I've mentioned in the past about how reviews and recommendations are an important part of how Google Places decides where to rank your business in their listing. The trouble is, not everyone has a Google account and that makes it a hassle for them to leave a good Hotpot review.
You'll notice from quite a few agents out there that it seems to be more worth their time to leave a bad one!
You can of course watch out for customers with gmail.com or googlemail.com email addresses - they're the low hanging fruit, but it's also worth mentioning to customers that they can leave reviews on other websites too.
All of the following are currently being picked up by Google and shown on your Google Places listing:
- Thomson Local
- CheckaTrade (assuming you're a member)
- Qype
- Bview
- Yelp
- Yell Trusted Places
- TouchLocal
It's nice to get testimonials, but if you can push customers towards giving their feedback publically, so much the better! Perhaps try a postcard or letter to encourage it.
(It should go without saying that you will be found out if you leave your own fake reviews!)
We are a genuine, honest agency. We do make mistakes but try to resolve them where they happen.
However, online reviews seem an easy way for tenants to slate us without knowing the facts and before contacting us to resolve any issues. We would never encourage tenants to leave reviews, as once they find out their deposit is being affected to resolve a cleaning issue for exmaple, they will turn to the internet to destroy us!
I've seen several agents who have very poor reputations online and there is no doubting that it will affect their business as social search becomes more and more important.
However, take TripAdvisor as an example. It's the weight of reviews for a given hotel that you have to take into account.
I think that the public are increasingly savvy about spotting the occasional person with an axe to grind, and sifting their opinion out if the balance of view is in your favour.
The negative reviews don't need any encouragement - so if you don't encourage the positive ones, your online image might end up a bit one-sided.
Google does also let you respond to bad reviews now, which is a step in the right direction.
Martin
Anyway just for fun have a look at the reviews this agent has, which wholly support your suggestion not to write fake reviews:
http://www.google.co.uk/maps/place?cid=2698306254012132560&q=lettings+hove&gl=uk&view=feature&mcsrc=google_reviews&num=10&start=0&ved=0CGgQtQU&sa=X&ei=tEj-TO1c06iMB8_OvKEO
Being a local-ish agent, that was one of the ones that had I noticed.
I half wondered whether to allow your comment, as the agent are being given a bit of a rough ride. Who's to say that is isn't their competitors posting up the negative comments?
That said, it does illustrate perfectly the problem of not having staff that are clued up to encourage positive reviews, and also respond to negative ones.
So, on balance, I think it's the right thing to do to let your comment stand.
As a courtesy, I will let them know and give them right of reply though.
Martin