If your clients have been calling you in a panic about slow calls — they’re not wrong. The past few weeks hit local service leads from two sides at once.
1) Google changed the trust game for LSAs.
On October 20, Google replaced “Google Guaranteed / Screened” with a single Google Verified badge — and quietly removed the money-back guarantee.
That badge was doing real psychological work for homeowners. Without it, click-throughs are dipping, and people are hesitating before calling.
2) The government shutdown is cooling the purchase intent.
Since October 1, the federal shutdown has frozen billions in spending. Confidence is down, and homeowners are delaying anything that’s not an emergency. The “maybe next month” crowd just got bigger, especially for big jobs like HVAC replacements, Roof Replacements, Sewer Line Replacements, and such.
What You Can Do (and Advise Your Clients To Do)
A) Add back trust — manually.
Encourage clients to highlight their own guarantee right in their LSA profile and landing pages. “If we don’t fix it, you don’t pay.” Simple, powerful, familiar.
Push reviews, licenses, and years-in-business into PPC ad copy and headlines.
And for extra conversion lift, refresh visuals — that new “Verified” badge alone can’t carry the load.
B) Rebalance ad budgets.
Shift 15–25 % of LSA spend into high-intent Search campaigns: “near me,” “emergency,” and branded terms.
Bid up call-only and “open now” extensions during local peak hours.
C) Audit response times.
Calls should be answered in under 10 seconds. Missed calls? Returned within 2–3 minutes.
And yes — listen to those call recordings. Coach your clients’ teams to lead with confidence: “We can be there today — what’s the address?”
D) Coach for “now-friendly” offers.
Suggest $0 diagnostics, promo financing, or limited-time discounts — the kind that help homeowners say yes even when they’re anxious about money.
E) Share proof-of-life updates.
Have clients post new reviews, project photos, and before/after shots to their Google Business Profile weekly. Visibility builds confidence.
When the economy jitters and Google rewrites the rules, agencies that stay proactive keep their clients calm — and keep retention strong.
