A bad online review can make a good day turn for the worst. It can easily break a new lead’s interest and leave a bad taste in your current clients’ mouths. Keeping a close watch on real estate agent rating sites like Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, and Reviewmylandlord.com for good and bad reviews should be a priority. It is essential to protecting your personal brand, and might just help you come up with your next marketing strategy.
Review the Online Reviews You Have
Whether you have reviews that are positive or negative, you need to know if they exist and where they can be found. Obviously you want your name out there in a positive light, but if your name isn’t online at all, it’s almost worse than if you had a negative review. With negative reviews there’s at least the chance to turn it all around, and possibly learn a lesson through constructive criticism. If you have none, then it’s important that you request a testimonial request towards the end of your business transactions. Find a couple of sites you like and ask new clients who you feel have had a good experience, or previous clients you have kept a relationship with, to leave a positive review. It won’t take much time out of their schedules, but can make a world of difference in your online reputation for driving new business.
Look Out for Trends
Once you’ve mastered acquiring and finding your reviews, see if there are any trends. Are the reviews you receive mostly positive? If you see negative reviews do you feel they are valid and share common complaints from multiple people? Identifying if there are any trends in what people say about you – whether it concerns your service, demeanor, or the property you showed – will help you zero-in on your strengths and work on your weaknesses.
Strategize to Improve Client Satisfaction
Incorporating online reviews into your personal branding strategy can be an effective way to boost client satisfaction. It’s easier said than done, but you should utilize the feedback you have (with the trends you’ve noticed) to vamp up your service. For example if your reviews stated that you seemed too aggressive or impersonal, try using positive body language with your next clients to see if it evokes a change. Or, if you’ve received good reviews acknowledging your quick call-back time, then consider incorporating that efficiency in other aspects of your process.
Make Online Reviews Your New Personal Branding Strategy
Needless to say, client feedback is invaluable. Not only has it allowed you to see your strengths and weaknesses, but it’s enabled you to re-strategize your Real Estate process through those trends. Considering how vital they are to showing client satisfaction, why stop now? Use online reviews in your personal branding strategy by showing them off to gain new business. Add good reviews as testimonials to your service on marketing collateral, your website, your email signature and anywhere else you can fit a couple of sentences to promote yourself. Don’t just trust that all clients are checking review sites by this point; show people the way by highlighting your positive attributes as written by people with firsthand experiences.
Coming up with new ways to drive more lead traffic can be difficult, but not impossible. Use online reviews to help grow your service and incorporate client feedback in your day-to-day operations. By encouraging client feedback, you get one step closer to achieving your professional goals.
Do you incorporate online reviews into your process? Has it impacted your amount of client interest? Let us know in the comment section below and be sure to subscribe!
