Working with Big Real Estate to build credibility…
Today we announced that we signed an agreement to provide our tools to one of the largest real estate brokerages in the US, Prudential California Realty. Some say this is in conflict to the interest of the consumer, who is ultimately our client.
Well, I can see how someone could say that, however, the reality is, that Prudential understands that the real estate business is really about customer service and marketing. If their customers get great service, they will talk about it and that will influence others to potentially work with Prudential. Duh!
What’s critical from our perspective is that we start to get the industry and the agents on the ground comfortable with the idea of, not only allowing themselves to be reviewed, but asking to be review, even if they now those reviews may be negative. There is inevitability to online reviews, google, yahoo, yelp, insider pages and 100 other websites allow anonymous reviews of local services. There is no avoiding it. If you don’t get out in front of it your going to find yourself a victim of it. If you’re not asking every client for feedback, you’re going to find only the unhappy leaving feedback. The old adage, “a happy customer tells nobody, a unhappy customer tells everybodyâ€, will never be more true than in an environment where user-generated content is so easily created.
The smart money is embracing it and realizing that having a collection of online reviews may give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. It tells the consumer, “We care about service, if something is wrong, we’ll make it right!†Ultimately, great companies listen to their customers and strive to maintain a consistently high level of service.
Do you listen to your clients? Do you want them to talk to your potential customers… if not, there is always work at the post office.
What a tired idea. Isn’t that way agents started putting testimonials on their personal websites? Duh.
P.S. Redfin spends approximately $700 per day on PPC and runs almost 200 ads. Get your facts straight.
Here is a review for you and your site. THIS SITE SUCKS!!! HA HA. Let’s see if you can take the criticism before the rest of us agents jump on the “short bus.”
P.P.S. What is up with all the lame pictures of the space shuttle “launch” … your site is insulting to the intelligence of the average viewer.
Comment by Greg M. Ingerson — April 13, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
So the “anonymous†guy at agentscoreboard.com claims:
“The smart money is embracing it [anonymous agent reviews] and realizing that having a collection of online reviews may give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace.”
Is this hilarious or what?
Generally speaking, statements such as these should be backed up with some sort of factual information.
What is “the smart money”? Who is embracing it? Do these companies have names? What are the names?
Notice he say “may” give them a competitive advantage. Doesn’t sound very sure of himself does he?
Marketplace? Do you really want your customers going to a site to find another realtor?
Why would we ever send our customers anywhere other that our personal or company websites?
We as Realtors need to control the information provided to our clients so they are fully represented. Otherwise we will be replaced by a website with a “Blank Offer†form for Buyers to fill out themselves. Oh wait that is already happening.
We as realtors should not need to justify a response to every “anonymous” person that may leave a “fraudulent” review of our services without a simple or easy way to have this “false information” removed from the view of the masses.
Lawyers don’t allow anonymous reviews by their patients and neither do Doctors.
So let’s ask this question again, “who†is embracing it? It seems that those that are embracing it are those that wish to cheapen our profession and turn us Realtors into low priced showing agent that make a low yearly salary like the agents at Redfin.
As stated by the “anonymous†man from agentscoreboard.com
“ … Most real estate transactions are pretty simple, most of the “top producers” I know have transaction managers that handle the deals once they are in escrow. I think you can boil 90% of real estate transactions down to a simple formula and it can be worked much more efficiently and cost effectively.â€
Yah, they really care about us real estate agents. To them we are all the same, just paper pushers with no experience, knowledge, or marketing skills. Or at least we will be when the commissions are slashed by 90% and the “smart agents†have left the field.
Personally, I feel that these “online reviews” are just another way to sell ad space and possibly the leads back to us realtors. But hey, if you are dumb enough to “feed the monster” don’t be surprised when it grows up to devour the realtors as we are forced to pay for every lead because the customers have become accustomed to going to national websites rather than local realtor websites.
Sincerely,
Greg M. Ingerson
Attorney At Law
Real Estate Broker
LA Home Search
P.S. I am posting this here because I know that they won’t post my comments on their site.
Comment by Greg M. Ingerson — April 14, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
Greg,
I’ll ignore you obvious use of your tags and links to drive traffic to your site, but it’s apparent that you know nothing about Agent Scoreboard.
Agent Scoreboard doesn’t allow any “anonymous†reviews to be posted, and there is a dispute process to allow professional realtor to dispute what they believe are “fraudulent†or “malicious†reviews. We can’t protect bad agents from themselves.
You would have to be living in a hole to not see the effect credible consumer feedback has helped many products and service providers build business. The “testimonial†has had its day and is too easily manipulated for savvy consumers to trust what some agent posted on his own site. I’m sure agents aren’t going to post any “negative†testimonials.
Consumers are looking for honesty… I was and am a real estate broker. I know what it takes to be a good real estate agent and want my customers to leave feedback on every site possible, if they like my services, and if they don’t, I only have myself to blame.
I’m sure you’ll never post again, but your language seems a little immature for an “attorney†and I’ve visited your old hack lead generation website. Find out how to engage your audience and you may one day have more to do than post comments on my blog.
Comment by mike — April 16, 2008 @ 9:43 am