The Power of Positivity

The level of trust survey respondents had in a business, however, depended in part on the number of positive reviews that were available. Thirty-two percent said they were willing to trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations if there were multiple reviews. The growing number of consumers who are not satisfied until they have read multiple reviews highlights the importance of convincing clients to make the effort to give an agent an online rating. The need for positive reviews, in turn, is reinforced by the high number of respondents who are more trusting of businesses with higher ratings. The need to believe that reviews are genuine indicates that consumers are savvy to the possibility of fake reviews versus genuine consumer feedback, and that they are alert to the possibility that some businesses may attempt to plant positive reviews.

This growth of trust in online reviews has led to many agents increasing their activity on review sites. The T3 study showed that nearly 39 percent of agents now consider online reviews a “very important” component of their digital strategy, and about 33 percent are approaching them as “relatively important.” Only about 3 percent dismiss online reviews as “not important.”

Joshua Lioce of Lioce Properties started focusing on reviews with Trulia’s platform a few years ago. He began getting calls based on the positive reviews he was beginning to receive, and he currently has a five-star tating on the site based on more than 80 reviews.

“If your business isn’t set up to deliver a high level of satisfaction, you’re going to shy away from reviews,” Lioce said. “You have no idea what these people are going to say. You can’t control the input of the feedback. A lot of agents shy away from it because they’re not set up to get those five stars through no fault of their own, whether it’s lack of training, lack of focus, perspective, clarity regarding how they want to run their business, or not taking their business seriously enough to be at that level. They shy away because they’re afraid of what the reviews will say.”

The number of agents surveyed by T3 who did not manage to pick up any leads from their online reviews could reflect the fact that simply having a presence online is not enough, and that agents have to work to convert their reviews – even overwhelmingly positive ones – into fresh leads. T3 posits that this “performance gap” exists either because agents don’t know how to turn their solid reviews into leads or because it sometimes takes time to build momentum. For example, an agent may need to have more of his or her clients put up reviews before new potential clients start paying attention.

Yelp is not necessarily real estate-oriented, but its flexible platform and local focus make it a useful tool for Realtors seeking feedback from their clients. Using Yelp does not come without some hitches. The site’s algorithms are set up in such a way that reviews with users – “Yelpers” – with only one or two reviews often don’t show up on a business’ profile. An agent may think he or she has a few dozen reviews, but upon checking might find that they are invisible to most casual viewers.

Yelp’s software classifies certain reviews as “not recommended” and does not count them toward the site’s star rating feature, according to a study by David Kamerer posted on the peer-reviewed journal website First Monday. The software is designed to protect the integrity of the site and to filter out fake reviews. Business owners can find themselves in situations where low-star ratings are prominently displayed, while more positive reviews are filtered out.

Yelp does hold advantages for agents looking to expand their reach. Anyone can create a profile and write a review, and while businesses do have to keep up with some site maintenance – updating listing information, for example – the site is easy to use. Businesses can also move their profiles higher in the search results by buying advertising.

Ed Greable of Keller Williams started using Yelp in 2009 or 2010 and has embraced the online review process. His Yelp profile currently features 27 five-star reviews.

“I provide a high level of service to my clients, and to date I haven’t had someone who was unhappy with what I provide,” Greable said. “If there’s somebody out there who doesn’t get along with me and writes a bad review, it is what it is. I think it’s always good to mix in a bad review with the good ones. I’m still not looking forward to that day when I do get a bad review.”

Sites with a more concentrated focus on real estate draw attention to specific aspects of an agent’s business, while providing space for in-depth commentary about the client’s experience. Yelp’s five-star review model carries over with Trulia, which eliminated its “Thumbs Up” recommendation system in 2014. Instead, the site now lets users rate agents on a scale of one to five stars based on five categories: honesty and integrity, local knowledge, responsiveness, negotiation and process expertise. Zillow, which purchased Trulia last July, has used a similar star rating system since 2010. Realtor.com does not currently offer rankings, even though they have tested them in the past.