Why Professional Photography is Important for Your Home Services Business
Professional home services photography is important because it makes your home services business become more personable.
Setting your business apart from your competitors takes more than just providing a better service. Being able to gain a would-be customer’s trust before they even contact you is important and it sets the stage for a much more successful relationship.
Plus, a potential customer will never know how much better your service is than your competitors if they are never presented with a valid reason to contact you in the first place.
So how do you, as a home services provider, start out on the right foot with customers and create a more personal foundation before they even contact you?
Keep reading to find out.
Express Your Company’s Character Through Photography
A great way to establish a healthy relationship with potential customers before they even contact you is through warm, inviting professional photography.
We have all seen it, and maybe even been guilty of it. Using stock photography to illustrate your business online throughout your website and social media may sound like a great solution but here’s why it’s not.
Hundreds of thousands of businesses similar to yours across the world rely on those same stock photos of generic plumbers, HVAC technicians, electricians, etc. to help paint the picture of their home services business. This is generally a quick and cost-effective “solution” but always leaves a lot to be desired.
Do you think the average customer can’t tell the difference between a stock photo of some schmuck with a logoless shirt and fake smile, one that they have most likely seen on 3 other websites similar to yours, and original, professional photography that has been captured specifically for your home services brand?
They can.
It is painfully obvious when a website relies on stock photography. On the contrary, it is an incredibly pleasant experience when you visit a website and see the actual team of technicians who work there, in their element.
Being able to express the character of your business through original photography is crucial to establishing trust with potential customers. If they are able to see the charm of the unique individuals who work for your home services business, they will be able to see why you may be different than the rest of your competition.
Take Pride in the Business You Have Built – Show It Off with Professional Photos
Utilizing a professional photographer gives you a great opportunity to showcase the finer aspects of your business.
Did you invest in those expensive, leading-edge new digital manifolds that help you provide better HVAC diagnostic services than your competition? Show it off in your photography.
Do you have really great-looking custom-embroidered shirts or uniforms? Use that in your photography. This will help create a cohesive look throughout your online branding.
You’ll also be able to show off your custom fleet of service vehicles, your office or warehouse, and even your unofficial company mascot, Deathrow the chihuahua, who you rescued from the animal shelter back in 2018.
The point is that you are able to give people a reason to bond with your home services brand through professional photography. Something that makes you stand out from the crowd.
Establish Trust Where Others Cannot with Technician Headshots
We’re undoubtedly living in a crazy world. So it’s no wonder that a large percentage of people are concerned for their safety when strangers are entering their homes to provide service.
Oftentimes, would-be customers will turn to “reputable” platforms such as Angie or Home Advisor where they tout background screening to add a layer of security to the transaction.
In order to compete, it is crucial for you to set the stage up front. Provide professional headshots of each of your service technicians, dressed cleanly in their company uniforms with their names and position at the company.
Doing this will create a superficial bond between your potential customers and the service technician visiting their home for the first time.
It is also helpful to go one step further and conduct background checks on your own for each employee during the hiring process. This lets the customer know that you care about their well-being enough to base your hiring practices around them.
Collecting and displaying customer testimonials and reviews that name your technicians specifically can also help establish a comfortable, trusting relationship upfront.
Professional Home Services Photos Add to Your Search Value
There is nothing unique about using stock photography. Not only do people see evidence of it, but Google does too.
All photographs (especially those indexed within stock photo libraries such as Shutterstock) are visible to Google. Not in the sense that Google can literally see them with their eyes but in the sense that each image contains metadata that Google can interpret to “see” the photo.
Google will essentially ignore any stock photos on your website that are known to appear on thousands of other similar websites across the internet. This is a bad thing.
It is important for Google to see an even mixture of relevant text-based content along with multimedia-based content (e.g. photos).
Search engines such as Google want to see unique, original photography that accompanies your text-based content because it lets them know that you are providing content that cannot be found anywhere else.
Using original photography on your website will also aid you in ranking higher amongst image-based search results as well. While this may sound irrelevant to you, it is just another piece of the puzzle that adds to your overall search engine rankings collectively.
Invest in Your Home Services Business with Professional Home Services Photography
The initial cost of professional photography can be somewhat intimidating to some business owners. But the benefits outlined above far outweigh the one-time cost.
The great thing about original photography is that you can use them in so many applications. They can be used within your website design and blog articles, they can be used on your social media platforms for years to come, they can be used in print media, and they can even be used within your service call scheduling software to give your customers a heads-up of what technician will be arriving at their home.
A respectable collection of professional home services photography is built over time and doesn’t have to be done all at once.
We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about professional photos for your home services company. Feel free to complete our contact form or give us a shout at (281) 940-7463