Word of mouth recommendations have the most powerful influence on a person’s buying behaviour & many great real estate businesses have been built on a strong foundation of customer referrals.
Prior to the internet, if a customer had a bad experience they would tell about 20 people & if they’d had a great experience they would only tell a handful.
Now with Web 2.0 technology all that has changed & real estate customer service reviews (both good & bad) can be posted onto the web very easily & quickly and they remain on the internet forever or until someone takes them down.
Having been an agent for over 20 years I know that a real estate agent’s reputation is constantly under the micro-scope.
The real estate industry has struggled for years to maintain a reputation of trust amongst public opinion surveys as per the annual Roy Morgan Image of Professions survey.
( Note: Interesting to see that newspaper journalists are now less trusted than real estate agents in Australia.)
Over the next few years, online customer reviews will begin to have a major impact on the real estate industry.
Great customer reviews could accelerate an agent’s reputation & increase their business dramatically, whilst bad reviews could scare potential customers away from some agents in droves.
Hopefully, this will help to rid the industry of some of the agents who give our profession a bad name.
Once a potential customer reads a bad review about an agent they will normally avoid that company without making any contact with the real estate agency at all & because the review is online, the customer will simply mouse click away to find an alternative.
Social Media has provided the platform to allow people to share their good & bad customer experiences on sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc for a few years now.
With most bad reviews, an agent will be deemed to be guilty in the eyes of the reader, with little to no chance of providing any evidence that could defend themselves even if they are innocent.
In any service industry it is hard to please everyone & within real estate, it’s highly likely that even some of the great agents will end up with some bad reviews. That’s just business. But the great agents will be managing their reputation online & making sure that they get a larger share of the great reviews by providing good customer service to their clients.
Whilst word of mouth recommendations & customers posting reviews up onto the web isn’t a new thing, there are some developments taking place on the web that could have an even greater impact on real estate agents.
Reviews on Google
The Google Reviews have been around for a while, but with real estate now appearing on Google Maps, the impact should become more widespread.
For this example, I’ve searched Google for the keyword ‘Real Estate Agent Balmain’ & at the top of the search you’ll find 2 agents have reviews next to their listing on Google.
New Australian Real Estate Agent Review Site:- Realty Advisor
A new site has just been launched in Australia called Realty Advisor where the site asks customers to share their real estate agent customer experience.
They are currently promoting the site with an angle based around… “Feel cheated? Tricked or pressured? Lied to? Warn Others: Or Recommend Great Service.”
US Customer Review Site:- Yelp
In the US thousands of real estate agents have already been reviewed on a site called Yelp (a place where happy & unhappy customers voice their opinion about their customer experience).
Now Yelp has just added another feature via the first US Augmented Reality App to the iPhone Store.
Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with-, or augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery – creating a mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, like for example sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable. Source: Wikipedia
Couple this with the Augmented ID in the video below & you’ll get an idea of where things are heading.
For another insight on these technologies, see Jeff Bernheisel’s post here.
How could this new technology impact Agents?
Imagine sitting down at a Listing Presentation & just before signing the agency agreement the client points their iPhone at your face to see your Augmented ID & what online customer reviews may appear about you over the web.
Or alternatively, a buyer walking into an Open Home could also do the same thing to check out more about you online.
Alternatively, you would also be able to use this technology to verify the identification of someone inspecting a home. The possibilities are endless.
Protecting Your Online Reputation
You can be as polished as you like with your scripts & dialogues, and you could be the best real estate agent in your area, but if your online reputation is tarnished & the client becomes aware of it, your likelihood of winning the business will be reduced.
Here’s a couple of things you could do to begin building a great reputation online.
Use testimonials more effectively.
Testimonials can certainly come to your defence, by providing social proof & evidence that you are a reputable agent & that you provide good customer service.
Lots of agents only post their testimonials from their clients onto their websites.
Whilst, you should still continue to do this, it’s important to note that because they only appear on your company website customers will also question their authenticity.
One of the greatest things your customers can do to help you build a better online reputation, is to not only have them provide you with a written testimonial, but also encourage them to provide a positive review for you on the web.
Use Video Testimonials
If possible, by far the best testimonial you can provide is a video testimonial. Also, it doesn’t need to be a totally professional production either. The more authentic it is the better.
You should upload your video testimonials onto your website, YouTube, Social Networks, Blogs, etc.
An authentic, non-scripted endorsement by one of your clients is the best evidence you can provide to maintain a great online reputation & to help combat any of the bad service reviews.
