If this doesn't scare you, nothing will -
- online real estate agent review sites exist right now and are starting to gain traction.
Just look at this example – notice the invitation to "Out Your Agent" – then read the blistering personal attack on a Rhode Island Realtor …
The interesting thing here is "Jennifer" was outing the listing agent, NOT her own Realtor.
There were several responses to this post, supposedly from clients of Karl who said nice things about him. HOWEVER, the damage has been done and the first statement will stick in the minds of consumers.
So what can you (or Karl) do if this happens to you?
First off, you need to know as soon as possible if any remarks, good or bad, are posted about you on the web. This is commonly referred to as reputation management.
There are several services that will do this for you, but by far the easiest and cheapest (free) is to set up a Google Alert -
- sign into your Google account go here and add an alert with your name in parenthesis like this: "Realtor Name" and choose as-it-happens updates.
You will recieve email alerts in the future when there are references to your name on blogs, forums, web sites, social media sites – anything that Google indexes (which is pretty much everything).
The Washington Post had a front page article all about online identity management.
The Post talks about several individuals who experienced big problems with their online identity and discusses creating a bunch of your own well optimized presence on the web. That way negative cr*p can be pushed down a page or two when someone searches for your name, just liked we talked about in Part 1 of this series.
Stay tuned for the next episode – how to combat future negatative comments by creating enough of your own online exposure.
This series of posts comprises:
How to lose clients without knowing it – part 1
How to lose clients part 4 – the nasty version
How to lose clients – or not! Part 5
Have any of you had any experience with this stuff?
Please leave a comment and let us know what happened.
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How to lose clients part 4 – the nasty version – If this doesn’t scare you, nothing will – - online real estate age… http://ow.ly/15PD5t
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This is an interesting article. A consumer posted an account of a personal experience online, and your take seems to be how to hide from it. Nowhere do you dispute the accuracy of her experience or suggest that she was falsely and maliciously attacking the agent without truth. So it appears that the opinion here is "how to act terribly as a real estate agent and get away with it." Would the reaction to this type of review be the same if her comments were about a different kind of business – a hairdresser, dry cleaner or plumber she worked with? A Realtor working a real estate transaction is a business, and the public has every right to know who is professional and pleasant to work with, just as if this were a painter or mechanic. If this particular agent acted this way, why is he exempt from others learning about it? It seems to me that perhaps your future article – "how to combat future negative comments" should actually be advice on how to conduct one's self in a professional manner instead of thinking of ways to get away with it without the rest of a potential customer base hearing about it.
Victoria, we waited a while to see if others chipped in on this one, not so far, but there is still time …
Our position isn’t how to hide from the review, but more so how to educate Realtors on what the consumer may see about them online. Most Realtors we speak with aren’t even aware that these review sites exist; nor are they informed on what they can do to control what the consumer sees when they are Googled.
When it comes to review sites on any profession though, we would hope that there is some sort of control/confirmation that the person offering the feedback has some credible work experience with the professional, for good or bad. The important point here is that reviews have to have integrity.
Here is a quote from Seth Godin (author) had to say recently with a slightly different twist:
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