How To Generate Real Estate Online Reviews From Your Clients
Real estate reviews cement trust in your brand and strengthen your online presence. Find out why they’re important, how to get them, and what to do with negative reviews.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a restaurant, a cell phone, or a pickup truck, one thing is certain: online reviews matter.
This is especially true for your real estate business. According to a recent study, 87% of American consumers read online reviews for local businesses last year, up 6% in comparison to the year before.
Learn how you can harness the power of positive real estate reviews. We’ll address everything you need to generate great reviews from your clients in a variety of ways.
But first, let’s look at why reviews are key to lead generation.
Why real estate reviews are important
Imagine being able to instantly build trust in the minds of countless future clients—all for free.
Sounds too good to be true? It’s not if your business has good online reviews.
That’s because reading reviews can be like having your future client talk to tens or even hundreds of people that have worked with you at the same time. They can quickly learn exactly what others experienced, how they felt, and what their final outcome was – all within minutes!
Reviews don’t happen on their own. Gaining a wealth of great real estate reviews takes strategy, time, and effort.
But with the right strategy, you can generate great real estate reviews that fuel your business growth.
How to get a great real estate review
With how influential reviews can be on your future clients, it’s best to not leave anything to chance.
Let’s take a look at how to motivate your clients to share their experience.
Maybe they got swept up with all the excitement and didn’t leave you a review. That’s when a personalized email can work wonders.
You can shoot them a quick email saying how much you appreciated working with them. Talk about how happy you are that you satisfied a particular need of theirs, and how you would appreciate it if they would take a minute to write you a review.
Call
You may find out that they prefer talking on the phone rather than emailing. That’s when a “How are things going?” follow-up call is critical.
Mention first that you didn’t want to take much of their time and that you know they’re busy, but you just wanted to see how everything is going.
Mention how happy you are that you could serve them, and conclude by asking them to take a minute to write you a review.
Text
This is an especially useful channel to motivate younger or first-time homeowners to write you a review. If you perceive that they would rather type than talk, this is the method for them.
Start the conversation by sending a quick text asking how they’re doing.
After they’ve responded, ask if they’d be willing to share their experience with others by leaving you a review.
This is the best place to direct your past clients. If you can get a client to review you on Google, it will help you in multiple ways:
First, it’s the most-used search engine. Period. That means more eyes will see it.
Second, it will help your SEO, or search engine optimization.
Since almost three billion users are active on Facebook each month, chances are your clients will know exactly how to use it to review your business.
The best components to a review:
- Attention-grabbing one liner (story introduction). In a single sentence, sum up their experience with you. This could be what you did for them or the quality that best describes what it’s like to work with you.
- Why they needed you (story conflict). They might have felt overwhelmed with buying or selling, perhaps they needed guidance, or they had a bad experience before. Either way, this will explain what motivated them to turn to you for help.
- How you solved the problem (story climax). Here’s where they share what you did for them and how. This is often the part that most deserves any details they want to share about your services.
- What they recommend (story resolution). Finally, here’s where they apply their experience to any potential clients unsure about working with you. They talk about how you’re the agent they recommend or how anyone that works with you won’t regret it.
