When you need a service, what is the deciding factor? Is it a referral? Did you seen a company vehicle advertising? TV or Radio Ad? Google listing?
I have noticed over the past few years that some companies have hundreds sometimes thousands of reviews and have been in business less than 5 years sometimes 3 years. Likewise, companies that have less than 100 reviews or less than 50 reviews and have been in business for over 20 and 30 years.
The way it works is that there are 3rd party groups or call centers that are basically pay to play in a way. I know because I have been called by those same solicitors almost weekly. Stating that they can “boost” our Google reviews by a certain amount and a certain fee. Basically ghost writers. For instance, 10 reviews for $5.99 or 100 reviews $59.99 and so on, they word it to you in a way that makes it legal and sound totally legitimate. Most new companies, especially in the service industry get approached by these kinds of schemes. Not all but many do pay for this service.
Sadly, technology is taking over everything. People are always too busy to make an informed decision and everything is “just a click away”. I do it, you do it , everyone does it. A service is needed and the first place most people go to is Google Search. They fill the search box, the listings pop up and by habit and human nature we almost never scroll down past the first 5 listings. The one with the most reviews and highest ratings will by design be clicked on first. Also, do you ever notice the top listings or websites that say (sponsored ad) that now nearly fill up the entire screen before you scroll? Personally I see those and keep scrolling. The reason I avoid those sponsored ads is because they are paying to snub out older and smaller businesses that have been in the area for a long time. Yes I believe in having competition and it is always good to be competitive. But sometimes there are companies that bully other businesses out and try and corner the market. Sometimes it is a company that has been well established and working in the area for years as well. Rule of thumb, if there is a certain company that has to spend that kind of money in advertising to get more work or stay afloat, that can be a red flag. Not always but in most cases it is. They cannot keep a repeat client base due to the quality of their work.
Our advertising budget for the last 13 years has basically been $0.00 and the only thing we needed to maintain is our website and our Google listing as well as our social media pages.
A few years back we had an issue with Google. I periodically check our website and listing to see where it sits and if there needs to be any edits or updates. I had to change our business hours when I decided to start working 4 days a week since I have been working 6 to 7 days a week and seeing the importance of spending time with my wife and kids far outweighed work. I went to make the edit. I noticed our entire Google listing was gone! Nothing! So I contacted Google immediately and they informed me that they have called many times to confirm our listing and no response. So they took it down. Most anyone with a business and a cell phone get spam calls. A LOT of spam calls. I get on average about 25 a day so I screen my calls and have spam blockers and spam likely apps. If there is no voicemail then I just assume it was just that, a spam call. The spam callers check on me more than most of my friends and family lol.
Our original Google places listing was in the top 3 tier, 87 reviews and 5 star. I asked the Google rep to just restore our listing and that I am confirming that it is still active. They reinstated it and that was it. When I logged in to make sure everything was good I noticed that there were no reviews at all. So, I called back waited on hold for about 30 minutes. I asked why there were no reviews? She looked into it and said yes there are 13 reviews. I told her that there were a lot more than that. She looked into it more and told me unfortunately that she could only recover 13?? Needless to say I was pretty upset.
Between Googles mistakes and Facebooks censorship I was done with both. I had enough, like many others did. I knew we had a strong client base, repeats, referrals and the work was still flowing in, post plannedemic, so I stopped posting on social media and stopped updating our Google listing. It was time consuming and frankly we had so much work coming in I was too busy to do it. It felt good actually, not being dependent on big tech and social media. Being off social media was also so refreshing. No feeds, no comments, no negativity and more time actually living in reality.
Eventually like anything good. All good things come to an end or a crawl. I did factor in the geo political and economic situation at the time in early 2021 thinking that it was going to gradually get worse if things were not fixed that had happened beginning in November of 2020. Its 3 years later and just as I predicted things have not improved. The economy has slowed down dramatically and inflation is setting it. Majority of people see it, some don’t.
All of our costs have gone up 3 to 5 times since 2020. Our chemical costs have quadrupled, our insurance has tripled and supplies have tripled in cost. As a business owner the logical thing to do is rase rates to cover the rising costs. Many of our clients fully understood while some did not and decided to shop around. Fact is, there will ALWAYS be someone who will do it cheaper. Not as good or not even close to good but cheaper. We had to fix a few messes others left this year already, 23 to be exact. It wasn’t like we raised our rates 3 or 4 times. It was more like an increase of 5 to 7 % for example. If the roof cleaning cost was $500.00 it was now $525 to $535.00 and that saving of $35 cost them landscape damages, poor quality work and headaches. Nobody needs anymore headaches, especially nowadays if you know what I mean.
In the 17 years we have been in business we have had our ups and downs economically. We have seen our competitors come and go by the hundreds and the thousand plus homes we service every year besides 2022 and 2023 being a lot less homes serviced due to the economy and the sheer amount of new cleaning businesses cutting prices by more than 50% to stay alive. We have had a total of 9 complaints 7 of which were just misunderstandings and 2 that we quickly resolved that were plant issues that were unavoidable due to drainage issues on those properties. We have always committed to integrity and doing over 100% no matter the cost or time for all of our clients and many recognize it and let us know while some don’t which is ok too. I am not a complainer at all and I don’t like complaints at all so I do what needs to be done to prevent any. It’s a habit that is seared into my work ethic.
So the conclusion for this is before you jump into hiring a cleaning company or any service company make sure you look into these things.
Look at how long they have been in business compared to others and the amount of reviews they have. If they have hundreds of reviews but have been in business for 5 years or less they are paying for them. I have had many clients say they’ll give a review and they forget. I had close to 100 reviews after 10 years and averaging 1000 jobs a year before Google deleted our listing and I have 16 over the last 4 years. Even when told they’ll leave a review, they often forget. We are all busy just trying to survive and take care of our families.
Look at other links for that company. I.E. BBB (We are A+ rated but no longer an official member due to cutting costs) and the BBB is just a ratings company.
Look at old or current ratings pages like Angies List or Angie. We stopped using Angies list because it was like a pay to play scheme but our ratings are still there.
Look at their social media and see their work.
Look at Sunbiz.org (if you live in Florida) to make sure they are current and how long they have been in business.
Ask for references and if a company is highly recommended it is probably advisable to use that company and not bark at pricing.
Lastly, try avoid the lowest price or best deal bids because 90% of the time you will not be happy with the final result I can guarantee that after 25 years in the industry.
All of our pricing is all set and based off of square foot and type of surface rates. We never have and never will price anyone based off of their income or status. If you live in a palace it is the same price per square foot and surface type as someone who lives in an average single family home.
Thanks for reading my blog! If you would like a quote or have any questions on our services visit our website at http://www.tropicalroofandexterior.com or call us at 407-951-3634
Jeff Worth – Founder and President of Tropical Roof and Exterior Cleaning Systems LLC.
Orlando Pressure Washing and Roof Cleaning Services 