Michael Bruce, the co-founder and CEO of Boomin, has defended the recently launched property portal, after receiving negative Trustpilot reviews from some agents.
Boomin has so far received 25 reviews on Trustpilot, with almost half – 48% – rating the website as ‘bad’.
Bruce, who has personally responded to 23 of the Trustpilot reviews in recent weeks, told EYE, “Every review is treated with the respect and seriousness it deserves and it is testament to our culture and ambition that the founders have a proactive approach to each one we receive.”
One reviewer posted: “Not sure what Boomin is supposed to achieve over other property search sites.
“Created matchmaker profile weeks and weeks ago, no responses nothing.
Can’t fathom how to close the account either.
“Don’t rate highly at all.”
Another reviewer, Rob Taylor, added: “I’ve read the reviews and have to agree, the look and feel is good, but it’s not self-evident from the navigation what’s happening. For instance (on the desktop as that’s all there is), I click on on Secret Property and it takes me back up to the Main Page with the search bar front and centre – No – I don’t want to feel that I am going round in a loop, I want to know that I’m IN the Secret Property Search and that I now have the inside track. But No – it LOOKS like I’ve done something wrong. Also, MatchMaker obvs relies on a viable mass of people (data) placing their requirements (Buy or Sell) on the site for a corresponding ‘hit’ to connect buyer and seller.
“I’ve felt shortchanged, even curious as to whether the database is broken or nor populated enough for it to be working. I’ve used a number of changes to try and provoke a response from the MatchMaker service but alas, nothing. I have no doubt in what Boomin is trying to achieve (stimulate people to buy/sell based on solid market intel) but the Intel is not yet viable enough to prompt mass behavioural changes. Better intel feeds? Other aggregation from different sources – I don’t know – but something needs to happen soon, otherwise it’ll become a ‘Hailo’ which is soon very quickly overtaken by the ‘Uber’ waiting in the wings. Purely my opinion – sorry if it doesn’t have a view of Boomin vision or strategy.
Bruce responded on Trustpilot:
“Hi Rob.
“Thanks for your feedback. It is very valuable.
“Looking at re-creating the experience I can see that as you visit our home page you scroll down to the section where it tells you about secret property and there is a button that say search now. When you press that button it takes you to the search at the top of the page so you can do a search and see the secret properties in the area where you are searching. Whilst we are making upgrades and changes to the platform all the time it will always be necessary to conduct a search for the secret properties to be visible. I do however accept that it could be clearer and there are ways in which the friction you referred to could be reduced. I will have our team look into the solution.
“I would welcome the opportunity to learn more about your reference to Matchmaker so I can understand the issue and resolve it. Perhaps you would be kind enough to email me on michael@boomin.com.
“Whilst we are finding that there is a lot of interaction with our new features we will be continuously developing them and seeking to give the very best experience.
“Thanks again for your feedback.
Michael Bruce
Founder & Group CEO”
Read all the Boomin reviews on Trustpilot, and Bruce’s responses, by clicking here.
Bruce told EYE: “ We welcome all customer feedback and have a relentless ambition across all areas of the business to listen, learn and evolve. Whilst the feedback we have received from the overwhelming majority of our agent partners and visitors has been positive, on the occasions where there are issues, we will act quickly.
He added: “Our DNA includes a natural thirst for continuous improvement. We recognise there will be teething issues and improvements required to functionality and as a result we have created best in class infrastructure to act quickly.
“The portal industry scores poorly on reviews. I am determined that Boomin will break the mould and that out leaders will be visible, available, responsive and deliver on our promises. Our reviews over time will no doubt reflect this ambition. In the meantime, we will listen and act.”
Comments (21)
They must be getting very desperate I’ve had three calls today from one of their reps.
Boring, everyone was expecting Boomisery!
If I say nice things about the Boomin Bruce brothers do you think they will give me a load of free shares. These are the guys that right royally F’d up the industry and now they want to be friends and talk you through your mental breakdown, that they created.
Well done Boomin, Give me strength!
This really is a story that is forcing click bate rather than it being at the top of the issues the industry is facing. We all shout for the leaders of portals to be more visible, to take more responsibility, to care about what we say and to continuously look for ways to innovate and when they do we put them down for doing it. None of the portals have really positive reviews but try and find one single review of any other portal where the leader cares enough to personally respond. Well done Boomin. If they do the same thing for agents by being available then we will all benefit. The agents I am talking to all tell me they are the most accessible.
Well maybe Jason at OTM might get around to personally dealing with the reviews on Trustpilot .
Certainly been busy reaching out to agents across other mediums ,responding listening and actioning changes so Michael Bruce certainly hasn’t got the monopoly on accessibility.
Where. oh where, is the balance in this whole argument? No doubt it’s true that Boomin’s reviews leave a lot to be desired, but if this is the measure of value we’re choosing to use, it’s important to note that the other portals can hardly be labelled bastions of excellence. Zoopla boasts a less than majestic TrustPilot score of 3.7, Rightmove scores 3.5, and OTM languishes with a damning score of 1.8. Not one single mention of this so far… On top of that, out in the real world, you’d have to go a long, long way before you found an agent with anything positive to say about any of them. Boomin can simply be added to that rule of thumb. Boomin is still very young, still building its brand awareness and customer base. Zoopla has 2,547 TP reviews, RM has 578 reviews. Boomin has just 27, so far. It’s impossible to deny that Boomin has put itself in a situation where it bares all responsibility for delivering on its big promises, and that the Bruce Bros need to regain trust among professionals, but, for the of god, give them chance to have a good go at it. Aren’t you at all interested to see what these guys can do with their backs against the wall? At least Mr Bruce appears to be listening and keen to open conversations about customers’ bad experiences. It’s easy to boo and hiss and wise to view things with skepticism, but the miserly playground being created here hints at nothing but belligerence.
“Boo and hiss” yet the Daily Telegraph doesnt even acknowledge them as a player in the listings market .
Ttheir arrival with all guns blazing & perceived to be having no effect on the success or otherwise on the main protagonists RM.ZPL and OTM
Imagine spending all that money on TV advertisemnts .
Recruiting expensive marketing and proptech talent.
Creating an exciting new Platform with industry changing bells and whistles and you dont even resonate !
Reviews. Why would the industry take note of reviews all of a sudden when they didn’t believe all the positive PurpleBricks ones? You can’t have it both ways chaps and now suddenly give credibility to a few random Boomin ones that are probably fake.
It seems to me that agents are merely making trouble here. Who ever heard of agents posting reviews about a portal? How about never – I nearly choked on my coffee even thinking about this. There are better things to be spending time on. Just a wild thought, but perhaps the reviews are from clandestine Rightmove, Zoopla, or OTM reps
Who would the positive ones be from then ?
Perhaps other users or customers? But you are missing the point here, and as OllyM31 notes just below why are we focusing on these reviews all of a sudden when we didn’t believe all the positive reviews for PurpleBricks
So the positive ones could be users and customers but the negative ones could be from clandestine competitors ? Think its more likely they are all made up if I am honest.
Find it curious that the positive reviews seem to be following a familiar pattern.
Can someone – anyone at all – please explain why they would write a review to Trustpilot in preference to Google, where, incidentally, Boomin has a score of 3.3 from twenty reviews?
Makes a change responding to negative reviews on Trustpilot, thought they only did that on here
What did everyone expect?
From what i can see the site doesn’t do anything different from the other sites. It’s hard to use and looks awful.
“Bruce, who has personally responded to 23 of the Trustpilot reviews in recent weeks…”
Not true, PIE – all reviews prior to 28th April received a generic response from Boomin’.
Once Boomin’ claimed their TP profile, suddenly EIGHT 5* reviews were posted on 28th April and these were the first reviews that M.Bruce responded to.
How many EA would choose a supplier based on TP reviews??
Eight five star reviews in one day. Wow what are odds on that happening?
Portal Wars Questor The Telegraph’s tipster cast his eyes over the portals on the weekend in advance of On The Market update this week .It makes interesting reading.
Yet the only mention of “Boomin “was in reference to the housing market Not even considered as a rival in the mix.
Questor: Estate agents would love this Rightmove rival to triumph. Is it in with a chance?
“A buyer may look at three portals, but if they have to choose one it will probably be Rightmove or Zoopla; the same applies when agents decide which portals to use”.
“Questor is sceptical. In a BOOMING market such as today’s it may be worth an agent using all three portals. In a quieter one you will probably want to reduce the roster to one or two – and obviously you’ll drop the ones that produce the least business.”
So after all the TV adverts , a cutting edge PR team reaching out through social media They somehow missed the Telegraph They don’t even consider them in the mix as a rival
The Bruces must be beside themselves having spent all that money .Sporting must be fuming , nearly as disgruntled as when his Purple Power trailed in 8th of 12 at Yarmouth the other day & Larne losing in the final of The Peaky Blinders .
“Agents may be desperate for OnTheMarket to succeed, but in the end they will go where their customers are. Questor can’t see Rightmove losing its dominance. We retain our hold rating on that stock, but will steer clear reluctantly of OnTheMarket.”
To be honest a poorly reserched piece. Failed to take on board the recent managment changes at OTM andpast misatkes by former CEO .
Maybe they might regret that when OTM results appear this week.
, Giddyup
Property Ear, fully agree. How they can honestly expect agents to trust them after their previous antics I have no idea. Having been on the receiving end of the antics Purplebricks undertook against agents we will certainly not be trusting a portal with the same team behind it. They will not last long, which in some ways is a shame as it would be great to see a new portal bring Rightmove back into line – just not this team!!!
BOOMISERY, BOOMISERY, BOOMISERY – It has to be said, and rubbed in, this guy and his sidekicks tried to bust me, my team and thousands of other decent, professional and hard working estate agents. How can he possibly expect to succeed?