If you run a business that visits the customer's home or office to perform a service, having a video along side your advertisements can attract new customers. If done poorly however, it can scare customers away. What things attract new customers and what things cause them to shy away? We asked 100 people to share their opinion.

The survey results for this industry were very unique compared to others. It seemed to bring up bad past experiences for customers. One of the main recurring complaints we heard from customers is that a video would simply show the business in the best light regardless if they were a great service or not. They went on to say that videos by contractors typically lack authenticity, candor and are biased. More than any other industry, customers want proof that your business is reputable. They want authentic footage and verifiable references.
87% of customers said they would use the internet to find a local service. 35% of people said they would not watch a video before choosing a home service. On the flip side, 63% of consumers say they would watch a video if curious and have a need. So let's see what the 63% want in a home service video.


In general, people want videos to be concise. Shorter lengths are a signal to the viewer that the video may do a good job of being concise. "What length of time should a home service video be limited to?", here are the results:

  1. 30 seconds: 26%
  2. 1 minute: 25%
  3. 2 minutes: 17%
  4. 15 seconds: 9%
  5. 90 seconds: 6%
  6. 3 minutes: 6%
  7. No limit: 4%

We hypothesize that when customers are in browsing mode they have a shorter attention span than when they are in a more serious buying mode. So it may be good to have both a 30 second and 2-minute+ video.

When asked "What things in a video would make you feel more confident hiring the home service?", the first 1 to 3 things that came to their mind were:

  1. References, reviews, BBB (locally verifiable, known) 18%
  2. Employees in action are professional (in appearance/attire or conduct) 13%
  3. Concise, clear, substantive information provided, focus on service, facts, what to expect 12%
  4. Experienced, knowledgeable, years in business, certified, award-winning 9%
  5. Price is affordable 9%
  6. Authentic footage - Real footage of real employees doing real jobs or solving real problems 8%
  7. Professional communication/narration, (confident 2, calm 1, mature 1, expert-like 1) 8%
  8. Honest, straightforward, trustworthy, candor, full disclosure 6%
  9. Pricing is provided, upfront with 5%
  10. Friendly, cheerful staff 5%
  11. Before and after of real customers, case studies 4%
  12. Local, close in proximity 4%
  13. Good customer service 3%
  14. Clean truck, equipment 3%
  15. Guarantee of quality service 3%
  16. Video is well-produced 3%
  17. Operation appears organized or efficient 2%
  18. Service appears to fit my needs 2%
  19. Proof the business is great/delivers quality 2%
  20. Appears detail-oriented 1%
  21. Customer satisfaction stats 1%
  22. Insured 1%
  23. Calming colors 1%


When asked "What things in a video would cause you to shy away from hiring the home service?", the first 1 to 3 things that came to their mind were:

  1. Not authentic (Staged, use of actors, overproduced, too flashy, hyped, overly enthusiastic, trying too hard) 11%
  2. Exaggeration, lack of forthright honesty, unbelievable claims 11%
  3. Not concise, not substantive, too vague, unnecessary comments, unclear, video too long 11%
  4. Unprofessional appearance of employees (dirty attire, tattoos, sketchy, uneducated) 11%
  5. Price is too high 9%
  6. Corny, cheesy, gimmicky, use of costumes, annoying 7%
  7. Lack of ballpark price or price range, ambiguous pricing 6%
  8. Vehicle or equipment not kept up 6%
  9. Unprofessional narration (bad grammar, slang, joking) 5%
  10. Poor video production (poor lighting, sound, camera work, text typos) 5%
  11. Aggressive, demanding, pushy sales pitch 3%
  12. Only showing the positives, biased, unverifiable 3%
  13. Signs of poor customer service 2%
  14. Not known in community, lack of credibility 2%
  15. Does not appear to have enough experience 1%
  16. Appears disorganized 1%
  17. Niche does not fit needs 1%
  18. Not bonded 1%
  19. No location provided 1%
  20. Proximity too far 1%
  21. Use of non-eco chemicals 1%
  22. Loud noises or loud music 1%
  23. Limited hours 1%
  24. Bashing competition 1%
  25. Political message 1%
  26. Video has YouTube popup ads 1%
  27. Overall bad impression 1%


We asked consumers if a home service video should include these 7 features:

  • 78% want pricing (12% indifferent, 10% do not want)
  • 69% want the employees performing the service (16% indifferent, 15% do not want)
  • 60% want the owner explaining their service in the background (28% indifferent, 12% do not want)
  • 46% want the service truck and equipment (34% indifferent, 19% do not want)
  • 27% want the office headquarters (49% indifferent; 24% do not want)
  • 27% want the salesman interacting with customers (40% indifferent, 33% do not want)
  • 10% want an animated logo intro (58% indifferent; 32% do not want)
*I never expected references/testimonials to be the number 1 answer so it wasn't included in this segment. References/testimonials has ranked low in other industries. Had we included it, I believe it would've ranked number 1 or 2 here.

For more survey results, visit: https://biveo.com/learning.


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