More people want to know what customers say about agents
Yesterday, the Associated Press (US) wrote a piece about web sites that offer real estate agent rankings… in the US. Included in the article were HomeGain.com, AgentRank.com, IncredibleAgents.com —- and a newbie called ZipRealty.com.
(PS: HomeGain, IncredibleAgents and ZipRealty, why haven’t you blogged about the affect of having the AP write such a great piece? It must’ve improved your traffic, no?)
Read the article here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifrUljyap-FNlzdIz9d5hnAiO39AD94JIJT81
My response to this very interesting article
Below are some snippets I’ve pulled from the AP article; I find the ones in bold especially interesting, given the What-Customers-Say.com approach. That is, like AgentRank, we rank agents based on detailed criteria about their performance as real estate agents; unlike IncredibleAgents, we do not include in that criteria such variables/attributes as whether or not the agent has a photo or not (that’s about self-marketing, not about performing well as an agent).
The attributes we’re measuring against are spread out over about a dozen questions we ask the reviewers, including questions regarding time on market, personal relationship building and proven knowledge of the location and how to buy/sell the right property for the customer. Check out an agent profile to see how we indicate whether or not an agent fails to meet, meets or exceed that criteria.
Unlike AgentRank, we already accept unsolicited reviews. And, heads up, AgentRank, that makes a lot of agents very, very nervous. 
Also, LaMattery, the top-ranked agent on IncredibleAgents, says he has yet to receive a single referral from the site. That’s sooooo tragic, given that we track clicks to “contact this agent” on our profile pages, and we’ve seen that most of the agents who appear on the first page of the “sort by number of reviews” have had from 5 to 25+ clicks on their contact links. Also, one of our top agents has been very transparent with the work that What-Customers-Say.com is doing for her business — she’s met with at least 5 leads already, with at least 3 of those leads turning into signed clients. That’s right, she’s received at least 3 signed clients (not just leads!) from our site. And she’s not even the top-ranked agent!!!
Finally, agents are definitely nervous about the possibility of releasing their professional reputations for the masses to publicly reshape. How would you feel if your brand were handed over to all the people you’ve worked with in the past? I mean, for the average person, there are always going to be people who try to take you down.
As for whether that’s cause enough for agents to be nervous — that remains to be seen. Especially given that people who facilitate sites like these (e.g., the folks at What-Customers-Say.com) tend to not want to piss off or destroy the reputations of all those agents. Because we’re not hatin’ on agents. We’re just believers in the voice of the customer.
What follows are the parts of the article I found most interesting
…a more scientific approach: ranking agents on criteria such as years of experience, how many sales they’ve closed and the number of positive testimonials from past clients.
Can [user feedback-based rankings] trump the referral from a trusted relative or friend with first-hand experience?
[These sites] function as repositories of agent profile pages.
Their rating schemes vary widely, and lack of active participation by agents can affect the quality of their results.
[AgentRank] bakes all kinds of variables into an agent’s profile — recent sales history, client reviews, experience, average days homes stay on market, among others — and assigns them secret values that are then pumped through an algorithm that distills everything down to a rank between one and 10, with 10 being the best.
What better way of ranking agents than by the number of positive reviews from past clients?
Currently, agents solicit testimonials from their clients to place on [AgentRank]. But that will change by next spring, when the site begins accepting unsolicited reviews”
A search of agents in Los Angeles on AgentRank turned up only 15, which is a precious few.
“People are very quick to hire an agent based on a single referral, but the power of these reviews are the fact that you get to see a pattern of success for an agent,” [Chief Executive Officer of AgentRank.com Marc] Dugger says. “There are some agents that have upward of 15 to 20 reviews on the site, and that, in my opinion, would instill great confidence in that agent.”
The scoring [on IncredibleAgents] is an average of 16 attributes, among these: “Office Logo,” “Photo” and “Welcome Message.” These seem arbitrary at best, when one considers what makes a good real estate agent.
Even with his top gun ranking [on IncredibleAgents, where he has over 70 reviews], La Mattery says he has yet to see any client referrals from the site.
Another site whose rankings might not instill great confidence is HomeGain. Agents are ranked with one to five stars based entirely on consumer feedback. However, agents post the client testimonials of their own choosing, and to get a five-star ranking, all they need to do is post five.
One sign [this] approach may be on the right track — [chief executive of ZipRealty.com] Lashinsky says: “Agents are nervous.”
~jw
November 23, 2008 at 7:42 pm |
FYI: Mr. La Mattery has been on our site for around 3 weeks. His first review was on Nov. 4th, 2008. We just launched a new version of the site with scoring and ranking and he has promoted his own profile to get ranked up there quickly since that time. He also has 7 reviews…not 70. I don’t know where the 70 number came from, but it looks like a typo.
Also, there is a difference between a click referral and an actual real estate referral. One is simple and trackable. His profile has been viewed by 387 visitors in 3 weeks. To ask for a real estate referral in 3 weeks time is asking a little too much.
Keep plugging away with your site. It looks like you are trying to do something good in Canada.
November 24, 2008 at 4:18 pm |
Hi Damon,
I’m sure all is well with Mr. La Mattery and that he’s receiving plenty of contacts. I’m just responding to what the Associated Press wrote. Definitely not trying to say anything negative about your group —- I’ve been to your site a few times, and I think it’s cool. And, of course, we’re not exactly competitors, given the different areas we serve.
As for click referrals and actual real estate referrals —- trust me, I know.
I’d love for every click to turn into a client for these top agents. Thankfully, we have had a few “actual” referrals, so that’s been really cool.
Keep in touch. I hope that, as all of these agent rating sites really start to catch on (thanks to the media, in large part), we might be able to work together in some way.
~jw