The Power of Positivity

The level of trust survey respondents had in a business, however, depended in part on the number of positive reviews that were available. Thirty-two percent said they were willing to trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations if there were multiple reviews. The growing number of consumers who are not satisfied until they have read multiple reviews highlights the importance of convincing clients to make the effort to give an agent an online rating. The need for positive reviews, in turn, is reinforced by the high number of respondents who are more trusting of businesses with higher ratings. The need to believe that reviews are genuine indicates that consumers are savvy to the possibility of fake reviews versus genuine consumer feedback, and that they are alert to the possibility that some businesses may attempt to plant positive reviews.

This growth of trust in online reviews has led to many agents increasing their activity on review sites. The T3 study showed that nearly 39 percent of agents now consider online reviews a “very important” component of their digital strategy, and about 33 percent are approaching them as “relatively important.” Only about 3 percent dismiss online reviews as “not important.”

The number of agents surveyed by T3 who did not manage to pick up any leads from their online reviews could reflect the fact that simply having a presence online is not enough, and that agents have to work to convert their reviews – even overwhelmingly positive ones – into fresh leads. T3 posits that this “performance gap” exists either because agents don’t know how to turn their solid reviews into leads or because it sometimes takes time to build momentum. For example, an agent may need to have more of his or her clients put up reviews before new potential clients start paying attention.

Yelp is not necessarily real estate-oriented, but its flexible platform and local focus make it a useful tool for Realtors seeking feedback from their clients. Using Yelp does not come without some hitches. The site’s algorithms are set up in such a way that reviews with users – “Yelpers” – with only one or two reviews often don’t show up on a business’ profile. An agent may think he or she has a few dozen reviews, but upon checking might find that they are invisible to most casual viewers.