Customer reviews can make or break your business. Most of the time, providing great service to your buyers is simply not enough to encourage them to go out of their way to write positive reviews once the sale is complete. What many people don’t realize is that many businesses, especially real estate agents, heavily rely on reviews to enhance their online reputations and build their customer bases.
So what if you are getting plenty of great reviews from your buyers or sellers? What do you do with them now? How can they help grow your business? Given how much customers trust reviews, businesses need to maximize the impact of every positive review and ensure that the largest number of potential customers see the review. So today, we’ll be walking you through 5 steps you can take to maximize the potential of all of those positive reviews you’re receiving.
1. Show Off Your Reviews
First off, if you get a positive review you should be extremely proud of your hard work. You should also want to show it off. If you get a positive review, talk about it! Why should you hide your accomplishments? If you receive positive reviews you should be including them on your website, newsletters, brochures and on social media. Basically anything that your potential buyers can see.
Alex Kakavelakis at My Customer says, “Have a page on your website filled with testimonials and positive coverage. Make sure that the testimonials praise different aspects so that you can show you are a well-rounded company, and look to display photos and videos of smiling customers in addition to written reviews.”
The more you circulate and show off your reviews the better chance you have at gaining new customers.
2. Improve Yourself Through Your Reviews
It’s important to know that you are not always going to get a five star review. But successful real estate agents see negative reviews as a lesson learned. As a successful real estate agent you should be using these negative reviews to discover where you can improve. While your business certainly has plenty of strengths, you aren’t perfect. Everyone always has something to work on. You should really read these reviews and take what your customers have to say into consideration…after all, they are saying it for a reason!
Travis McHattie at Solid Digital says, “By considering negative or even harsh feedback with an open mind, you can reveal where to spend your energy when implementing changes to products, services, or process.”
While you can learn the most from negative reviews, keep in mind to pay attention to your positive reviews as well. Is there something that everyone keeps saying about you and complimenting you on? If so, be sure you don’t take that out of your business model!
3. Ask For Reviews
This might be the easiest and the hardest thing to do when it comes to building reviews for your real estate business. But it’s important to speak up for what you want and to not be shy about it, you deserve that great review! Bill Steven from the Business Journals says, “If you don’t ask, don’t expect customers to go the extra mile to give you a golden star. Unfortunately, life isn’t like elementary school, you don’t always get rewarded for your hard work and effort.”
If you are positive that your buyers had a wonderful experience with you it definitely won’t hurt to ask for a review. We recommend engaging this in conversation and not just asking for a review right out of the blue. Send them a nice email asking how they’re doing, how their new home is, if they’ve done anything to it yet, etc. You’d be surprised at how many people love hearing how they are doing and how they are much more willing to give you a review after you praise them.
4. Make Reviewing You Easy
If you’re asking for reviews, you need to make sure you make this an easy process for your clients. Honestly, it probably took a little time to actually get them to sit down and write you a review, so make sure the process is super simple so you can be considerate of their time. Remember, customers are always willing to leave a negative review if they aren’t happy with you, so you want to make sure the process is easy for those that want to leave you a positive review so they appear more.
5. Respond Back to Your Reviews
Your goal should be to show everyone that you care about your real estate business and your clients. Customers do not expect real estate agents to be perfect, but they do expect (like everyone) to listen to them, respond back to them, apologize and fix any problems. If you receive a negative review do not ignore it. Instead, respond back to your review promptly apologizing and asking how you can fix the problem they had. This will not only show that person that you care, but also future customers as well.
In fact, according to Alex Kakavelakis at My Customer, “QuickBooks notes the effectiveness of a quick response by noting that “a number of businesses we’ve spoken to say that 70 to 80 percent of the time they can get an unhappy reviewer to change their mind or return to the store.”
Put Your Reviews to Work
Are you ready to maximize your reviews? By following these few steps you’ll be surprised at how much one review can do for you. Remember, reviews do not deserve to just sit on Google or Zillow. It is your job as a real estate agent to maximize your reviews, show them off to the public and to learn from any negative ones that may come your way. By using some of the recommendations above along the way, you can be sure you’re getting the most out of your client’s feedback and that you are a successful real estate agent.
