Five Ways to Build Online Reviews for a Real Estate Business

Try these Methods to Encourage your Customers to take Action

Having trouble getting your customers to submit positive reviews for you online? As you grow your real estate business, you are going to hear more and more from your customers, clients and colleagues about the importance of having a positive online platform and the need to manage your reputation on the internet. To protect your reputation and leverage the advantages presented by online reviews, you have to put some energy and effort into managing your online presence. Positive online reviews are a critical element in the postmodern real estate industry. Your presence online is how customers will find you, judge you and tell others about you. When you provide a great service and are committed to first class customer service, you need to encourage your customers to let the world know it through online reviews. Try these methods to encourage your sellers and buyer to take action.

1. Pay Attention to the Reviews you Already Have.

It may sound obvious, but you can’t generate good reviews unless you have happy home buyers and sellers to write them. No amount of requests for positive online reviews or feedback will help compensate for a poor first impression. Start by making sure to resolve any issues or challenges that particularly bother your clients up front before pursuing online reviews.

2. Ask for the Referral.

The customers who really love your firm and appreciate the customized service that you provided during their home transaction are one of your best ongoing tools for making sales. People who appreciate how they have been treated may want to be able to give something back to you for all the hard work you put in during their home buying or home selling experience. Most people just don’t know where to start to collect referrals. Each time a client expresses how pleased they are with you, ask them to write a referral to share that experience with the world. If they agree, you can go into detail as to how they can give you good online ratings, referrals and reviews.

3. Understand Where your Potential Customers are Finding Online Reviews.

This links back to our first point, which is to understand where, how and what potential customers are hearing about you online. The first step to take is to do a Google search on yourself. You can get the best results by taking your name or your firm’s name, putting it in quotation marks, and adding the phrase “real estate.” For example, your search bar would look like: “Mike Fox Coldwell Banker real estate review.” You may be surprised by the amount of information that appears about you and your firm online. Reviews will commonly appear on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook , real-estate specific platforms including Trulia and Zillow and more commonly trafficked sites like Yelp.

4. Use Social Media all the Time.

You may think, “I’m way too busy to tweet all the time.” You’re right, so use social media in a smart way. Set aside a block of time to create your social media content and then use an application like Tweetdeck or Postcron to schedule your social media bulletins throughout the week. That way, even if you’re out sealing a deal, your social media is still working on your behalf and attracting new clients.

5. Ask for What you Want.

Just like you can’t be afraid to ask for the sale, you can’t be afraid to ask for referrals. If you follow these simple tips, you’ll increase your number of incoming sales leads and get more business.

What have your experiences been like with online reviews? Share your stories with us in the comments below!

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