Staying ahead of the competition is crucial for real estate agents in any market, and real estate agent reviews create an excellent after-sale line of communication with your clients in addition to being excellent real estate agent marketing tools. Giving clients the opportunity to comment on your skills, service and experience shows them that you appreciated their business, care about their opinion and want to improve the way you do business. Overall, it's a good first step in solidifying your long-term client relationships.

Some of our active ReachFactor agents have given us feedback on how to get reviews from clients. One example is Eugene Mills, who shared with us that gathering real estate testimonials is part of his closing process. And recently we profiled San Antonio REALTOR® Scott Myers, whose utilization of social media has helped him generate a staggering 81 real estate agent reviews.

However, most REALTORS® probably feel that they don't have the time to add another step to an already detailed and time-consuming process. Also, considering that a home sale can often be an emotional event for people, some agents might not want to open themselves up to negative feedback from an unhappy client.

So, what happens at the end of a sale when you receive a negative testimonial, especially if nothing could have been done in that situation to satisfy the unhappy buyer or seller? ReachFactor member Robert Diamond--who practices in the East Troy, WI area, and whose verified 5-star reviews give him high marks for service, communication, trustworthiness and professionalism—admits that not every client review is glowing. He says it has only happened to him twice in his career, and both times he followed the same procedure, which would work for just about any REALTOR® who's gathering testimonials and real estate agent reviews to market themselves online.

Responding to Negative Reviews

1. Read through the testimonial carefully.
2. Share the review with your manager or business partner to determine what, if anything, can be learned from it.
3. If constructive criticism can be gleaned from the testimonial, make adjustments and move on.

Mr. Diamond points out that "negative" feedback is a different thing entirely from "constructive" feedback, which might not be a glowing, positive review, but at least offers some tidbits to help an agent make adjustments and improvements to ensure as many flawless transactions down the road as possible.

So, don't be afraid of seeking client reviews for your real estate agent marketing. Following the above steps will ensure that no matter what happens, something positive will result.

Do you have any tips for gathering real estate agent reviews? Let us know in the comments section!

To view the original article, visit the ReachFactor blog.