In the world of social media companies are more accountable than ever. Real estate agents certainly aren’t exempt from this. If you perform badly, you get a bad review online and the whole wide world can see it. On the other hand, if your clients like the way you performed, chances are they’ll leave you a good review online.
Those online reviews are becoming more and more important and powerful. According to a report done by the Yellow Pages, more than two thirds, or 68%, of Australian consumers read online reviews about products or services they’re interested in. Now, a house on the market isn’t going to have any online reviews. But rest assured the agent selling that home will. Before buyers enter into a business deal with that person they’re going to take a good look at those reviews, whether they be on Google, Facebook, realestate.com.au or ratemyagent.com.au.
You want those reviews to be positive to be positive rather than negative, because the same Yellow Pages report determined that when Australians do their research on social media, 61% of the time it leads to them making a purchase. Business Queensland also states 68% of respondents reported reading online reviews or blogs before making a purchase decision.
If you’ve got a bad online rating, you’re not going to impress these large numbers of consumers within the marketplace.
A Tip for the Real Estate Market
Say you’re on the market to buy a new home, and there are two similar houses you like sold by different agents. Hop onto realestate.com.au and look at both the buyer and seller reviews of each agent. One agent has 39 reviews, and only 2 of them are from buyers. The other agent has 70 reviews, and nearly half of them are from buyers. As a buyer, which property do you think you’ll lean toward? Considering they’re both very similar, you’ll go with the agent who looks after their buyers better.
It’s important that both buyers and sellers check out the reviews of a real estate agent before they enter into a business agreement with them. You want to get first hand proof that the agent in question is professional and will look after you even after the sale.
Why People Leave Reviews
According to a survey by global review site Trustpilot, people will leave reviews for a company to help attest to its reliability and make it easier for buyers to decide where to make a purchase. They want to give consumers insights into their own experience about the service or product they received.
And why do consumers read reviews? Well, “consumers read reviews because they trust reviews and they believe that reviews will help them make the right decisions when making a purchase or choosing a company.”
94% of customers say an online review has convinced them to avoid a business. Most customers don’t trust anyone with a four-star rating online, with 80% saying the companies they trust the most have 4, 4.5- or 5-star reviews.
It’s incredibly important, whether you’re in real estate or any other industry, that you conduct a business that naturally attracts good reviews. If you provide an honest, trustworthy business service where you work hard for your clients, when you ask them to leave you a review there’s a high likelihood it’ll be a positive one.
Here at the Henry Wong Team® we’re extremely proud of the reviews we’ve got from both buyers and sellers. They include:
- 105 x 5 STAR Google Reviews
- 73 x 5 STAR realestate.com.au reviews
- 82 x 5 STAR ‘Rate my Agent’ reviews.
Get in touch if you have any questions about the power of online reviews and how they’ve helped our business, or if you want to talk about real estate in Brisbane.
