Chem-Dry-Yelp Team Up To Help Franchise Owners’ Online Review Experience

Partnership is designed to coach owners on how to get the most value from review listings by enhancing their online presence to maximum effect

In early 2019, Chem-Dry announced a partnership with online review hub Yelp. The goal was to help franchise owners manage their listing, learn how to interact with reviews and more. A few months in, and things are well under way, says Bill Zinke, Senior Vice President of Marketing.

“Online reviews have become a crucial part of competing and winning customers online,” Zinke says. “That’s why we chose to partner with Yelp, one of the leading review sites, as part of our ongoing efforts to expand Chem-Dry’s marketing and outreach. The benefits to our franchisees and our brand are significant: We have a direct Yelp contact point and support team to help us manage our listings across the U.S. and Canada; Yelp is helping us create and claim listings for Chem-Dry franchises that don’t have one, as well as giving us support in optimizing existing franchise listings and the ability to eliminate inactive franchise listings so they don’t have a negative effect on our brand. The Yelp team also is speaking with franchisees about whether they want to eliminate or merge duplicate listings or consolidate multiple listings and are providing special offers to franchise owners who want to advertise with them.”

Digital reputation management a large undertaking

So far, Yelp has created and claimed 130 listings for Chem-Dry floor cleaning franchises that didn’t have one and helped optimize an additional 220 listings for franchises that did have a listing.

“Our next major task is to connect with individual owners to discuss and decide how to best help them optimize their listings and their presence on Yelp,” Zinke says. “We encouraged all of our owners to listen to Yelp’s insights and suggestions, and then they made the decision that best served their businesses.”

Online review portals are huge customer sources

The Yelp partnership will pay huge dividends for Chem-Dry carpet cleaning franchise owners. While many people think Yelp is just a site for restaurant reviews, home services are its third most commonly researched category. Some 77% of consumers searching for home services visit review sites, Zinke says, adding that in November 2017 Yelp had 600,000 searches and page views in the carpet cleaning category alone.

“Yelp is a powerhouse in online reviews, thanks to their partnerships,” he says. “One of the most important of those is Apple, which uses Yelp’s mapping platforms on more than 100 million iPhones today. Tapping into that market and growing brand awareness in a deliberate and productive way will be of huge benefit to Chem-Dry franchise owners.”

Chem-Dry is the world’s largest carpet and upholstery cleaning franchise with more than 3,000 franchises in more than 55 countries, serving 11,000 homes and businesses a day. Chem-Dry has been Entrepreneur magazine’s top-rated carpet cleaning franchise for 31 straight years. The Chem-Dry Hot Carbonating Extraction process delivers a faster-drying, deeper and more environmentally friendly clean that appeals to home and business owners. In addition to carpet and area rugs, Chem-Dry provides cleaning and renewal services for tile and stone, granite countertops, leather and upholstery, air ducts and dryer vents.

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