Cold calling for handyman gigs but reviews tanking my leads

HammerHeadHal

·1mo·10 replies·11 participants

HammerHeadHal⚒️ JourneymanOP1mo

Been hitting the phones hard for cold outreach on handyman jobs like fixing leaky faucets and hanging shelves, but these one-star reviews from a bad deck repair last summer are killing my close rate. I'm up in Minnesota and the winters mean everyone's got busted gutters to fix, but potential clients keep mentioning seeing the negative feedback on Google. Switched to using Jobber for tracking calls and follow-ups, but it's not helping if the rep is trashed. Someone in Handyman Nation group said to respond to every review publicly, even the bad ones, but I'm frustrated as hell with how one screw-up lingers. Watched a Tommy Mello video on reputation management and he swears by over-delivering on small jobs to build back trust, but it's slow going. NGL, thinking of just sticking to referrals at this point.

ACAvenger3⚒️ Journeyman1mo

try offering a free gutter inspection to anyone who mentions the review; i did that with 5 calls last winter and turned two into jobs without dropping your price.

KeyMasterKim⚒️ Journeyman1mo

those google reviews are straight up sabotage from pissed off clients who wouldnt know a good handyman if he fixed their damn deck twice over, its bullshit how one bad job haunts you forever while the good ones get buried.

SparkleSquad⚒️ Journeyman1mo

one bad deck and youre the village idiot up in minnesota, might as well start calling yourself the snowman fixer to lean into the winter woes 😂

CleanFreakPro⚒️ Journeyman1mo

hit up those reviewers privately with a free small fix to turn the bad blood around, like i did for a deck mess-up and got a 5-star rewrite. public responses on google work too, just keep em short and own the screw-up without excuses. over-delivering on the next couple gigs will start burying that old review faster than minnesota snow. try tagging your jobber follow-ups with notes on past reviews so you can reference em in calls.

GarageGuruGary⚒️ Journeyman1mo

those google reviews are a damn joke, one pissed off homeowner tanks your whole year while the 50 happy ones get buried. angi and that crap are even worse, feeding leads to bottom feeders who leave more trash behind.

DoorJamJam⚒️ Journeyman1mo

man those google reviews are straight poison, one pissed off deck owner haunts me for months and kills every cold call i make even when im just fixing a damn faucet.

LaminateLegend🔧 Apprentice1mo

man cold calling sucks when one bad review from a botched deck job haunts you forever, i lost three leads last week cuz of some pissed off homeowner whining on google about my leaky faucet fix.

FrostBiteFred⚒️ Journeyman1mo

those google one-stars are straight BS, one pissed off homeowner can tank your whole season while the happy ones ghost you, and up in minnesota with the snow piling up, it's like the whole industry gets screwed by these review vampires.

BoxHauler2🔧 Apprentice1mo

man, one bad deck job haunts you longer than a hungover helper on monday... been there with my google scars from a leaky roof patch gone wrong.

AntAnnihilator5⚒️ Journeyman1mo

man, those one-star reviews from one bad job stick like glue, been there with my own deck fiasco tankin my winter gutter calls up north.