, andAmy's like you need to read your
report.
What you paid for?
Yeah, there's, there's several,and amy's like you need to read
your report.
It's in there.
Look at these line items that'sinsane.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
I did not know.
There's a lot of people justyeah, so they're calling to ask
about the inspection or complainor they're calling.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
They're calling to complain that we missed
something, and so so Amy willpull up the report because, you
know she does, she does herthing and she'll be like dude.
Did you look at?
You know numbers X, y and Z?
And he's like, well, I didn'tread the report.
Well then, how do you know wemissed anything?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
You are.
You, as the client, areresponsible for reading your
report.
Your agent may guide you andhelp you, but as the client and
the homeowner, you need toeducate yourself about the house
that you're purchasing.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Well, remember we had one buyer call us ask, wanting
help, because her agent wouldnot look at the review and look
at the report report and nothelp her out I spent an hour
going through the report withher yeah, trust me, we're
getting the referral for thefuture.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
That age is not because you provide well, no
that agent has been an agent fora very long time and I was very
surprised that they, like they,just refused to talk to them.
So I don't know if there wereextenuating circumstances.
There might be a backgroundstory to that, but yeah, I spent
a good hour going through thereport with them and helping
(15:39):
them with questions that theyhad.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So yeah, I don't know what to do on that, but yeah,
there's some background story,but anyway, you need to tell
them.
Hey, I'm very sorry that you'rehaving this issue.
Please go to this page so wecan look into that.
You know, I haven't been intime.
I was a little irritated withthis one.
Somebody put a post, a review,and said, hey, you guys missed
(16:05):
this and I'll get carbonmonoxide.
Could have killed me saying allthis crazy stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I was like, well, alright, I'm going to look at
the report.
Every single thing they talkedabout was in the report and as
safety items and not in a waythey were leveled up as an issue
.
They were on the summary.
So my response I'm like, I'msorry you have this issue, but
(16:33):
did you even read the report?
And here's number like 43, 47,68.
All dealing with what you werecomplaining Talk about this
issue and I said I don't know ifyou didn't read the report, but
if somebody read the report foryou and told you there's no
issues, they either lied or theydon't care about you.
(16:53):
You need to go talk to them.
And that person took down thatreview because they realized oh
shit, they told something gotmissed there somewhere at what
point do we not sue them forslander right?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
but they're's provably false and it is there.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
So you are supposed to always reply.
I gotta tell you there's onereview I have not replied to and
this is the one where they wereseemed a little crazy and they
were seemed a little crazy alittle out there and they were
upset and the inspector eventalked to us after the
(17:37):
inspection yeah, after theinspection, before the report
was even sent out, that theperson was might be a potential
issue, because they were upsetthat the inspector would not
exaggerate issues with the housebecause the dude wanted to get
a special deal in negotiations.
Yeah, so basically, the clientwas upset because we wouldn't
(18:02):
lie to help him get a betterdeal.
So even when you use thingsperfectly and morally correct
you can still get a bad review.
So a couple bad reviews meansnothing right, you're gonna get
that you.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
You cannot please everybody all of the time.
You just do your best, whatyour company morality is, and
you abide by that and you makethat consistent yeah, it was
just anyway.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
So that one I'm like man, that one I struggled with,
I'm like do I even engage thisbecause it was so?
like that one was the one like Ithink I had email with back and
forth with this person as well,trying to help them out, trying
to clarify things, and there'sno down.
There was no, there's no likelogic.
(18:54):
So I'm like, dude, there's noteven a point.
But nope, nope, nope, so justignored it on google.
That's the only time I've everlike not responded.
Sometimes it takes me a coupleweeks to respond to things like
I get busier or it gets late atnight.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I'm like, alright, I need to do this tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, I need to do it tomorrow, then tomorrow comes
and goes.
But we do have some reviewsright now that I have not
responded to.
They're good reviews, I justhaven't responded to them.
Well, somebody did.
Did you respond to somethingthat says thank you Two days ago
(19:37):
I?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
wanted to do something, and I thought you'd
already responded to it, becauseit came through.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Somebody.
I thought you'd respond.
Anyway, somebody you know,maybe our website guys.
Okay, but anyway, alwaysrespond to reviews, the negative
ones.
You're you're you're respondingto them is not to satisfy them.
(20:05):
Well, it's not.
Your reason for responding to abad review is not to satisfy
them A hundred percent.
The reason to respond to themis so that potential customers
can see that you respond andyou'll, you're likely to take
care of them.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
That's why you respond.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That's the whole message Hug your haters.
There's no way I'm going to hugall the haters.
They're crazy.
I had them go.
Hey, you guys didn't reportabout the whole of the floor.
I'm like whole of the floor,that seems crazy.
It's in the report.
I'll say douchebag, never tookit down.
I'm like dude, you're wrong.
(20:42):
But they're still not going toadmit it.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
No.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
But here's a good thing If you get a couple bad
reviews but you have a systemset up where you're constantly
asking for reviews and if youwork with enough clients, they
will get buried.
It will get buried, yes, like Iwas going through our um
reviews the other day.
Look at, look at some.
I think we have.
(21:08):
We have a list of them, butit's not like huge.
But even going through I don'tknow how many they give on
google, maybe 20.
They'll show you at one timebefore you go to the next page.
Within that first page we'relike I'm looking like two years
ago.
So we don't get a lot of badreviews.
We really don't.
We get some that are likethey're all pretty good.
(21:30):
We get some that just make nosense at all.
Some of the bad reviews arelike one star, they go hey,
everything was great.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, I see at all.
Some of the bad reviews arelike one star they go hey,
everything was great.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, I see that, and how can you really can't reply
back to that, because I haveresponded back to them like hey,
thank you for the review.
Uh, the one star is actuallybad.
Can you change?
That to a five and they go oh,I'm sorry, can you do it again?
They go yeah, everything wasreally awesome.
They rephrase what they'resaying.
Still, the one star.
I don't know.
They don't get it.
I'm like, all right.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
It still says, it was good.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, those are just weird ones that don't show up
all that well.
We have over 4,000 reviews.
I think it's still there forsomebody who's involved in real
estate to not use us or have uson their list for home
inspections or mold testing orVOC testing or turbine
(22:29):
inspections, radon tests I don'tknow if I said that or not.
Sewer scope, chimney scopes.
Sewer scope, chimney scopes.
I think the only homeinspection company in the state
that does chimney scopes theonly one that I I'm aware of,
anyone I know of.
Yeah, I'm going through that.
Have you seen anything lessthan five stars?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
not for a long time I'm like 14 weeks ago a lot of
our inspectors are all mentionedby like.
All of them have been mentioned14, 17 weeks.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, I see.
Maybe Google changed it.
I just better look at thelowest ranks.
Yeah, some of these just makeno sense.
Would they get a bad one forsomebody who I think it was a
(23:24):
walk, was it?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
final walks or maybe a walk through.
That was the one that theychanged it three times on us.
They did the the schedule andwe weren't able to go out
because stuff wasn't done firstand then I can't remember what
all it was, so like it wasactually rescheduled three times
(23:47):
by them yeah, so I, yes, it'sfunny, I don't, don't make any
sense at all one.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
One other thing we got, you know and this may have
been right at the same time,while I was trying to do that.
The one person seemed like theywere upset that we did not.
It was a new build.
They were upset.
We didn't beat up the houseLike we'd be overly critical of
(24:14):
the condition of the house.
I mean, do it If you'rebuilding a good job.
They did a good job, Be gladthat Be happy about that.
And don't be mad that we'regoing to make up issues for you.
We're not going to.
I don't know.
I'm not going to lie for anyagent.
We're not going to lie for thesellers.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
We're not going to lie for the client.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
It is what it Like.
Yeah, if you want us to lie,then you just need to go
somewhere else, which is onereason why I think it's a sign
of integrity if an agent or aloan officer anybody has us on
their list of recommendations.
We're the only company I knowof in Ohio that has won Best in
the Midwest two years and thenwon the Consumer Choice Award
this year for Columbus Air.
So ifus or so if somebody'shaving some of their
recommendation list and I'm likeall right, they're a little sus
or they haven't heard about usyet, and that needs to be
(25:06):
rectified that could be.
They have not heard about us.
Well, all right.
Why would you ever keep us asecret, secret?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Well, if they're newer, like if they're a newer
agent, I know and there are alot of newer agents- If you're a
newer agent and do your ownresearch, just don't go.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
who's my teacher, who's my teacher used?
Your teacher may have beendoing real estate for 15 years
and have their favorite guy.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
They probably do, they all do.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And, trust me, inspections are different than
they were 15 years ago and theyneed to stay.
Stay up on things.
Yes, so they're like yeah, whatI'm not finding any bad under
the one that matt the man thatwe would beat up the house.
So I think I'm done for thisone.
But, yeah, you need.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
You need system to ask for reviews and then you
need to reply to the reviews andthen we'll seize that.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, always say thank you and then if you get a
bad review, take it off a littlebit of empathy to where they're
going through.
If you need, if you need to, orif you're able to or don't,
respond for a little bit to yourlittle bit of that empathetic
to them hey, I'm sorry you'rehaving this issue.
(26:25):
You don't need to admit guilt.
No, never admit guilt.
Odds are you're not guilty ofdoing anything wrong.
So if they say, hey, sorry,you're having this issue, email
me and maybe give an email, goor email me, or here's the link
to the form contact us so I canhelp figure this out for you.
(26:46):
Right, that way you take itoffline.
So they're a little crazy andthey just want to try to make it
look bad.
They're not like littlekeyboard warriors trying to do
their thing.
I like that and they can't tryto make you look bad, right,
because there's no, there's noway there's no win for that, but
there is a win if you have abad review and you're here, you
(27:08):
are offering professionaloffering to help them out, but
they just need.
They just need to contact youyep that's it, so always respond
to your reviews, and thatreminds me probably tomorrow
morning.
I'm going to reply to our latestreviews, which are all happy
reviews.
I like to hear that.
I see it, it was a couple weeksago and somebody's replied to
(27:30):
these.
Our website guy may havereplied I'll have to find out
about it but that one needs tobe replied to.
There's a couple I need toreply to, but that's about it
for this one.
All right, thank you everybody.
All right, bye-bye, bye.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You've been listening to the Standing Out in Ohio
podcast.
Be sure to subscribe on Spotifyor Google Podcasts to get new,
fresh episodes.
For more, please follow us onInstagram, twitter and Facebook,
or visit the website of thebest Ohio home inspection
company athomeinspectionsinohiocom or
jimtroffcom.
(28:11):
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H andclick on podcast.
Until next time.
Learn and go do stuff.
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