Reviews App Overview
Setting up the Reviews App within Housecall Pro will streamline your online review strategy, helping you garner more reviews on Google and Facebook, boost your search engine rankings, and distinguish yourself from the competition.
Think about the last time you made an online purchase. Did you skip reading the reviews? Probably not. If I’m your customer and I get a recommendation from a friend, my next step is to Google your business, check out your reviews, and visit your website. In today’s digital age, reviews are crucial to your first impression.
Both the quantity and recency of your reviews play a vital role. To make this process effortless and automatic, the Reviews App will take care of it for you. After each job, your customers will receive a text and email requesting a review, making it easy to accumulate recent and numerous reviews.
Positive reviews not only enhance your visibility on social media and review sites but also boost your search engine rankings. With the Reviews Dashboard in Housecall Pro, you can easily monitor the volume and quality of your reviews across your main online platforms, keeping you informed and in control of your online reputation.
Despite the fact that over 90% of consumers trust online reviews, more than half of businesses still don’t leverage them. By setting up your Reviews App today, you’ll differentiate yourself from the competition and drive business growth.
Once activated, the Reviews App will automatically send an email and text message to your customers, asking for their feedback. This is an excellent opportunity to enhance your service and collect valuable testimonials.
You can easily enable or disable the Reviews App from the app store.
Activate Your Reviews App
Before you can start using your Reviews app, you must first enable it.
To enable the Reviews app on your account, follow the steps below:
Click on the 'My Apps' icon (3x3 square) in your Housecall Pro navigation bar, then click the 'Go To App Store' button.
Use the search bar and look up "Reviews" or scroll down on the My Apps page, then click on the Reviews app.
Next, click the grey toggle next to 'DISABLED' in the top right corner of the App details page.
A window will appear on your screen confirming that the "app is now active." Close to of this window after reviewing the information.
The toggle will now be blue and show as 'ACTIVE' on the App details page, and that's it! You're now ready to start getting customer reviews!
How to Access Your Reviews
To access your reviews:
Click the 'My Apps' icon (3x3 square) in the top right corner of your HCP account.
Select the 'Reviews' app to be taken to your Reviews Dashboard.
Reviews Dashboard Breakdown
Your Reviews Dashboard breaks down each component of your reviews to give you the data you need:
Quantity of Reviews Over Time:
See the total number of reviews collected by customers on a monthly basis over time. Great for seeing trends and spikes in review activity.
Reviews By Review Site:
See the total number of reviews and the average star rating of your reviews broken down by review site. You will also see your overall review count and star rating across sites combined.
Average Star Rating Per Employee:
See the average rating each of your employees has. This is great to use for employee development, training, and recognition.
List of Reviews From Customers:
A list view of reviews collected from customers. See the customer name, the date, the employee assigned to that job, the star rating, the review site source (or where the review was posted), the comment from your customer, and your reply if you have replied to the review through HCP.
To view all of your review requests, click on the Activity icon from the Reviews page
Reviews App Settings
To manage your Reviews app settings:
Click the 'My Apps' icon (3x3 square) in the top right corner of your HCP account.
Select the 'Reviews' app to be taken to your Reviews Dashboard.
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your Reviews dashboard to open your Reviews Settings.
From the Reviews Settings panel, you can:
Connect your Facebook and Google accounts.
Manage Review request options (for sending the requests).
Add and manage Reviews for your website.
Connect Your Google and Facebook Accounts
To connect your Google and Facebook accounts:
Click the 'My Apps' icon (3x3 square) in the top right corner of your HCP account.
Select the 'Reviews' app to be taken to your Reviews dashboard.
From here, you can either:
Click the Google or Facebook icons, or
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner to access your Reviews Settings, then click the toggles next to 'Google' and 'Facebook'
Reviews dashboard: |
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Reviews Settings: |
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After clicking the icons or toggles for either Google or Facebook, you'll be prompted to sign into your Google and Facebook accounts.
Please Note: Any of your customers that have a @gmail.com
email address will be sent directly to Google to leave their review.
Only customers with @gmail.com email addresses will be directed to Google to leave their reviews. All others will be split between Facebook and
My Reviews (if you have Facebook connected).
Choose When Review Requests Are Sent
To choose when your review requests are sent to customers:
Click the 'My Apps' icon (3x3 square) in the top right corner of your HCP account.
Select the 'Reviews' app to be taken to your Reviews Dashboard.
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your Reviews dashboard to open your Reviews Settings.
Click on the 'Send a review request when' dropdown:
Select 'Job is finished' to send review requests once 'Finish' has been selected on the Job Details page.
Select 'Job is paid' to send review requests once your customer pays their invoice.
Exclude Customers From Review Requests
To exclude customers from receiving a request for a review based on customer or job tags:
Click the 'My Apps' icon (3x3 square) in the top right corner of your HCP account.
Select the 'Reviews' app to be taken to your Reviews Dashboard.
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your Reviews dashboard to open your Reviews Settings.
Click on the 'Exclude specific tags' dropdown. Here you can enter Customer Tags or Job Tags that are already in another section of Housecall Pro, or create new tags. You can use multiple tags as well.
If the exclusion tag is for a customer, you can add a Customer Tag to their profile and exclude them from getting requests on any jobs moving forward.
If the exclusion tag is used for Job Tags, you can choose specific jobs to exclude from receiving a request.
Customer exclusion tags can't be used on jobs, and vice versa. You must use a customer exclusion tag on customers, and a job exclusion tag on jobs. However, you can add the same tag for both a customer and a job.
The job tag can be used for segmented jobs as well. If you only want a review request sent on the last segment, use exclusion tags for all the segments leading up to the last one.
Send Review Requests to Customers with Notifications Turned Off
Allow review requests to be sent to customers who have notifications turned off for their profile.
Click the 'My Apps' icon (3x3 square) in the top right corner of your HCP account.
Select the 'Reviews' app to be taken to your Reviews Dashboard.
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your Reviews dashboard to open your Reviews Settings.
Finally, click on the toggle next to the 'Send to customers with notifications off' option.
Website Reviews Settings
Determine which reviews automatically appear on your reviews page or Website by Housecall Pro.
Click the 'My Apps' icon (3x3 square) in the top right corner of your HCP account.
Select the 'Reviews' app to be taken to your Reviews Dashboard.
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner of your Reviews dashboard to open your Reviews Settings.
From here, you can:
Choose which review ratings are shown on your website.
Click on the 'My review site' link to access your HCP reviews and use the link for your website.
Disable the Reviews App
Turn off the Reviews app to no longer have automatic emails and texts sent to customers requesting feedback once a job is finished.
To disable the Reviews app:
Click the 'My Apps' tab in the navigation bar
Click 'Go To App Store'
Scroll down to the Marketing section and in the 'Reviews' app box select 'Learn More'
Click the toggle next to 'Active' to disable
FAQs
How are review request links sent?
Review requests are sent via email and SMS.
If your customer does not have a phone number in the "Mobile" field of their Customer Profile, they will only receive the review request via email.
When are review requests sent to customers?
By default, email and text review requests will be sent automatically when the job is marked as finished.
You can choose to send review requests out when an invoice is paid by going to My Apps, selecting your Reviews app, clicking on the through Settings → Reviews requests → Send a review request when.
How can I see that the email and text were sent out?
The activity feed on the job will show when the email and text were sent out.
Will customers with notifications off receive Review requests?
No, only customers with the "Send notifications" box checked will receive Review requests. You can override this in Reviews settings by turning the toggle on next to "Send to notifications off."
If I have more than one employee on a job, who does that review count for?
In the employee ratings section, you can see the number of reviews and average rating by employee. If more than one employee is listed on a job, that review will count towards all of those employees total number of reviews and average rating.
What do the email and text messages look like?
Email Example:
Text Example:
Interested in displaying reviews on a new Website by Housecall Pro?
Having a hard time figuring out how to ask for reviews? Let us show you how.