We rely on the internet to help us make decisions every day. Whether it’s researching which car to buy, choosing a vacation destination, or simply picking where to go for dinner. Few decisions — no matter how big or small — are made without at least consulting online reviews.
I’m sure as a professional, you understand just how important it is to have a strong online presence that matches your stellar offline reputation.
It’s not surprising consumers are increasingly turning to online reviews to confirm word-of-mouth referrals as they search for unbiased recommendations of local real estate professionals.
In this blog, we are going to dive into eight takeaways you can implement right away to help you build a shining online reputation and attract new business your way.
Why should you care?
To start off, online reviews play an important role in local SEO.
88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Furthermore, according to MOZ’s Local Search Ranking Factors Survey, online reviews are thought to make up 10% of how Google and other search engines decide to rank search results.
Recently, Google announced a new update called “Reviews from the Web” to Google searches within local Knowledge Panels. This update basically takes the top three relevant review sites in any vertical and aggregates the results in local search results. This means that your online reputation is more vital than ever before.
Delivering an amazing customer experience is critical as it serves as a strong foundation for online reviews. While this seems to be the basic step, it does lay the foundation for managing your online reputation.
Before you even begin to ask for reviews from your clients, have a system in place to make the process as smooth as possible for your clients. This should typically involve coming up with a plan to make phone contact, mention how important client feedback is for your business and then following up via email with a direct link to your review profile. Be sure to highlight how the entire process will only take a few minutes of their time, and always follow up with the email as quickly as possible.
When it’s time to start building your review profile, you should always begin with a list of your most satisfied past clients. Look at your most recent transactions and work your way backwards. Always contact them by phone first and follow up with a link to your review profile in an email immediately afterwards. This demographic will often be your biggest supporters and are a great source of positive feedback to get your profile going.
When it comes to asking current clients for positive reviews, make sure you plant the seeds early on — typically after a big milestone in the buying or selling process. With buyers, this can mean mentioning how your business relies on online reviews after they get a contract accepted on their first-choice home. For sellers, consider bringing it up once a contract passes the inspection period.
It doesn’t matter which side of the table they’re on: closing can be a hectic process for your clients. For that reason, immediately after closing is not a great time to ask for an online review. With so much going on in their own lives, your clients aren’t likely to remember your request. Instead, wait a week or so after the transaction has closed to call them up, check in on how they’re doing and ask them to leave some positive feedback for you reflecting on their experience. This allows them time to get their lives back in order, yet still, have a fresh memory of the high level of service you provided them with.
The absolute best way to improve the number of positive reviews you receive is to ensure you’re keeping your clients happy from day one. If you do get a negative review, don’t take offence to it. It’s natural to get defensive, but instead of responding right away, take a few minutes to calm down and really examine what the client had to say. Are their concerns truly their own misguided perspective or do they raise some legitimate issues? Negative feedback isn’t always bad — sometimes it’s necessary to help us grow and discover new ways to provide enhanced service to our clients.
There’s one common trap that even the best, most well-reviewed real estate professionals can fall into; only responding to negative feedback. Everyone always wants to defend themselves when someone says something bad — and done properly, that’s a great idea — but, it’s also important to follow up on positive reviews as well. Not only does this give you a chance to highlight the top things the reviewer mentioned about you, but it also shows potential clients you’re very responsive and you have excellent communication skills.
It’s important to use Review Management platforms to manage your online reputation.
With Real Estate focused review platforms, you should be able to collect reviews, share them on your personal website and social media profiles, as well as on your broker’s website, all while gaining performance insights.
Even if have just started to build your online reputation, don’t worry — it isn’t that difficult or time-consuming. It only takes a commitment to improving your business and an eagerness to help guide your clients (both past and present) towards leaving you positive feedback.
If you follow the helpful tips outlined in this checklist, you’re very likely to see your review profile begin to grow almost immediately.
* The original article was published on Inman News. You can view it here.
RankMyAgent is an online platform that connects real estate professionals and brokers to consumers by using the power of reviews to get them recognized, generate leads and build their online reputation.