4 Yelp tools that help a home services business attract qualified leads

After 25 years in business, Cliff Bressler can afford to be selective with his services at Nature’s Friends Landscaping. The seasoned landscaper only accepts new clients when he knows he’s the right fit for the job—from clearing trees to designing entire landscapes for his neighbors in the Rockville, Maryland area.

Keeping the business small and selective has allowed Cliff to maintain high standards of service, provide for his team, and protect his own work-life balance. For Cliff, success as a home service business is not about getting as many jobs as possible, but making sure everyone is on the same page from the start.

Often, that journey begins on Cliff’s Yelp Page. Free features like service area and services offered give Cliff more control over who sees his Yelp Page in search results, while paid products like Business Highlights allow him to showcase what his business does best.

Read on to discover four products and features that help Cliff attract his ideal customers on Yelp.

1. Service area

Cliff founded Nature’s Friends Landscaping in 1999 with the goal of working close to home. Today he targets customers within a 10-mile radius of Rockville, Maryland, which provides more than enough business for the solo entrepreneur, thanks to the suburb’s lush lawns and greenways.

Setting your service area on Yelp shows potential customers how far you’re willing to travel for a job. It also helps narrow down users searching on Yelp to those in your service area.

Some service pros want to serve as wide a region as possible, but Cliff is a big proponent of being realistic about your service area, rather than opening it up to jobs you can’t handle. “I turn down a lot of business, including a lot of business in some really great areas [where] I know there’s a lot of money, but it would take me 45 minutes just to get over there to meet them, and then 45 minutes back,” he said. “I’m so busy within that little radius that I have. That was part of my goal of starting this business too—I don’t want to be trapped anywhere.”

2. Services offered

Nature’s Friends Landscaping offers a wide variety of services, from comprehensive design jobs to one-off tasks, such as tree removal. To let customers know exactly which services he provides, Cliff has added more than 30 different service offerings to his Yelp Page. His service offerings also provide more targeted queries, so he doesn’t waste time fielding requests he can’t fulfill.

Your Yelp Page will show up for users searching for those specific services, so make sure to only list services you actually provide. For example, one service Cliff does not enjoy is mowing lawns, so he omitted it in this section—although he occasionally makes an exception for long-term clients.

“I have clients I’ve had for 25 years that I continue to this day to still take care of their properties, from mowing the grass, which I don’t like, but I still do it for them just because I’ve had them for so long,” he said.

On the other hand, some clients don’t know exactly what services they need until Cliff can assess their lawn in person. General service offerings like “gardening” or “landscape design” can help capture these clients, until Cliff can make the final call.

3. ‘From this business’ section

Home service businesses require a large amount of trust on both sides of a transaction: Customers let contractors into their homes and trust them with dangerous tasks like poison ivy removal. Meanwhile, Cliff himself trusts that his customers will make good on jobs valued as high as $70,000.

“If I have a good feeling for someone, I trust most people,” he said. “I won’t usually take on work with people I don’t feel comfortable with. I feel like I’m a somewhat good judge of character when it comes to that.”

The “From this business” section is one place where you can start to build that trust on Yelp by sharing more about your history, specialties, and personality.

Cliff uses the “From this business” section to introduce himself and highlight his customer service and communication skills—two of the main selling points for Nature’s Friends Landscaping.

“Clients know the day before I’m coming, and the morning of, I’ll text them with the time that I’m going to be showing up,” Cliff said. “I’m there in the morning, and I’m there when the job’s done to walk with the client to make sure we didn’t miss anything and they’re happy with it.”’

I am very active in all aspects of my business, and you will see me on every single job my company does. This personal service is what separates us from the rest.

—Nature’s Friends’ “From this business” section

4. Business Highlights

Cliff is proud of the fact that his business has remained locally owned and operated—with many of the same subcontractors—for 25 years. He seeks customers who appreciate this aspect of his business and are interested in building long term relationships.

One way to broadcast your local expertise and other unique advantages is by adding Business Highlights, a paid product that showcases the best of your business. They can also help you connect with customers who share your values, like Yelp Elite Liz S., who said she was drawn to the landscaping company’s local feel.

“I tend to gravitate towards businesses that have the same philosophy as I do about respect, about treating other people the right way, about providing quality [service],” Liz said. “Someone like Cliff, who’s willing to drop everything and come over… has very loyal guys that have stayed with him [for a long time], and they stay with him because he takes care of them financially and gives them bonuses.”

These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear from Cliff and Liz, or visit the show homepage to learn about the show and find more episodes.