Our Top 13 Articles for Service Businesses of 2018

Fun fact: this is the 96th blog post we’ve published this year, and we’ll more than crack 100 before the sun sets on 2018. This year’s articles feature everything from growth tips for service businesses to customer stories, infographics, franchise operations tips, and software buying advice.

Reading 100 blog posts would take a lot of time, so we’ve narrowed it down for you, to a baker’s dozen of our finest, according to traffic. Why 13? Because we didn’t want you to miss the three gems that narrowly missed cracking the top 10.

13. 9 Field Service Trends to Watch for in 2019

Every year around this time we publish our predictions for field service trends for the coming year. Though this one is only a few weeks old, it has already skyrocketed onto the leaderboard of our most popular articles of this year.

Read about smart homes, new advertising tactics, the internet of things, and more.

12. 5 Social Media Tips to Drive Sales for Your Service Business

These are not simply some cutesy social media tips for how to keep your channels up to date. This article is packed with tips that will actually help drive sales. Mike Tortorice, a Digital Marketer with Infront Webworks, shares some high-level, actionable advice that will help add bookings to your schedule.

 

11. 7 Effective Email Marketing Campaign Tips For Service Businesses

Not that we want to ruin the ending, but there are actually 9 high-value email marketing tips in this article. Several industry experts offer their advice for successful email marketing campaigns, with tips specific to service businesses.

10. How Service Businesses Can Track and Improve Customer Service Metrics

Rounding out the top 10 is this post about customer service metrics. No matter the size of your business, the numbers matter. This article lays out the importance of monitoring the key numbers and offers a more extensive list of things that you can track and aim to improve.

9. A List of Resources for Learning Valuable Customer Service Skills

Almost like a complete online course for service businesses, this is a list of resources you can use to learn valuable customer service skills. From how to write scripts, to learning empathy, listening skills, product knowledge and response times.

8. A Complete Marketing Plan Template for Service Companies

Do a Google search for “marketing plan template,” and you’ll find loads of examples that aren’t relevant to your type of business. But fear not, because we have created a post that goes into the details of planning and things to consider, as well as a complete marketing plan template specifically for service companies.

As a bonus link, here’s a complete advertising plan template, too.

7. 5 Benefits of Online Booking for Mobile Service Companies

We sure were proud to see this article perform so well. We often talk about the benefits of online booking, and finally decided to make a list of them in a single article. Maybe it was the fact that we included stories and results from some of our customers, or maybe it’s because online booking is becoming so popular with service companies. In any case, this was a popular read in 2018.

6. The Importance of a Good Follow Up Email for Service Businesses

There are many examples of how to use email to follow up with customers. We offer a complete analysis of the follow-up email and offer tips about what works, what doesn’t, and how to make email automation work for you.

5. Ways that Mobile Service Companies Can Increase Their Bookings

It’s one of the biggest concerns for service companies: how can you get more bookings? We asked the experts and received nine great responses. Business owners, marketers, advertising experts and more offer their insights into how to give your bookings a boost.

4. How to Make Your Mobile Service Company a Top-Rated Yelp Business

Yelp ratings and other online reviews matter more than ever. The easiest way to get good reviews is to offer great service, but how can you rise to the top of the Yelp rankings? We go into the details and tactics of how to make your service company a top-rated Yelp business.

3. A Complete Guide to Newsletter Design for Service Businesses

What’s in a good newsletter? We offer tips and ideas for how to create a great newsletter, consistently. We also offer links to email tools and other resources that will help you with your newsletter design.

2. How to Use Live Chat to Improve Your Customer Service

Want to take more customers from browsing on your website to booking with you? Try live chat. If that sounds too labor-intensive, read the many automation tips in this article. We even shed some light on how we use live chat tools for our own business and invite you to try it.

 

1. The Smart Home Trend and the Future of Field Service

In the number one spot is our article about the smart home trend and the future of field service. We cover everything from smart homes, voice assistants, remote door locks, and many more innovations that are changing the way service companies work. If you haven’t read it already, find out why it’s the most popular article we published this year.

Software for Service Businesses

Want to learn about how software can help your service company grow and earn more profit? Book a free, private demo of Vonigo.