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Human nature being what it is, people tend to trust reviews more than their own common sense. Our society has become paralyzed by this insane need to read reviews before they make a purchase.
Consider the logic of this for a moment: you are willing to read other people’s comments — people you do not know and have no meaningful connection with, people who more than likely have differing viewpoints from yours and different tastes — and yet you consider their statements as gospel and act accordingly, throwing common sense to the winds.
Because of this innate need to read reviews, it seems everyone now asks for them, to the point of being ridiculous. A great example would be my recent visit to a hardware store to buy a couple of drill bits.
I had hardly left the store before my phone was pinged with a request for a review. While I understand that stores like to get reviews to help improve their customer service, monitor employee effectiveness and provide incentives for others to shop there, in my mind, asking for a review about my shopping experience in buying $5.00 drill bits is a bit over the top. My thoughts:
- They are a hardware store and are supposed to carry drill bits — I showed up and sure enough, they had drill bits.
- The person lounging behind the register called out when I came in saying, “Welcome in — can I help you find something?” Since I’m frequently in that store and knew exactly where the drill bits were, I said, “No thanks.” She went back to lounging, arms crossed, leaning against the counter.
- I showed up at the drill bit display and — no surprise — they had all the types and sizes you would expect, just like a hardware store is supposed to have. Incidentally, they had what I was looking for, also exactly as expected.
- I took the bits to the register. I gave them my phone number to access my account, and it came up — just like it was supposed to.
- There was no applicable discount, so they told me the total and I waved my card at the credit card terminal, and it took my money — just like it was supposed to.
- The clerk said, “Have a nice day,” just like she should have, and went back to lounging against the counter.
- I arrived home, put one of the bits in my drill and … surprise, surprise … it drilled a hole. Just like it was supposed to.
What part of my visit deserved a review? My comments, if any, would have been “Everything was as it should have been.” Yet they hope I will give them five stars for simply doing their job.
Ironically, I also receive ongoing emails from a big box store for a product I purchased that, after it failed to properly fit, was returned, yet the requests for reviews keep showing up in my inbox.
Let me rant for a moment: We live in a ridiculous society where everything is measured in terms of reviews, and everyone expects five stars every time. It’s stupid, but unfortunately, this is the world we now find ourselves in.
As professional real estate agents, we should not expect great reviews unless we can demonstrate exceptional value and customer service to our clients. We should not expect five stars if everything was ordinary and as it should have been. Three stars is ordinary. Four stars is extra effort.
Five stars is us showing up in the midst of difficulty and moving mountains to get things handled so our clients can sleep peacefully at night. It is handling every errant pitch that comes our way and knocking them out of the park. Five stars are earned when the customer can look back after the closing and say, “That was absolutely amazing!”
Think for a moment how hard it is for a restaurant to get a Michelin star, let alone three. It takes supreme effort day after day. It takes steady, incremental improvements week after week, year after year until one day, when the inspector shows up, the hard work finally pays off.
Ironically, if something happens on the day of the inspection, all bets could be off for that year. And, it is not only hard to get a Michelin star, it is equally difficult to keep them.
So why would we expect anything less? Here are my three steps to getting amazing reviews:
1. Be amazing!
So you would think this would be obvious. Think again. While there are some truly amazing Realtors out there who have set the bar very high, keep in mind that a significant portion of this industry (almost 50 percent) did one or fewer transactions in 2023.
Think about that for a moment. As an industry, we cannot allow ourselves to think that anyone doing one transaction a year is going to be able to create such an amazing customer experience that they earn a five-star review. More importantly, we need to consider the overall effect on our industry this level of competence (or lack thereof) really has.
To truly be amazing takes a lot of practice. It takes training. Experience. Enough “at bats” to know how to handle knuckleballs.
It also takes a commitment to continuously improving the level of service you provide so that, in comparison to other agents in your market, your standards of service are truly exceptional. This also means you need to know what types of service your competition is providing.
2. Constantly communicate
Historically, many agents have taken the approach of handling things without letting the client know. They have just done whatever was necessary to deal with situations that arose to ensure that the escrow would close on time.
This was brought home to me just this past week as we were having dinner with a past client with whom we have facilitated five transactions and a number of referrals. Discussing their last transaction with our team, I casually mentioned an issue that had arisen that we had summarily dealt with.
The husband looked at me and said, in astonishment, “I had no idea you handled that.” While our exceptional service kept them coming back for repeat transactions, it did little to help them understand just how much we had actually done behind the scenes.
As we are entering this new age of anticipated commission compression, as a team we have made a commitment to not only continue handling things as they arise but to also make sure our clients know exactly how we are going the extra mile on their behalf.
Additionally, we continue to communicate at every step of the process; a client should never have to reach out to you to ask how things are going.
3. Set the stage
The quest for a review begins when you first connect with a prospective client. Not only should the first contact be memorable, but it should also let them know that, if you truly deliver exceptional service, you would love to get a review that will communicate your worth to others.
We have benchmarks built into our client experience where we continuously check in with our clients to make sure things are on track and are, hopefully, exceeding their expectations. Any issues are immediately resolved.
There is also an assumption here that whenever a client reaches out for any reason, you immediately respond: you answer the phone, respond to the text or email and acknowledge their communication. You may not be able to solve their issue immediately, but they should know that you are working on it.
4. Ask for the review
There is a verse in the Bible that states, “You have not because you ask not.” The number of clients who will, on their own, look up ways to leave a review and then do so is very, very small. Instead, you should not only ask for a review but make it exceptionally easy for them to do so no matter the device they are using.
Darryl Davis, in his exceptional Inman post dated March 31, 2023, and entitled, How to make clients love writing reviews (so you can win), states,
“The key to getting your customers to leave positive reviews is found in making it as easy and accessible as possible. If you’re asking them to take time out of their day, make sure the process is quick, straightforward, and simple.
“Make sure all review platforms are mobile-friendly; today’s tech-savvy consumers don’t want to be bothered with logging into a laptop or desktop computer just to leave a review. This means providing links directly from your website or email campaigns so that customers can quickly and easily access the review platform from any device. Too many fields or questions can lead clients to abandon their review halfway through, so keep it short and sweet.”
In our case, we send out an email that makes posting a review very easy. The email includes a link to a simple webpage that takes them directly to our Google reviews. One click and they can leave a review. We explain,
“It was SUCH a treat to work with you! Thank you for entrusting your real estate transaction to us. As you know — online reviews make a massive difference to any business these days. Is there any way you could do us a favor? We are trying to build up our reviews on Google, Zillow and Facebook – would you consider going there and writing something short and sweet? We would deeply appreciate it.”
After providing links to all the sites we want them to visit, we close with
“You have the power to make a difference – these reviews REALLY help our business – a few minutes of your time is deeply appreciated and can have a wonderful, long-term impact on our business. And we have a fun way of saying “Thank You” – just let us know that you have done the reviews, and we’ll send you something cool!”
5. Follow up
In a perfect world, you would get an amazing review immediately after you ask. Unfortunately, not everyone is as excited about writing a review as you might be about getting one. Not everyone is going to respond right away; in fact, it might mean following up with them a few times.
Be patient and keep trying. You might even prime the pump by asking about specific aspects of the transaction: “How do they like their new home?” “Where in the transaction process did they most appreciate our help?” And so on.
Once a review shows up online, respond immediately — both to the review online and in an email. Additionally, in our case, since we have promised them something fun when they complete a review, we mail them something from See’s Candy along with a cute thank you card.
At the end of the day, if you want a positive review, you need to earn it. The simple solution? Provide a five-star experience that rocks their world by delivering customer service way above their expectations.
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