Do you remember when Siskel and Ebert were pretty much the only guys reviewing movies? Siskel & Ebert at the Movies was the go-to TV show to find out what flick to check out that weekend. Every movie trailer ended a “…Siskel & Ebert give it X out of 5 stars…” almost as certainly as it started with “In a world…”
Alas, Siskel and Ebert’s medium went the way of beepers and cassette tapes… now despite the fact that both have passed on, a website exists in memoriam and many review movies in their stead. Their go-to, single-stream expertise transformed with the advent of the internet and social media. Now, anyone with a blog or an opinion can review movies, and in order to make an educated decision on what to do while devouring our giant tub of popcorn, we have to rummage through thousands, no, millions of film reviews.
Now that anyone can write reviews for movies, anyone can write reviews of you as well, making managing the brand image of even the tiniest business a task of Watergate Scandal proportions.
“But, RealEstateAgent.com, my customers love my business, I am a great Agent,” you say. “I don’t have to worry about bad reviews!” — Wrong.
As we mentioned before with the movies analogy, the problem with today’s reviews is that a potential “critic” does not have to have any credentials, experience or even the slightest idea of how to properly review a business. They are not even required to have actually interacted with an Agent or Real Estate business to write a review! That opens the world to a whole lot of scary PR nightmares.
There is a reason for there being a lot more sad songs than happy songs. If we are happy, we want to celebrate, not sit and write. People who are satisfied with service rarely bother with writing positive reviews. However, people who are upset with you or your Real Estate Agents will almost certainly take all the time they need to say/write whatever is on their mind.
As mentioned earlier, people don’t even have to have interacted with your business to write a bad review. Their cat could have gotten sick the day they spoke with you on the phone, their car could have been towed from your parking lot, or they could just be having a bad day… the reasons to write an unfairly-nasty review are endless, but avoiding the consequences of that 1-star rating is hard.
Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing RealEstateAgent.com Reviews, RealEstateAgent.com Agent Reviews, your own Agent Reviews, and Real Estate Scams based on spamming your Real Estate Business with negative reviews. Check back soon!
