When it comes to review options, Google Reviews stands out by a mile.
It’s the one everyone knows.
It’s the one that’s free.
It’s the one that doesn’t need any explanation.
Google Reviews are becoming increasingly influential in customers’ buying decisions.
Search for a sandwich bar or a hairdresser in an area.
You’ll be Googling it, no doubt.
The most prominent thing that’ll be put forward to you is the reviews the type of service or product you are looking for has received from its customers.
For estate agents, these Google Reviews must be taken as seriously as a brown envelope landing on your doormat from HMRC.
People are using Google Reviews to decide where to buy a cheese and ham sarnie. So, what do you think they’ll think of an estate agency they’re considering using to sell or rent their property, which has only a 2.5 (out of 5) star rating across 85 reviews?
That score tells a story.
And it ain’t one that has a happy ending for the low-ranking agency.
Who is more likely to get called in for a valuation?
The agency with 150+ reviews, a 4.9-star average and a legion of fans?
Or the agency that might be good but doesn’t have review gathering as part of its marketing strategy?
Our initial application criteria for the Ethical Agent Network highlighted something shocking. *
Many excellent agents have low levels of Google Reviews simply because they don’t have a plan to collect them regularly.
Here are eight ways to get more Google Reviews:
1) Use QR codes to direct people to where they can leave a review.
2) Use an app like the one Estate Apps has created that provides a link to share with clients, making leaving a review simple and quick. Here’s a link to ours to give you an idea of how it works/looks – https://review.estateagentcontent.co.uk/
3) Have a system around when you ask – such as a) on instruction, b) on acceptance of a successful offer, c) when contracts are exchanged, d) on completion day, e) a week after the move has happened.
4) Ask for reviews when you do community work with local groups and individuals.
5) Ask for reviews from your contractors and suppliers.
6) Text message clients a link to your review page.
7) Use pre-loaded cards like Rev Cards –you tap the card on a client’s phone, and it takes them straight to your Google Reviews page, where they can leave some lovely words (and a five-star rating).
8) Make it as easy as possible for people to leave you a Google Review. Be proactive, consistent, persistent and responsive.
But Google Reviews are far from perfect. In our experience, Google is frustrating and nigh-on impossible to deal with if there’s an issue.
And one of the biggest issues is genuine reviews being taken down or not even appearing.
We’re currently on 220 five-star Google Reviews – making us the UK’s #1 Estate Agent Content creators by some distance and giving us a clear category of one. We lead with this on most of our marketing – and so could your agency if you work at it.
But at one point in 2022, we had loads wiped off. Around 40 vanished over two months.
In one case, 16 five-star reviews got wiped out overnight. For. No. Apparent. Reason.
We couldn’t get a sensible answer from Google – in fact, every response from them was generic and didn’t even attempt to answer our questions. Online forums said that changes to Google’s all-seeing algorithm had caused the issue.
If you’ve had vanishing Google Reviews, check out this video– it helped us and several agents recover missing ones (Note: It takes some time for them to reappear).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCe2wY16Vjk&ab_channel=RankingAcademy
Thanks for reading,
Jerry
*The first piece of entry criteria applicants have to pass to be considered for the Ethical Agent Network is having at least 50 Google Reviews – and an average rating of 4.5 stars or more.
PS: Get in touch to learn more about the Estate Agent Content Club or the Ethical Agent Network.