Restoration
The water is still on the floor when she calls, and the first truck to answer gets the job.
Marketing and follow-up for restoration companies
A restoration company gets its work on the worst day of a homeowner's year. A pipe lets go in the middle of the night or a storm puts water in the basement, and she calls until somebody answers. Much of the rest of your work comes from the plumbers, insurance agents, and past customers who send people your way. The Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System gives your company a system for the four jobs of growth.
About two minutes. You see your score right away.
The four jobs in a restoration business
Getting Found.
In restoration, marketing means being the company a homeowner finds in the middle of an emergency and trusts enough to let through the door. A complete Google Business Profile, recent reviews, and a phone number that gets answered at any hour are what she weighs in those first few minutes. Home Service Guild builds and writes the pages on your website, keeps your Google Business Profile complete, and runs your Google search ads and Facebook and Instagram ads in your name, and we track which ads and pages bring in calls, so your budget goes to the ones that bring you jobs.
Reply/Follow Up.
Emergency calls come in at night, on weekends, and while every crew is already on a job. The two in the morning call, the web form from a flooded basement, and the text from a plumber standing in it all go onto one list, and you get an alert the moment each one arrives. For larger estimates on rebuild work, you get a reminder to follow up until the customer gives you an answer.
Operations.
A water job can run for days, with equipment on site, return visits, and a stack of paperwork. Online booking, invoices, and payment reminders run on a system, and the schedule, the photos, and each job's notes live in your field service software where the whole team can see them.
Word of Mouth.
Most homeowners hope they never need you twice, so repeat business in restoration comes largely from referral partners and from customers who tell their neighbors. A well-run company keeps in touch with both, so yours is the name they give out the next time a basement floods.
An example of what we hear from the restoration companies we work with
A homeowner called us at two in the morning, and nobody picked up.
A pipe under a homeowner's kitchen sink let go in the night, and by the time she found it the water had reached the hallway. She called us first because a friend had mentioned our name, and when it went to voicemail she left a message and called the next company on her list, which answered and had a truck at her house before sunrise. My office heard the voicemail at eight and called her back, but by then the job was already gone.
What the Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System does for a restoration company
The Home Service Guild Marketing Operations System runs under all four jobs in your restoration company, and it connects to Housecall Pro, where a water job's photos, return visits, and notes can stay together. If your company runs on Jobber instead, we set that up too, and Jobber for restoration companies shows how we work with it. Through about twenty years in real estate, Robert Earl dealt with restoration companies both as a client and as a business partner, so he has seen a water job from the homeowner's side of the front door.
Articles for restoration owners
- How fast does a water damage company need to answer the phone?A homeowner with water on the floor calls until someone answers. Why speed decides who gets the restoration job, and what after-hours coverage looks like.
- How do restoration companies get referrals from insurance agents and plumbers?Plumbers and insurance agents are often the first call after water damage. How a restoration company earns their referrals by being easy to trust and reach.
Questions restoration owners ask us
How can a restoration company make sure every emergency call gets answered?
Decide ahead of time who carries the phone at night, whether that is the owner, a rotation of trusted people, or an answering service, and send a text back within minutes when a call does get missed. Each morning the Home Service Guild system also gives the owner a list of the calls still waiting for a reply, so no caller is forgotten.
What kind of marketing works for a water damage and restoration company?
The marketing that works for restoration puts you in front of a homeowner in the minutes after she finds the damage and gives her a reason to trust you. That takes a complete Google Business Profile, recent reviews, helpful pages on your website about the work you do, and good relationships with the people homeowners call first.
How does a restoration company stay in touch with past customers and referral partners?
The Home Service Guild system keeps your past customers on a list and sends them a note a few times a year, between emergencies. After each job, the customer gets a thank you with a link to leave a Google review and a link to pass your name to a friend. The plumbers and insurance agents who send you work deserve the same attention, so make a habit of a call or a note to them now and then. That keeps your name fresh for the next time one of them hears about a flooded basement.
Does the system work with the job software my restoration company uses?
The Home Service Guild system connects to Housecall Pro. If your restoration company uses different job software, ask Robert, and he will tell you plainly how the system would work with what you already have.
Free business score
See which of the four jobs is costing your restoration business the most work.
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