Five-star reviews are the “new bread and butter” of the trades, Howard Bromberg said. At his shop, that translates to steak and potatoes.
Vines Restoration, Plumbing, HVAC, a commercial and residential shop in Conway, South Carolina, recently hit 1,000 five-star reviews. To celebrate, they hosted a steak and potatoes dinner for the entire, nearly 100-person company.
“One-inch rib-eyes, baby,” Bromberg, Vines’ service general manager, said with a smile.
Every person at Vines played a role in attaining that number, Bromberg explained. But so did one of his favorite ServiceTitan features: Marketing Pro’s Reputation Management tool.
Take control of your online reputation with more reviews and consistent listings. Manage reviews from one place and gain deeper insights into your customers, technicians, and jobs.
“ServiceTitan’s (Marketing Pro) makes it easy to gather the Google reviews, because we can send it right out in the post-call text, and we can send the link,” Bromberg said.
“(The) reputation (tool) is huge.”
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Bromberg has seen Vines grow in revenue in the three years he’s been there—from $3 million in 2021 to pacing at $12 million-$15 million in 2024.
The amount of reviews has grown, too.
“When I started, there were probably 300-400 reviews. So we've really made a push,” he said.
Marketing Pro helped that push with its automated review-requests feature.
Generate more quality reviews through automated review requests. Improve search rankings and build customer trust by making sure both your reviews and listings accurately reflect your business.
“ServiceTitan helps us send (the customer) a text with the (review request) link. We’ve made it very available for them,” Bromberg said.
“We have a lot of older customers (in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina). We'll even have them call our office and say, ‘I want to leave a Google review for so-and-so, but I don't know how to do it.’ And we'll have one of our CSRs work them through the process so they can leave a review.”
Easily track and monitor
On a good day, Vines can get eight five-star reviews, Bromberg said.
Vines has a dedicated marketing person who monitors every review. Via Marketing Pro, they can easily track and match a review to the right technician, and get robust insights into which customers, jobs, and technicians are driving positive or negative results.
“We pay a spiff to the technician who gets a five-star review,” Bromberg said. “So we have to track it to make sure that they're getting what they deserve.”
Marketing Pro also allows Vines to track any negative reviews and follow up with the customer.
Keep on top of all your reviews from one consolidated feed in ServiceTitan and get alerts so you can respond quickly to every positive and negative review.
“(We) respond to reviews and verify reviews,” Bromberg said. “We call back every review under five stars and find out what we could have done differently.”
Bromberg loved celebrating their five-star success at the steak and potatoes dinner. But now, Vines is on its way to hitting its next benchmark. He said they’re already up to 1,200 five-star reviews and counting—a stat that he stressed is the new bread and butter of how well you’re running your business.
“Your sole purpose is to serve the customer's needs. The money, all of that, comes after. It has to always be about the customer first,” Bromberg said. “And that's what the five-star reviews show us—that our customers are appreciating what we're doing for them.”
ServiceTitan Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and substantially elevate the trajectory of their business. Our comprehensive, cloud-based platform is used by thousands of electrical, HVAC, plumbing, garage door, and chimney sweep shops across the country—and has increased their revenue by an average of 25% in just their first year with us.
