Five Ways to Handle Online Reviews

Let’s face it – online reviews are here to stay. They’ve become ubiquitous and have infiltrated almost every facet of our lives.
Formal and professional review platforms like RankMyAgent.com have strict policies in place to monitor content and protect both real estate agents and clients.
However, reviews also tend to pop up frequently on social media and other sites that may not monitor the content in the same way.
This doesn’t mean that Real Estate agents should be fearful of the concept. Here are five ways to handle online reviews:

Have a Plan

How do you go about your social media and online activity? Do you have a plan that includes goals, metrics and a ‘crisis’ response protocol? It doesn’t have to be fancy, but having a plan in place will take away the anxiety when a review does pop up.

Regardless of whether the review is positive or negative – take a minute to reflect on what is being said. Taking a step back will ensure that you don’t throw out an emotional response and gives you time to go back to your plan.

Take a Breath

Regardless of whether the review is positive or negative – take a minute to reflect on what is being said. Taking a step back will ensure that you don’t throw out an emotional response and gives you time to go back to your plan.

Take it Offline

Instead of allowing your conversation with a client to degenerate into a war of comments and CAPITAL LETTERS, rather take the opportunity to engage offline. It will give you time to create measured responses and the opportunity to ‘be heard’ might be enough to show the client that you care. Also, a telephone conversation or face-to-face meeting could go a long way in repairing a relationship.

Reflect on the Review

Once you’ve had a chance to investigate and deal with the review, evaluate what the review actually meant to you as a professional, to the client and for a potential client. Are their ways that you could improve your service? Are you doing something so well that it should become a focus of your marketing efforts? Critical introspection can yield some very powerful insight.

Done a great job? Ask for a review!

It’s no secret that consumers are more likely to post a negative review on their own accord. If you’ve got a list of happy clients a mile long, then you have a great source to begin with. Make it easy for happy clients to say a good word. The positive reviews will ensure that negative ones are seen as outliers – as crazy as it sounds, they might actually make your profile a little bit more believable too.

RankMyAgent.com is Canada’s trusted ratings and review platform that connects clients with reputable, recommended real estate agents in their area. Our reviews include qualitative and quantitative data and must follow strict guidelines. RankMyAgent.com is Real Reviews, Real Experts and Real Results – visit us and find the right real estate agent for your needs today.