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VALUESTAR® LAUNCHES PHOTO & VIDEO UPLOADS FOR
VALUESTAR CUSTOMER-RATED LOCAL SERVICE BUSINESSES
New features from ValueStar let local service businesses upload and
display photos, videos, and brochures regarding their services,
supplementing customer ratings and reviews
July 30, 2007
CHEVY CHASE, Md – (July 30, 2007) –
ValueStar®, the leading online aggregator of consumer ratings of service businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area and a pioneer in certifying the quality of local service businesses, today announced the launch of new features to allow ValueStar Customer-Rated service businesses to upload photos, videos and other materials to their profiles at the ValueStar.com website to further highlight their expertise, professionalism, and high levels of customer satisfaction. Photos and videos will be displayed alongside the numerous ratings and reviews from confirmed customers that ValueStar already displays for each of its Customer-Rated businesses.
According to Lou Morsberger, President & CEO of ValueStar, "When a service business is discovered by a consumer online, more often than not that consumer is ready-to-buy and eager for information to help them decide which businesses to contact for their need, whether it's a home- or auto-related concern, or a health care or professional services issue. Now, a ValueStar Customer-Rated business can in a matter of minutes upload photos, videos, and brochures to their ValueStar profile to help persuade the online prospect that theirs is the business to contact. Combining photos and videos with the numerous customer ratings and reviews already displayed for ValueStar businesses creates a compelling tool that helps attract, close and retain new customers."
ValueStar expects that businesses can have the greatest impact with photos portraying:
- a job well done, such as repair or remodeling work at a customer's home, or on their car, or at an event, and possibly including "before" and "after" pictures;
- the business' professional-looking reception area, showroom, or shop area, reflecting an orderly and detail-oriented approach to serving customers;
- friendly-looking, neatly dressed service staff;
- community involvement, such as sponsorships of youth sports or events at local schools;
- storefronts, where existing signage should already help attract customers and online pictures of the storefront might also help customers locate the business more easily when visiting.
ValueStar expects videos to show not only the same types of scenes as in photos, but also:
- the owners or managers of a business discussing their approach to satisfying customers;
- the service team in action at a customer's home or at the business' office or shop; and
- testimonials from satisfied customers.
Other documents that might be uploaded to further demonstrate a business' expertise include copies of state licenses, certificates of insurance, and the business' latest printed brochure displayed in Adobe Acrobat format.
A ValueStar Customer-Rated business can upload photos, videos, and other documents in a matter of minutes from the business' user-friendly ValueStar Account Management page, and they can provide each uploaded item with a descriptive caption. They can also incorporate the ValueStar Customer-Rated seal and links to their ValueStar profile into their own website and into their listings with local search engines and Internet Yellow Pages publishers. Not only does the ValueStar seal represent a reassuring stamp of approval from other consumers, but the accompanying link to a business' profile, reviews, and now, media exposes online users to the business' photos and videos without the expense and difficulty of displaying and maintaining up-to-date photo and video galleries on their own website.
About ValueStar
Since its founding in 1992 on Oakland, CA, ValueStar has been a leading provider of quality certifications to local service businesses and a leading publisher of ratings and reviews of service businesses. The ValueStar Customer-Rated program evaluates service companies on a range of factors and uses a proprietary credit and debit card-based system to gather feedback from confirmed customers. Service businesses that meet ValueStar's criteria have access to a variety of tools with which to distinguish themselves in their local marketplace, including use of the ValueStar Customer-Rated seals in signage and in online and offline advertising; a customized profile at the ValueStar.com website that includes the ratings and reviews of confirmed customers as well as photos and videos uploaded by the business; and the backing of ValueStar's $1,000 Money-Back Satisfaction Guarantee and ValueStar Rewards points for customers who submit feedback on a ValueStar business. ValueStar ratings and reviews are distinguished by their reliability, and businesses cannot pay to influence their ratings. ValueStar is owned by Service Ratings, LLC and headquartered in the Washington, DC area in Chevy Chase, Maryland., with operations in Oakland, Calif., serving consumers and businesses throughout the Bay Area. For more information, please visit www.ValueStar.com.
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