The Art of Asking for Google Reviews with Jonah Canter 249

The Art of Asking for Google Reviews with Jonah Canter. Owner of Canter construction in Charleston, South Carolina. They are premier company that does remodeling, it's a fun talk we had together we talked about how he grew his business basically with zero dollars. He's shares   how he get’ s so many google reviews and what his results have been with us today going to share that with us today.” Hey welcome to contractors secret weapon. Today, we've got a great day, we got a great guest. And you know, I it's just fun when I have an opportunity to talk with other contractors about their successes and the things that make them grow. And today I have Jonah Canter. He owns Canter construction company in Charleston, South Carolina. They are premier company that does remodeling. So, it's a fun talk we had together with talked about how he grew his business basically with zero dollars. And so, he's going to share that with us today. And so, that you can help your business grow and maybe the same way that Jonah did his. And so, let's get into and Welcome Jonah Canter from Canter construction in Charleston South Carolina. Jonah, I am so glad that you're with us today. It's a really special treat for me because I don't get to talk to many contractors and it's really exciting. So, thanks for being with us today. Dave, I appreciate it as well and thanks for having me on the show. For those of people who don't know me out there my name is Jonah Canter. I'm the owner of Canter construction and also a co-owner of Oceanside construction and design located here in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina. And, I've been in the construction industry for probably over 20 years but actively with my companies for the past 10 years and deeper capacities from being the guy that you know the hammer on the nail all the way up to you know being the owner now and having to make a lot of the hard decisions and business decisions that come with it. So, all that fun work. Now, before is be mindlessly just go to work do this to this to this. And now it's like, I got to think about stuff. Yeah, it's a-- I am the organizer of chaos. That's what I tell my wife and whenever anybody ever questions, I have an employee, a long time ago, say to me "Well, you know what do you get paid to do". And I looked at him dead in the face and I didn't embed it I said "I get to do the hundred dollar an hour stuff. You get to do the 14 dollar an hour stuff". So, we'll just keep it at that. But, no. Seriously it's-- I've had kind of a very interesting background. As a kid I grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. Went on a soccer scholarship to all male private school and Sidney in Virginia went for a year. Hated it. Dropped out. Didn't know what I was going to do. I moved down to Florida. To Fort Lauderdale area and ended up working on boats. That was when you're young and you can kind of be stupid not know what you really wanted to do. And, I slowly made my way back up. And my family is from the Charleston area and ended up getting a job with my brother in law. Believe it or not as a shipping manager for a startup company. And, if you don't know me one thing that I'm very proud of is that if you hand me a shovel and tell me to dig you a trench, I'm going to dig you the best trench you've ever seen. I've just always had a really strong work ethic so, when they put me in that role as a shipping manager I was trying to find ways of making things better faster cheaper for the company and that kind of I guess guest caught the eye of some of the business owners and they kept promoting me within that startup company. To the point where I ended up moving overseas to the Netherlands. And what's their point man for opening up a print facility. So, that was a whole fun time of my life and by this time I was only about 22 years old. Had hair down to my shoulders. You know, still a dumb kid just trying to figure it all out. But when I moved overseas to the Netherlands, I gained that whole business since that operation since like hey they're counting on me and there's people under me who were counting on me. I have take the serious. So, that was a fun part of my life where it kind of, I tell people I grew up very fast at 22 or the rest of my friends were waiting tables drinking and doing whatever they wanted. I was negotiating print contracts with Dutchman and Belgian people at the time. So, anyways the whole point of that is that Amazon ended up buying that company and I ended up working for Amazon and for a while in the same capacity. Opening up these print facilities in various locations other fulfillment centers. I got my business background from working at Amazon. And Amazon's a place if you've never worked for them. It is a really tough environment. They expect the world, they expect, blood, sweat, tears and almost your first-born child will work. And I lasted about three years and my wife said I'll I'll divorce you if you don't quit because I wasn't sleeping and all that. But what it did teach me is it taught me a lot of things that I apply to my business now and in a couple of those things is the customer experience has to be the most amazing thing on earth right. It has to be something that they're not getting because if they can just get it anywhere, well, you're one of a million. But if you supply something they don't have or they are not seeing, that makes you you know, the one-eyed man is king of the land of the blind kind of situation. So I really when I when I came back from all that I started my company and at first it was a cabinet company and House of round 2007. I was old. Now it's feeling good to have not. And then this year of 2008 hit and all hell broke loose as everybody knows now that's going into 2007 was a millionaire and 2008 they lost it all. And in the words of Richard Branson they asked them they said "How do you become a millionaire?" And he said "Well, you start as a billionaire. And then you buy air and company of which is true". But, anyway bottom tanked that I had to shut that company down. Lucky for me the same guys who had started that other startup. I literally was walking down the street and saw them and they were like we are pros and they were like "What are you doing" and I was like struggling and they're like we're getting the band back together. And so, I just as soon as I stepped in my construction light I step right back out of it and I ended up working for those guys for a long time and another software startup until this past year they allowed me to own my construction company and be their point guy at the software company. Yeah, it was amazing situation for me that's why I took it on. Great guys. I have great respect for them and I slowly but surely left that business altogether and focused on my business. But, I guess I'm giving you a little breadcrumbs to show you. You know sometimes you don't know where your life is going to take you but you need to take pieces your life and apply them to the next part of your life. Well yeah. And a lot of the interesting things that I think that nobody really thinks about is that you are here today because of what you went through in the past. Yeah. And the person you're going to be because of what you've learned in the past. Yeah. So, it's important. It really is that when you when you take it into that perspective. Yeah and it's one of the things when I when I got serious about my construction company the one thing that I wanted to do was I wanted I look at things at work. Let me take you back. I was at a conference one time giving a speech and this kid stood up and he said "Hey Jonah you've been an entrepreneur. What--What are you. How do you look for the next new technology or next new thing to land a business in?". And I looked at him and I said you don't. I said you take something that exists now and you make immensely better. So, Uber did that to the taxi industry and Amazon is doing that to almost everything right and right now. So you don't have to be some super smart guy. And the next technology but you have to do is look at businesses that are not being run well as a whole or as a general philosophy and make them better. So, when I came into construction, that's the first thought and I started to look at it. I know you're laughing because you know and everybody is probably listening knows that the construction industry is rife with just idiots. Be honest with you. I mean Darrell is bad business people you name it. And one of my fond jokes that I tell my customers today, just get a laugh but it's true, as I said who knew the minimum bar to success was having all my teeth and showing up on time. I'm going to be rich. And anybody that doesn't have teeth I'm not making fun of you about that but there is a little bit of a stigma there was that I was I was in the paint store when Nana and I was tied to the representative and even talking about my stuff like this. And he goes you know because of that bench and more they have to have training seminars that are painters in different parts of the country. And he said the trainer come in and there's like 100 guys in a room and say Frank's in his book he says probably six eight 10 inches. And he holds it up and then he puts it down and he goes OK well we're going to make this simple today. How many people want to become wealthy in the contract painting contracting business like a bunch of guys raise their hands. It goes OK. He says it's not in this book he said. Answer your phone and return phone calls. So true. So even today I get calls and that's another thing of mine. I pick it up. I try to be responsive and people will pick up and go oh my gosh. I didn't expect you to pick up and I'm like well I'm not like everybody else. I'm going to talk to you because I mean I have the ability in my current role to make sure that every car-- it calls me is answered. And so, there's little things like that that people miss. But the idea I had was focusing on things like that that are I look back now are very small details and very simple and don't cost you money and are simple but mean the difference of the world it changes you completely different from the other guy. I don't care what kind of car you roll up in or truck. I don't care what you look like. I'm bearded with tattoos right. I care how you respond to me. I care about your personality how you react things and so you can be mentally better than everybody else. In that case you're going to be successful so that's what I did with this company. Canter construction and it's really helped me keep myself grounded, keep a good head on where I want my business. It's been very successful for my business as well. But one of the stories I think I came here today to kind of talk about is trying to help contractors who are typically good at being contractors. Their skill sets. They're good carpenters or whatever but they fall short when it comes to the business side. They didn't get the training they don't have the know how whatever. And in that sense a lot of what is left out I think is you know trying to figure out how to keep your phone ringing without paying money. Right. That's the biggest thing for your phone ringing. So, a while ago, I was getting my domain name which is www .Canterconstruction.com . I was trying to get that domain name because it's my last name. And low and behold this other company popped up and they they're like they happen to be related to me 14 cousins or something. Right. And I looked out No. No problem I'll do Canter construction SC for SouthCarolina.com and roll on. And as I started to become successful I started to get these comments from people saying hey I looked up your company and your Web site and there's some old man not a Wilkesboro North Carolina or wherever it was. And I said Really. And I started to look at this and I realized wow these people were looking for me in Charleston and this other companies popping up. Are they going to get my business now or that business.?-- No because they're not in the Charleston area. But it led me to go you know what they are. The Web site didn't look fresh. It looked like it was old PHP. And I said you know they may not care about this. I'm going to call them and we're related so I'm going to ask him to tell us that they'll let me buy the domain. So, I called in a nice lady answered and I just I went in and said hey I'd like to potentially talk to you guys about buying your domain. And she literally went nope and hung up the phone. Oh right. And I was like gosh you didn't even know I'm going to offer like 2 million dollars. I mean I wasn't but you just she cut me off and to this day I even tell people I do not hold anything against those guys. They did nothing wrong. I wouldn't I wouldn't sell my domain right now. Somebody asked me but what if it was it. All of a sudden lit this fire. And I always used the term you know hell hath no fury like me scorned when she scorned me on that. I decided enough is enough. I want to figure out how I would my people search for my name and trolls and how I can be the topless and Google them and so one of the things that I did and going through that is I learned all this on the fly and people listening that know a little bit about that are already thinking he's learning Seo or search engine optimization. That is the goal at the end of this and it's a bit of alchemy and smoke and mirrors. We'll talk more about that. But what I tried to do was how do I get myself in front of people when they do a search for my name? That's how I started. Now, I look at ways of when you look at contractor Charleston how am I the first one. So that's a little bit about what I'm going to talk about. First thing that they may not do well you are. I mean that's one of the things like you know I come up if you're looking for my name or my business but you know you like you're saying if they're looking for your name under your or your business find that to look for contact on an animal and you want to come up there you want to be trained from their face as best you do and that's the harder of the two things that nobody knows you as your or they get your name from somebody else. But people serendipitously finding you that's what you want. Right. Because I'm searching for this. And your result for that. So, one of the first things that I teach people to do is there's a lot of free web sites out there.  that allow you to have free listings where you can put your company logo your Web site pictures it's free to do. You can go out there spend some sweat equity in a six pack of beer watching TV and put yourself out and on as many sites as possible. Now will these sites try to back sell you like oh by subscription of course. But the point being there is ignore them. Put them in junk whatever. But you just-- you're starting to build relevance in multiple listings because instead of your name being just on a Google business listing now it's on mana, now it's on porch, now it's on house. So, your kind of like throwing seven eight fishing lines out there. And what you'll probably find when you do that is not much is going to happen with your business and it shouldn't. Really, it's just getting you out in the world. Now the thing that I learned was that after I keep in mind I was doing this hoping for big expectations I didn't see. And I was like huh. So, I went to phase two. And what I initially did was porch was a company that I had listed on and they had to deal with Lowe's where they had a kiosk in a Lowe's and you could buy any of the windows installed or a fan installed. And here's preferred contractors. Gorgeous Web site. So, I went on porch and just had a bunch of people review me and I had maybe 21 reviews and all of a sudden, I went back to that search for Canter construction and lo and behold those people-- nice people-- that they are in North Carolina were third or fourth on google in my area. I was like OK I see what's going on here. And so, the third phase of this chapter having a little bit of success there was I started to look at my Web site and pictures a little more closely. Now keep in mind I have Google Analytics on the backside of my web site. I look at those all the time to see where people coming from when they get to my website what do they do. The thing that I realized from looking at those business analytics was on my first web I went Wow they're popping in and popping out right. I didn't have my number friends center. It wasn't a you know a beautiful like a spider web of capturing them and to them digging in deeper. So, I cannibalize my first web site came up with a brand new clean slick web site. Same one I had today and started to watch the business analytics again and I started to realize that people were then popping in and searching around. They're spending more time when they do get to my Web site. So little bit of just to backtrack as you get yourself out there and as many places as possible prime you then try to focus on reviews which initially I did poor reviews and we're going to get into the google reviews in a second and then you look at your Web site and you're listing even those listings that I mentioned. You always want to have fresh pictures fresh updates to it you may not cannibalize the whole Web site but Google does backtrack and look at things and it notices when things are updated and says oh well you've updated pictures so it gets back into relevance when somebody's searching for contractor and it can help you down the road saying oh we think you're looking for Canter construction. So, I did that for a little bit and then was still not seeing. I wanted to honestly have those people off the first and think page stuff. My wife always jokes she says Jonah if you had a boat I'm pretty sure you would name it. Never satisfied. And that's so true. And I wasn't. So, what I did next was I shamed myself today for not focusing on this but I had a Google business listing and I started to do what I call the art of asking and not asking for Google reviews is very simple and it had the most immediate and profound effect on my business and the business elite that I ended up getting. You have to keep in mind Google is something that not a hundred percent of people have but almost everybody on earth has a G.M. account right. So, the things that you're looking when you're asking for a favor which is what you're doing when you ask for a review you don't want it to be convoluted and step through hoops or to sign up for something that's junk. Nobody's going to do it. It's going to stop the process. But if you make it one click an easy you're going to get reviews. So, what I started doing was I would do work for clients make sure they were totally happy. Jonah you’re the best thing since sliced bread. Awesome it. And then I would send him a follow up e-mail and say hey for people like you who found me on line or found me through a review of through a referral. Google Reviews are a good way of saying I do top quality work. I'm a good guy I'm honest. All of these things. Do you mind providing me with a five-star review and then I would send them a hyper link for the Canter 5-star review right there in the e-mail. What that would do is boom they clicked that hyperlink they go right to the review and they're typing away 5star sin and done. And it's you have to as a contractor you have to understand that you are asking for a favor so keep it simple but Google who runs one of the biggest if not the biggest search sites. Why was I not kidding reviews from Google to begin with? I look back and I want to hit myself from heaven. But what that did was as a couple of things it kept me in check to make sure that my business was running correctly. I was offering good services good customer service good skilled services to clients because I was I wasn't just done when the job was done and the check was in my bank. I wanted something more. Right. So, it's a good check and balance for contractors to keep them. If you want to grow your business you've got to be good at it. You've got to be the best at it and you do that by being able to ask for as many reviews as possible. So, I asked for these reviews over time. And the next thing I realized was it was quiet. And then the phone started bringing. And then the phone kept ringing and I would pick it up and they'd go yes just Kaner construction. I'm like yes. And they're like "oh yeah, I found you online" and I was just ear to ear smiling because up to that point my life-- 75 percent of my business was referral from realtors, friends, whomever and made a good living on that. And, you know, the 25 percent was, somebody just randomly found you and I don't even know if I got the work from home at that point. Fast forward to the day, 90 percent of my work comes from online and 10 percent is referrals. So, that's an amazing flip. And what happens there is, I talked about the alchemy of it.  Nobody truly understands as SEO and if they do tell you that they're a snake oil salesman in the fold because Google is always changing their spaghetti algorithm of search relevance and results in everything. So you're always chasing a ghost. But if you know where that ghost is going to appear you can try to target yourself to figure out how to be there at that time and so that's where I'd like to recap and say fundamentals here. Get yourself out in as many places as possible cannibalize. Update your Web site. Make sure that you're asking for reviews. Get it. I don't want to say that you ended up like kind of whoring yourself out there but you really have to promote yourself as much as possible on the Internet. And if you know if you have five google reviews don't even act like that's enough. Right. I have. I thought I heard you got fifty-five. Google reviews Yeah and I'm constantly asking every day for people when we close our jobs. Will you give me a review? Give me review because that's free marketing that I don't pay for I don't use Google Ad Words. I don't pay for any of that and never seen any results. Blood sweat equity which is what we all need in Kontra. I found out ways to keep promoting myself to the point where if you are in the geography of Charleston and you look up contractor Charleston now I'm one of the top guys in fact I come up there against commercial giants in the area. I'll be the 4th guy and the biggest thing is up to 5 to refuse you get your revelations irrelevant and you Cito up your pictures so there's constant upgrading of your gear. Your Web site which is really not a big deal. It's not really done take you all the time but these are the little things you know that Google looks for and there are little things that most your kids can do. It's correct. Now it's funny as people who may start say they're in Florida or somewhere else you might get different results because it does look at your area a likelihood that you want so it doesn't mean you'll look up contractor by me but I don't really care about people necessarily Charleson as much as I do about the greater Charleston area right. But the thing that it's a star that shines the brightest about the reviews and I've had plenty of people telling me this is we saw some other contractors and they had four reviews a new head 50 by 5 star reviews. We called you because we're like oh my gosh you can't have any brothers or cousins that are out there. And so that's a that's a testament to a person who does not know you right somebody who finds you organically doesn't know you from Adam right already knows that they don't trust contractors by very nature. You build that trust before they even pick up the phone and call because they look and go wow. People like this guy and seems to do good work. So, there's tons of benefits not only to getting your own leads and whatnot but also in securing deals and in adding a layer of comfort for particular clients that they're trusting you right off the bat because they like what you say you make it easy for them. Yes. And it's you know it's like you're selling yours. You're doing everything for him like I had and I just did that with one of mine because I said you know she was just rain and rain. She says your mom you don't understand how my mom usually throws contractors off the job the first day like she goes. She thinks again pay by the hour or taking too long. Yeah. Now it's true. So, I should never have a contract to you pay by the hour. That's terrible. I know that so I said so. So, she was you know at my house were thinking about selling and I go. So, we got through. You know as I said my mom loves you guys she goes You must love your job or your work. And I go Why did she say that. Because you're doing all the little stuff the meticulous stuff and she said I said you write a review on that which is good. Absolutely. So, you know I did and I provided was the link and a lot of times that will do. I don't have anywhere near 55. But I'll give him the link and I will get this is what I heard you say change it if you are you know just so they can cut and paste it. Yeah, I thought about doing that but I kind of like that kind of off the cuff because sometimes I get reviews that are comical to me but they're a testament to my crew. So, I have a guy named Pete who is a phenomenal phenomenal guy. I pay him a lot of money but he's an OCD neat freak. You'll never find another man like Pete. And somebody wrote this company is awesome and Pete is the cleanest person I've ever met on a job site. But you think about that. You were both laughing and it was funny. But to a client who that's important to that's going to be a selling point to them. Right. Yeah because that's what I hate is when I got to clean up after someone come into work and my house absolutely. So, there's you know when it gets back to the review part of it I think you know people just need to understand how reviews are actually hidden money in it and a great example is and I've done this several times as contractors will get into situations where there's a wall and you're doing some work and you don't know what's behind it. You can't rip it up before your a contract with them. You get into it and you're like hey I'm going to charge 2000 dollars for whatever it is. And you open up the wall and you go oh man this isn't as bad as we thought. Yeah, we can do that two. Whatever. It's only about 15. Hunter Well you know what I do. I'm not greedy. I go back to that client. I go Hey Guy Lady whatever we were going to charge you to I'm going to reduce this to 15 because it's less work. And I think I think you'll be happy with that. And it's a fair price at that one. I don't want to overcharge you. And the look on their face is like oh my god Jonah I would have honestly, I would have never known that. And you could have just taken my money. That's amazing. I appreciate it. What does that build absolute trust that this guy now forming. Oh yeah because the next thing I'd say is hey you know what. Since I saved you five hundred dollars. I'd rather be a five-star review that's worth tons of money to me. So, it's got to be you know in that sense you've got to be a guy that you know you're shifting and understanding that I may be taking 500 dollars out of my pocket but what am I gaining I'm gaining a five-star review or referral and somebody who 100 percent trust me. And if anybody goes Man I need a contract or I'm going to be the first person in their mind. So, there's important. You know having values in this industry and not being shady can get you positive results and not being shady of simply charging people for what they should be charged. And when you see something like that you know help them out. So, you know don't be afraid to charge them. But given the value that they're expecting. Absolutely So that's really awesome. You know all that free stuff that you can do it takes time and it doesn't happen overnight but it does take time but everything works that takes time anyways. It does I mean if you think you're going to get into a business and make a million dollars tomorrow you'll be sadly mistaken. The truth of this business is you need to be able to weather anything that comes out you. I'm building my business so that when the next bottom drops I keep on rolling through it with a smile on my face while everybody else is selling their 80000-dollar trucks and houses on the water and they're screwed. I'll be buying up those properties from them and that's what you're really trying to do is you're trying to futureproof your business and you do that by getting in the trenches and doing this kind of small nuanced work and doing it right so that when it does come time when everybody starts to fold you'll have plenty of guys trying to do work for pennies on the dollar because they're struggling. And I just have work coming in you know. So that's I think that's a you know important value to have. That's really been very very interesting especially with the reviews you've got 55. So that's just that's just being consistent all the time always asking because here's what I read an article not too long ago. And it just blew me away that when you ask somebody for review or testimony that was really astronomically low I'm going to say 50 percent of people actually do it but 90 percent of the people check it. Yes. Yes. And that's why you have to be diligent but not too pushy. I've sent I sin no more than two reviewer a review requests. I'll ask them. Do you mind right. Yeah, no problem. I'll send him an email with a link. Nothing happens I'll send them a follow up e-mail and say hey just want to make sure you got this. Do you mind giving us a review. If I don't hear anything I move on because I'm not going to be pushy about it because it feels forced at that point. But you are right. And for that very fact. Keep in mind what people typically write a review about negatives. They 100 percent write you a negative review but they very rarely will write you a positive review. So back to the 55 google reviews I take that as a testament when people see that some people know that and go wow. I mean it's like when you're on Amazon you buy a product you can see people who are complaining about the shipping of the product and you're like That's not a product review. You can't do that. I don't care. You screwed it up but Binda two and three stars. Those are the ones you're paying attention to because people were looking and they'll write about hey it broke down after two weeks or didn't work out to ship it back it was damaged. Those kinds of things are a valid product reviews. And so, when you have a product that's got a five star review I don't even read all of them like done. So, you are going to buy it whatever. I trust that through the social media aspect of this that that the group hive mentality works and it's a good thing. Any last thoughts on the google reviews and I know the end here just I just want to tell people you know just take what I've told you and put your own kind of spin on it. You may find results in your area depending on your geography north south east west wherever it is may vary. Just keep in mind if you're the best person at doing this and you're doing it without paying a company to do it for you you're going to win. You've got the tenacity. Ruiz is the hundred percent of keeping. And also, just expect that results may vary but they may take some time but they will start to see the fruits of your labor if you will. So, and I also Dave I also like to tell people feel free to reach out to me with questions or comments any kind of feedback I'm a very open book. I like people to respond. I like helping people and I have a couple of different ways you can do that. First you can email me directly. This is my direct e-mail is Jonah [email protected]  That's my direct e-mail. Feel free to send me any comments there or if you want to have a more fun aspect of our company and you're on Instagram. I'm a huge Instagram or I love it. I think it's the best thing on earth. You can find me at Chuck town which is my personal account or Cantor construction which is the business account and you can see pictures of us goofing off on the job sites. In general, having some fun. Feel free to reach out and either way you can be a voyeur and just look at the pictures. Or you could feel free to ask me any questions. I am an open book and I want to be able to help people so please do reach out. Cool. That's awesome. Thanks so much for spilling your guts and sharing this. It's really been fun we're going to have you back again. Talk about something else.  That sounds good you know always do it Dave. I appreciate it. Everybody listening.   To connect with Jonah Canter Gmail: [email protected] www.canterconstructionsc.com www.oceansidesc.com Instagram: @canterconstruction @chucktown (personal account...me being goofy)   There are so many ways to do almost free marketing you just have to think about it or you could just go to the web site and pick up the free download.  4 Hot Marketing Strategies That Can Flood Your Business with Customers If you have a story to tell and would like to be a guest on this podcast email my assistant Shell at [email protected]   and she will send you our guest sheet.     Our sponsors  Would you like your phone to ring more with qualified buyers people looking to buy now? Then let’s make that happen. Best Home Services Leads is dedicated to making your phone ring with qualified buyers wanting to buy now. 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