Estate agency rating site raterAgent has chalked up reviews for over 5,000 estate agent branches in its first six months.
The site launched in April as a challenger to allAgents.
Alongside its own checked reviews, the site is trialling a ‘Reviews from around the web’ feature on every branch page.
At present, this uses Google Reviews technology to pull in a selection of reviews of agent branches, with other sources being considered for 2016.
Mal McCallion, raterAgent’s CEO, said: “We’ve always been focused on helping the best agents to strengthen their fee rate negotiations, and convert more appraisals, by proving the quality of their service via genuine testimonials.
“This is a huge step forward for those agents that have some great Google Reviews – but also recognise that they may be missing out on some genuine marketing testimonials.
“That is because it’s not always as easy for clients that don’t have a Gmail account to leave a review on Google as it is on raterAgent.”
raterAgent is clear that those reviews appearing in the ‘Reviews from around the web’ section of the site haven’t been able to go through the same checking process that raterAgent conducts on its reviews.
McCallion said: “Reviews are an increasing part of an agent’s toolkit when winning business at good fees.
“raterAgent was created to be different, to engage with agents about their reviews rather than hide behind a screen.
“If any agent wants to get in touch with us about this trial initiative then we’d love to hear their feedback.”
raterAgent has also reported a 20% increase in traffic between September and October.
Comments (10)
Agents need a new review site about as much as they need a chocolate teapot.
Doesn’t it depend on what sort of Agent you are? The good, solid, local agent who has invested in their business, staff and community ought to be able to show why selling property should not be judged on fee alone.
The only sort of agent who ought to fear a proper and honest rating and ranking site is those agents who do a dis-service to our profession.
Find me a truly proper and honest ranking and review site. Strange how a number of agents have literally hundreds of reviews (more reviews than sales) when others have none. Or they have negative ones left by other agents. It’s all a con
How about this as a prime example why review sites are nothing but trouble.
We had a sale in hand. initially the seller was not buying on. pretty much at the point of exchange changed their minds. Got involved in a chain with 8 links. We warned them this was not a good idea as their buyer put a 6 week limit to complete.
They spoke to the agent they were buying off who assured them its not a problem a property can be completed in 6 weeks and the chain knew of the timescale.
We told our sellers getting in the chain will loose the buyer as with our experience this chain would not complete inside of 6 weeks. Seller told us we were being negative and that we should be more supportive.
Guess what 4 weeks into the sale one of the buyers changes their mind on the property they want and have to look for a new one. Guess what 6 weeks comes and go’s and no exchange / completion. Guess what our seller losses buyer!
Guess what, they are blaming us!!!
You cannot reason with some people, you try and help them. They pay for advice as well as marketing but if they choose to ignore what can you do!
(by the way lots of other twists this is the slimmed version!)
I am sure they will leave a review on some site,but will they give the facts. I bet not! Oh and if we want the right to reply to the review we have to pay the review site!!!!
Hi smile please – but this isn’t a ‘prime example why review sites are nothing but trouble’. It’s something that’s gone wrong and it +may+ be reported somewhere. But use a reliable and trustworthy review site, respond to any complaints accordingly and I bet most people will understand.
And raterAgent doesn’t charge to reply to reviews. Never has, never will. Sign up and you’ll see.
There is a part of the public that increasingly uses reviews for “confidence”. My concern is that we have an industry that people love to take pot at, sometimes just for the hell of it! All too often the agent is the piggy in the middle from bad tempered seller/buyer and is used as the fall guy etc. The well documented false reviews, either in favour of ones own company or anti competitor slag off is more damaging for a business than the true good reviews one gets. You only need one bad review, regardless of the number of good ones. If only he can guarantee no false reviews are posted…….. I doubt it.
Agreed, I seem to spend a lot of time responding to bad reviews left mainly by tenants who haven’t passed references and lost their ref money or buyers who put in ridiculously low offers and then get upset when someone, who offers more, gets the property. They seem to jump straight on the review sites with the sole objective of bad mouthing via a 3rd party site.
3rd party review sites for estate agents is like running a protection racket in my view.
And before people start making comparisons with trip advisor etc, that is a completely different thing (hotels and other businesses only have to satisfy the consumer-which is within their influence 100%)
As agents we have to satisfy our client 100% which often leaves the tenants and buyers feeling they have not had a good service because they did not get what they want (as it wasn’t in the landlord / sellers best interest)
If these ridiculous, leech sites persist in existing, at least only allow landlord and sellers to leave reviews, not unsuitable tenants and buyers.
Hi both. Fake reviews are one thing – we can’t find any other site, including TripAdvisor, that checks each and every review by hand, as raterAgent does, to weed out cheats – bad reviews are another.
If you think we’ve missed a fake, get in touch – you can email customer-service@rateragent.co.uk and we’ll respond within 24 hours, or use our on-site livechat.
If you get a bad one from a disgruntled tenant or buyer, that’s your ticket to your next landlord or seller. Answer it directly and honestly, explain that you have a duty to the landlord or vendor to protect their property / maximise their return and offer an email address to continue any further conversation. That’s it (you can’t have a conversation on raterAgent).
The readers that are landlords and sellers see you’re the best for their property. That 1-star review will make you money. And we down-weight reviews from those that have had least time spent with you (tenants, buyers) compared with those that you’ve worked with for longer (sellers, landlords) so that your Overall Rating more accurately reflects your services too.
The review culture is here to stay. raterAgent is a site that harnesses it for the good of everyone – including quality agents seeking quality clients who value service (and may even be willing to pay more for it, based on the ‘proof’ provided by their reviews).
This is a ridiculous business model. Staff turnover is so high in agency, transaction volumes so low and transaction cycles so long that many reviews will become hopelessly irrelevant very quickly whilst there will rarely be enough critical mass of reviews to provide a true representation of agents in a local town
Hi Tristramboris – consistency of service is surely one of the hallmarks of a good brand, something that outlasts staff turnover. That’s certainly something that our audience is looking for. As far as critical mass goes, that’s obviously a factor of time -and wider culture, as more and more people are (whether we like it or not) seeking to find out what others think about all products and services via reviews.