Managing Your Online Reputation: Client reviews for your agency
O*NO! Someone has left me a bad review, what should I do? Today’s blog is all about your agency’s online reputation and the steps you can take to manage it, something that is especially important in the Real Estate industry as your reputation is everything.
How Prominent Are Online Reviews?
Online reviews play an essential role for all businesses in 2021. Want to know if that new pizza place is worth a try? Check the reviews. Deciding which spa place to hit with the girls? Compare their reviews. You get the point. These reviews can appear anywhere from a business’ website to a social media page, the Google page or even a dedicated review platform. These reviews are relied on by possible customers to be impartial and sincere so that the correct business earns their patronage. Now think about it this way; if people are searching reviews for a $20 pizza, imagine the effort they’re going to put in to select a real estate agency to sell or manage their biggest assets.
Fake Reviews Don’t Hurt Anyone, Right?
Leaving yourself (or having someone leave you) a fake or misleading review can put you in breach of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Reviews could be considered misleading and fake if they are written by the business being reviewed or even by a competitor to the business being reviewed. It’s also important to note that paying someone that has not used your services to write a review would breach the law. Incentives to write reviews are their own sticky situation (see below) as even having a customer write an inflated review for any form of benefit will also get you into hot water.
Some tips to ensure you don’t fall into any of the traps above would be to:
Be careful when asking family and friends to leave a review. Ensure they give an honest review and disclose their personal relationship within;
Have clients write reviews that reflect their genuine opinion. Saying something like “please leave a review with your thoughts” instead of “leave a review if you enjoyed the experience” is useful for this; and
Avoid getting anyone to write reviews if they have not actually experienced your agency services.
Can I Offer Incentives for My Clients to Leave a Review?
Offering incentives for a review is a tricky landscape to navigate and must be treated with caution. One mistake and you may accidentally breach the law. For example, if your agency is offering incentives for reviews, you must offer these incentives to clients that are both likely to leave a positive or negative review. One way to fulfil this is to have a process built into your workflow or client journey that includes asking clients to leave a review at set touch points, like once you have sold their property. That way no one can accuse your agency of only asking the preferable clients to leave a review once the process is complete. Expressly letting the client know that the incentive is valid despite the nature of their review is also another safeguard for your agency.
Be Careful When Moderating Your Own Reviews!
Should you receive a bad review, we recommend engaging with the author and apologising for their experience and providing context around the issue or misunderstanding for other potential clients that may be looking at your agency’s reviews.
Editing and removing reviews (specifically the ones you don’t like) can land you in hot water too. Removing reviews to inflate your reputation can be seen as misleading potential clients as the entire group of reviews doesn’t paint an accurate picture of your agency. Most platforms have policies in place to moderate content and anything in breach of such policies can be removed without worry.
Google has policies that prohibit and restrict content that includes anything spam/fake, off-topic, offensive, derogatory and even impersonation related. Rate My Agent has a similar “verified review” policy that guarantees all reviews are written by real people and connected to real sales. Facebook’s policies are much more along the lines of long-winded standards that include authenticity, dignity, fraud, harassment etc. So, no matter which platform the review is left on, you should be able to sleep easy knowing that there are steps you can take to protect your business’ reputation.
Key Takeaways
Don’t fret (or remove it) if you receive a bad review, it paints a balanced picture for your business and may in fact just be that one customer that was unsatisfied with their experience;
Actually engaging with the comment and apologising/setting the record straight can be extremely effective;
If you plan to incentivise clients, ensure you are providing that incentive to all client, whether they are likely to leave a positive or negative review;
Don’t leave your own reviews for yourself and if someone close to you wants to leave a review after their experience, ensure they disclose the personal relationship within; and
A medium Quarter Pounder meal with a Sprite, no ice. Get it? Key takeaway? I’m sorry, dad jokes are 90% of my personality.
Your Next Steps
If your online reputation is something on your agency’s radar or you just want to know more about any legal blind spots, book in for a FREE 10 minute chat here with our team of legal experts to get your agency sorted.
Boring legal stuff: This article is general information only and cannot be regarded as legal, financial or accounting advice as it does not take into account your personal circumstances. For tailored advice, please contact us. PS - congratulations if you have read this far, you must love legal disclaimers or are a sucker for punishment.