Why negative reviews are good for business
Negative reviews can help your business in multiple ways
RateMyAgent is built on the principle of transparency – enabling vendors and buyers to find unbiased, genuine opinions about the quality of your service from people in their local area.
And – as hard as you work to improve your client service every day – there will be times when a vendor or buyer will be dissatisfied, and say so!
The latest research from Bright Local shows that 97% of consumers look for online reviews, and 85% trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
What’s more, figures from Dimensional Research show that 86% of people say negative reviews influence their decision-making process – and the key trigger for negative reviews is poor service.
Negative reviews matter – so how can you make them work for you?
“It’s fantastic to get honest feedback – positive or negative – to ensure I can improve continuously.”
– Tania Holmes, Jas Stephens, Yarraville, Vic
Agents like Tania value RateMyAgent as a forum for well-rounded client feedback. It’s one thing to have a profile page full of positive reviews – but how many vendors would truly trust wall-to-wall positivity as a source of unbiased opinion from fellow consumers?
By reading the occasional negative review and weighing it up against all your positive reviews, vendors can gain a more realistic and nuanced picture of your client service levels – keeping you top-of-mind as their potential agent.
You can take things a step further by replying to a negative review on RateMyAgent. When a vendor reads the negative review and sees your reply showing genuine interest and care towards your client – this will only strengthen your position as a top-of-mind potential agent.
“[RateMyAgent] has credibility. This gives me the drive to focus on 110% customer satisfaction. I may not hit the mark all the time, but I have a benchmark to work towards.”
– Ron Palmer, Explore Property, Mackay, Qld
If there’s anything to be learned from the rise and rise of social media over the last decade, it’s that people often say things online that they wouldn’t say in person!
While this means you might not always like what they say, a negative review is a terrific opportunity to identify and address client service issues that you might not otherwise know about – helping you provide even better service.
And who knows? Maybe your response to that negative review will lead to that same client returning for another property sale or purchase, saying how much your client service has improved since the first time they did business with you.
This kind of review is enormously valuable. Think about the last time you complained to a business about a product or service. If the business went out of its way to address your concerns rather than ignore or dismiss them, you’d be far more inclined to use their services again or recommend them to others. Real estate clients are no different.
“Ratemyagent.com.au allows us to measure our local market performance, create new benchmarks and celebrate our successes.”
– Chris De Celis, The Avenue Real Estate Agency, Castle Hill, NSW
With industry disruptors and their low-overhead business models making the real estate industry more competitive, it’s never been more important to track your performance and revisit your success benchmarks.
Negative reviews provide an opportunity to assess all aspects of your business – remuneration, communication, administration, information technology – and implement improvements that will give you the edge over the competition. of today, every agent in Australia can post an existing review.
Positive or negative, 97% of consumers look for online reviews, and 85% trust them as much as a personal recommendation – so the more reviews you collect, the more opportunities you have to grow your client base.
Suggested reads:
There’s three ways to get reviews
Verified and unverified reviews: What’s the difference – and why you should care
