We all know the power of getting online reviews from our clients’, turned raving fans and most of us have likely experienced how hard it can be to get a client to complete an online review.
If you want to capture more reviews online it’s important to make them easy to access, uncomplicated and have the review links sent your clients’, fast!
Make it accessible, make it easy, watch them roll in.
One of the major keys to getting more reviews from clients you hit home runs for, is to make the review sites/links as easy to access as possible. Make sure that all platforms you use are mobile-friendly, your clients are likely to do this review on the go – if they have to log onto a computer to complete the review, they will likely never get to it. Also, don’t ask them 21 questions on the review, keep it simple, maybe a 1-5 rating on a few key factors other clients search for, then a small section for a paragraph about their experience, that is all you need!
Ask directly!
Don’t just float around to your clients that, “It would be so cool if you had free time and wanted to tell others about how great working with me was”. Ask your clients for a review, in person, on the phone, via text and email – ask them directly to leave you a review, on what sites and you can even prompt them with what you are looking the review to share, i.e. Freddie was a great negotiator, or Freddie had so many showing agents helping, we could always get in to see homes, even if he was out of town!
Timing is everything.
Whether your clients, bought or sold, for themselves or investment purchases – a real estate transaction usually creates work in your clients lives, whether they are moving, finding tenants, or corralling contractors to remodel – don’t ask them for a review three weeks after closing (or longer if you wait that long for some reason). Ask them at closing and as we said above, be direct!
A great way to automate this is you can have a review request email and/or text drip plan fire off when you move a client to the closed stage!
Promote reviewing in multiple places and incentivize participating.
When you are asking for clients to leave you reviews and you are being direct and specific, tell them if you want them to leave reviews in multiple places.
Leaving even just one review causes a client to take time out of their day, a few reviews across a few different sites, is a lot more time… this is why incentivizing your clients to leave reviews through raffles or other compliant gifts, will dramatically increase participation.
Create a dedicated web page.
You can use a service like Link Tree , Highnote, or you can ,make your own webpage to house links (and directions) to all your different review platforms, this is a great way to keep everything in one place, to make the review leaving process even easier for your clients. You can include this link in your email/text drip campaigns to be used post closing.
Use an Automated Review Software.
If being direct, remembering to ask clients, creating an action plan and/or webpage for all your review platforms is just too much for you, or you don’t have the capacity to take it on at the moment – you should look into using an Automated Review Software. Two companies I have experience with that are easy to use are Trustpilot, you can check them out at the link and Testimonial Tree, the latter of which I have seen used a lot more in the real estate industry.
Softwares like this automate the review follow up process and make it unbelievably easy for your clients to leave you reviews on all your favorite sites, they are definitely worth checking out.
We hope you like this article and as always, OSIRS is here to help.