Are You Meeting the Expectations of Your Website Visitors?

The title of this article should actually be “are you meeting the expectations of your very expensive and valuable website visitors”. After all, that’s exactly what they are, right? Expensive yet valuable. The internet and all it’s parts have made it more competitive than ever for home improvement contractors to gain market share and thus has driven the cost of driving traffic way up. For example, paid clicks on Google in the Philadelphia market (where ServiceWhale is located) for HVAC related keywords average out at around $11. Same goes for roofing. Flooring and plumbing keywords are somewhere in the mid $7 range. Although paid search may be an amazing way to drive qualified site visits, it ain’t cheap, but in many cases it is definitely necessary.

as you know...

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Here's a screenshot from our own Adwords account for HVAC, Roofing, and Flooring campaigns. — Here’s a screenshot from our own Adwords account for HVAC, Roofing, and Flooring campaigns.

Of course the traditional means of running a successful business always apply – great customer service, quality of work, and having competitive prices will never lose importance to consumers. However, it’s impossible to ignore the shift in consumer behavior the internet has created. Homeowners have more access to information than they ever have and everyone is an educated consumer. If you don’t think they’re shopping you against your competitors in every phase of your business, think again.

So, if consumers are spending more and more time gathering information before making purchasing decisions and it’s more expensive to drive them to your website because of increased competition, are you doing everything you should to give them what they want when they reach your website?

Why are homeowners visiting your website?

Because they’re interested in your services! Aside from the occasional irrelevant click, the majority of your site visitors reached your website for a very specific reason. Depending on what phase of their buying journey they are in, their intent can vary from gathering general information to being ready to select the contractor they want to hire.

Let’s say it’s the former and many of your site visitors are in the research stage. They are bouncing from site to site trying to learn as much as they can about the local contractors that are available to help them as well as the level of detail involved with the project they’re interested in. Guess what else they (and every other person shopping for anything) want to know? How much does it cost? Check your search terms report in Adwords or your organic keyword data in the Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) and see how much traffic you get with the words “price”, “cost”, or “estimate” associated with the search query.

Of course you’re not showing them a price. It’s impossible to quote a major home service like roofing or HVAC without an onsite visit, right? Wrong.

Are you giving your site visitors what they want?

If you’re still reading, I just hit a nerve with you. Don’t leave yet though, you’re going to want to hear this. Our extensive keyword research has shown us that homeowners shopping for a big ticket home improvement project will conduct a search related to the cost of the project up to 40% of the time. Your customers are looking for something that no one is giving them. Upfront prices.

Why do you think so many homeowners express a high level of frustration when asked about their experiences shopping for a big project? They want prices and no one will give it to them without coming to the house. Sometimes the contractors show up, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes their prices are way out of the budget, sometimes they aren’t. It’s a long process just to get a price – up to 30 hours for homeowners in some cases, especially when instant prices are standard practice for nearly every other industry that exists (automotive, insurance, clothing, electronics, travel, etc.).

The average homeowner wants 3-4 quotes before making an educated purchasing decision on a home improvement project. That means 3 or 4 contractors will be giving them an estimate, but only 1 contractor will win the job. The number you should be paying attention to is this one – roughly 60 – 70% of the estimates you go on for new customers will not turn into a job. That’s hours of driving, talking, estimating, and negotiating that could be used more productively. Not to mention the average cost per onsite visit for a contractor is around $200 – $300.

As it relates to web traffic, these low success rates can be expressed as bounced traffic or traffic that didn’t convert. Visitors who left your website without converting into a lead is a wasted opportunity. An expensive opportunity at that. Even if you have a great website, you still might not be giving your visitors exactly what they want – prices.

Turn your website into a digital sales ninja who never sleeps

MyServiceWhale is the most intuitive and sophisticated piece of consumer facing quoting technology that has ever existed for the home improvement industry. In literally 2 minutes, homeowners can get instant, customized quotes from you without the need for an onsite estimate.

MyServiceWhale's quoting widget — MyServiceWhale’s quoting widget

Contractors who use MyServiceWhale see lifts in conversion rates of up to 5% or more and are finally able to take full advantage of their expensive, yet valuable web traffic. At $11/click and a $5000 average project size can mean a nearly $30,000 increase in revenue per month. That’s not even the best part. Not only are they converting more traffic by giving their prospects exactly what they want, they also get much more qualified leads. MyServiceWhale’s quoting process is not only easy to use for any homeowner, but it requires them to be more engaged in the process which can be translated into expressing more buying intent. By the time you speak with them, they are that much closer to turning into a sale.

Homeowners answer simple questions about their project.

Each user must submit their email and phone number before seeing any prices and all prices can be reviewed by the contractor before committing to any projects. There is absolutely no risk in using MyServiceWhale.