Plumbers could be missing out on business due to poor online presence

Published:  20 July, 2016

Yell, UK digital marketing provider, has discovered an overwhelming majority of plumbers (90%) have incorrect or inconsistent information online, including basic details such as a phone number or email.

Yell analysed the online presence of 4,962 plumbers in the UK across sites including Bing, Facebook and My Local Services UK, and also asked customers nationwide about their online habits and expectations.

The results showed some basic but common errors in small businesses’ approach to reaching potential online customers, such as having different telephone numbers listed on different sites.

Feedback showed 89% of customers say they will try another company if the details listed online for a particular business are incorrect, suggesting many small businesses, including plumbers, are missing out on a lot of potential custom.

Key facts:

• 51% of customers said when they were looking for a new service, the most important source of information was a website
• 54% of people rely on positive online reviews when deciding on a new local business or service

“If a company’s information online is wrong, it’s arguably worse than not being online at all,” said Mark Clisby, Yell’s marketing director. “Not only is the company effectively invisible to customers, it can also seem careless or even untrustworthy. This often happens because companies don’t always know all the listings sites where they appear, or when they move they forget to update their information. It’s easily done, but can be incredibly damaging for business.”

“A lot of small businesses tell me they get all their business from word of mouth and don’t need to be online. However, they’re ignoring the fact that word of mouth has moved online, with more than half of all customers choosing a local business based on online reviews. That’s a lot of work to be missing out on.”

To support small businesses, Yell has launched Connect, a service recognising the importance of connections, word of mouth recommendations and referrals. It helps business owners make their details visible online and get in front of the people looking for local products and services.

Yell is offering small businesses in the UK the chance to try out Connect by completing a free scan of their business online. By entering the business name and address, Connect is able to identify how visible a business is online and, most importantly, report on how accurate the information is. 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Andrey_Popov