Do you operate a home-based business? You know, then, how challenging it can be to keep all the moving parts going in the right direction at precisely the right time.
Take that a step further.
If you’re in a service industry that’s a home-based business but away from that home base all day, you add layers of complexity to your daily operational functions.
You primarily interact with your customers outside of the home. Your greatest assets are your workmanship and yourself—and your ability to convert new clientele by providing stellar service and gaining referrals.
While your business can survive on those referrals, you might have started a website to try to achieve an even wider reach. You wrote a few pages of copy, uploaded some photos of your most successful jobs, and shared your phone number and social media profiles.
Still…crickets. You get some visitors, but you aren’t seeing any results.
You are on the right track.
However, if you have not included online forms on your website, you might be losing out on opportunities. Not only can forms help boost sales, but they can also help you streamline your business.
Take a look at how forms can help grow service industry home-based businesses while improving customer service and streamlining your business.
Why Service-driven Home-based Businesses Need Online Forms
For the purpose of this blog post, I’m referring to home-based businesses who operate the business end of their business from inside their home office but deliver services at the customer location.
That’s an important distinction, as you have very different needs from a work from home job that requires the owner to remain seated near the computer all day—such as online marketers or e-commerce businesses.
Some of the service home-based businesses that I’m referring to today include the following:
- Lawn care or landscapers
- House painters
- Carpenters
- Electricians
- Plumbers
- Pressure washing
- Dog sitters or dog walkers
- Nanny services
- Errand runners
- Personal shoppers
- Delivery services
If you work in one of these fields, or a similar field, these tips are relevant to you.
How Website Forms Benefit Your Business
Protect your privacy
First and foremost, you should plan to protect your privacy — and that of your family — when you work from home.
Adding a contact form to your site will help you keep both your email address and your
physical address information away from the public eye.
This privacy allows you to keep work and family separate.
By shielding your private data, you won’t need to worry about phishing scams (online or by USPS) that target small business owners. Nor will you need to worry about an occasional annoyed client pounding on your door on a Sunday afternoon.
Protect your customer’s privacy
Internet users today are wary of sharing information online. They’ve heard the stolen identity horror stories and received the message loud and clear.
While they might be interested in learning more about services or want to do business with you. One little problem. They are not going to reach out to you unless they are reassured that they are doing so using a secure method.
Secure forms build trust as site visitors will appreciate
that you are looking out to protect customer privacy.
Add mobile convenience
Not only do customers want privacy, but they also want convenience. Think about the evolution of phone usage over the last 20 years or so. The cell phone replaced the home telephone; then, the smartphone replaced the first cell phones.
Today, Statista reports that 79% of Americans have smartphones. Analysts forecast that this percentage will climb to 84% by 2023.
That statistic indicates that just adding forms to your website is not enough; your website forms must be mobile-friendly in order to capture your share of new customers.
People love convenience. Give those prospective customers the convenience they demand so they can book your service, pay you, or get in touch with just a few clicks or swipes.
Streamline your processes
You can implement forms that allow you to integrate with various business operational functions. From email marketing to accounts receivable, let your forms work for you.
Automating processes with forms allows you to focus on continual service
improvements to increase productivity and make money.
Plus, you’ll find you have time on Saturday afternoons to spend relaxing instead of bonding with your accounting software.
Guide your users
Forms are like a roadmap. They guide your customers down the road and help them take the correct turns to become customers.
Consider your forms a subtle call-to-action.
You are conveying, in an understated way, that you are a professional who wants to earn this piece of business.
Your form can include buttons that include simple, messaging such as:
- Sign up for tips.
- Book now.
- Learn more.
- Free estimate.
- Book a consultation.
Each of those messages expresses an action that shapes user behavior.
When a user is engaged enough to complete a form, they are interested consumers who are either researching your services or ready to hire someone. Having a website form or two can prompt them into the decision to hire you for the job.
Follow-up with contacts to close more business
A recent study on lead response time shows that 78% of prospects make their purchase from the first company who responds to their inquiry. Plus, after one minute, sales conversions drop by 391%!
If your website currently allows users to reach you by telephone or messaging app only, you might be missing important contacts.
Because of the nature of service businesses, you might miss hearing the phone ring or ding. Whether you are deafened by the purr of a lawnmower or your hands are full of barking dogs, those are wasted opportunities.
Because so many business owners don’t return phone calls (or your voicemail box is too full), callers feel like leaving a voicemail message for you is futile.
From your perspective, so many missed calls on your call log — with no idea if you’re calling back a telemarketer or a legit contact — feels like wasting time.
It’s a vicious cycle — but one you can break.
A form can be set to alert you to the activity via email.
You respond as soon as your hands are free — the sooner the better!
The silver lining? That same study I previously mentioned also indicates that 55 percent of businesses take five days or longer to respond. So, if you respond within a reasonable amount of time, your chances of sealing the deal improve.
And that’s how you earn money like a boss.
5 Online Forms to Streamline Your Service Business and Improve User Experience
Online forms can streamline your business and help you obtain leads.
While your ultimate goal for your website is to help you make money, the focus should always be on improving the user’s experience (UX) while on your site.
Bear in mind that some of the forms that I am mentioning don’t need to “live” on your site. Some can be shared in follow-up emails so that you don’t overwhelm your users with forms to complete.
Contact Form
As we previously mentioned, a contact form is a safe way for site users to get in touch with you. This is a must-have and should be prominently placed on the “Contact Us” page of your website.
You might also choose to integrate this form into your social media platforms to improve the chance of someone reaching out to you.
Sign-up form
Most importantly for most work from home service businesses, a sign-up form allows users to register for free consultations or estimates, adding to your list of local prospects. This need is specific to locally-owned and operated businesses versus e-commerce or online businesses that sell to the world-at-large.
Cultivate leads that are local only and within your defined service area.
The sign-up form creates a win-win situation for you and your user —
they feel like they are getting a reward (the free consultation),
and you are collecting leads and adding to your email list.
If you can convert even a few of those leads into customers (and you know you can!), this form serves an invaluable role.
Additionally, if you’re adding a blog to your website to attract additional organic traffic, a sign-up form is a necessary tool. This form enables site users to receive alerts when you publish new content, keeping them engaged with your blog.
Invoice form
Want to allow customers to pay your invoices online?
An invoice and payment form benefits service providers because they make it simple for customers to pay. That ease of payment eliminates the hassle of you chasing people for money, paying returned check fees, and gets you paid faster.
Customers don’t need to worry about being home to pay you; they can be at work or play while you are pressure washing their driveway and pay you from a remote location from their phone.
Create an invoice form (or a template), integrate it with your PayPal account, and begin
receiving payment for your hard work securely and quickly.
You can email out the invoice form to your client right from the jobsite from your mobile device, eliminating the need to generate weekly billings and receiving payments sooner.
Not only do payment forms streamline the payment process, but it also supports improved accounting practices–no more misplaced paper receipt books try to locate at tax time.
Customer satisfaction form
One of the most critical marketing tools you have as a local home-based business is the power of referrals. For many service businesses, referral marketing is the lifeblood of their company.
However, you’ll be hard pressed to gain those new connections if your customers are not 100% satisfied with your work.
How can you take the temperature of this satisfaction? You can use a customer satisfaction form — they’re now easily accessible to even small business!
After you’ve completed your job, email the customer a customer satisfaction survey.
Warm them up with general yes and no questions about whether they were impressed with your workmanship, timeliness of delivery, and professionalism. Then, ask them an open-ended question — how you can improve your service.
The answers you receive back might sting a little, but use that data to implement changes that will help you with sustained growth.
Service request form
Finally, you should consider a service request form. This is similar to a contact form with a notable difference. The users who complete this form are not asking questions or considering your service — they are now ready to book you!
In most cases, this form will be submitted by a prospect to whom you’ve already provided an estimate or your pricing, and they are ready to spend their money with you.
Integrate booking forms with your social platforms, on your website, and in your
marketing when you’ve segmented emails to target new prospects.
Include space for the user to share not only their contact information and address but also the details on the scope of work and also an anticipated target date for the work to begin. You can iron out the fine details from there.
The service request form also doubles as a work order for you or your crew so that you don’t overlook any important details. You can save it to you download files on your mobile device and go paperless while out in the field.
The Takeaway
Home-based businesses who are service providers have unique needs and challenges that other work from home companies don’t face.
Because you are away from a desk for the majority of your day, you need processes that help you increase customer satisfaction, recruit new leads, improve processes, and ultimately, earn money!
If your website doesn’t provide the user with online forms, you are missing out on opportunities to check off every one of those goals.
Fortunately, adding forms to your site is easy, and it only takes a few minutes to get started.
EmailMeForm enables you to choose from templates or create custom forms from scratch. Add our forms to your site and start generating those leads.
EmailMeForm lets you create secure online forms and surveys to collect information, process online payments, and automate your everyday tasks. Create a form for free today.
Deborah Tayloe
Deborah is a blogger and freelancer who often writes for EmailMeForm. When she’s not blogging, you’ll probably find Deborah working on DIY projects around her home in North Carolina.
