It’s the old adage, experience bad service and you tell ten friends, but experience good service and you tell only three. Factor in the rise of instant reviews to the masses via social media and search engines, and online ratings are more important than ever to businesses and consumers with the public making purchasing decisions on holidays, restaurants and all manner of products.
Everyone knows TripAdvisor – the UK's 43rd most popular website– has revolutionised the hospitality industry, but where does this leave the world of property?
Although I monitor and respond to our online reviews on allagents, google and facebook, even I am guilty at forgetting to leave a good review when I experience good service. My personal TripAdvisor account contains only scathing (I like to believe) reviews, when I have had numerous fantastic experiences at wonderful restaurants, lovely stays in hotels and great times at attractions that I have just forgotten to write about. Get angry about receiving bad service? Your first reaction is to let that person know exactly what you think online, so why can’t we change our behaviour and always remember to do this with good service too.
So why the big importance with letting agents?
It’s often obvious to leave a good review when you have been to a restaurant, but what about when your property manager gets that leaking tap fixed the week you report it? Or your boiler fixed that day? Or the negotiator goes out of their way to accommodate your viewings, staying on well after their working hours to meet with you? It may not seem like it, but a simple thank you email to thank that person for their extra care and time spent, or a quick review on a social media site can make all the difference to that persons day, week or even month! Yes, this is not voluntary work and they get paid to conduct these tasks, but they don’t get paid to go above and beyond what you expect. Property Management especially is often a very thankless job with hard working staff being in the middle between tenant and landlord. Bad feedback helps businesses change processes and consider areas of concern but it’s important we try not to just leave reviews when something bad happens, these places are to be used for praise too!
Where are the best places to leave a review?
There are the two big players of Facebook and Google reviews always available but taking into account the modern consumer's enthusiasm for reading online reviews before committing to a purchase, it comes as no surprise then that there are now online review sites covering estate and letting agents only.
There are two main sites dedicated to this– allAgents and raterAgent. AllAgents has been offering its core services to agents since 2011, while raterAgent launched in 2015. Here at CGT Lettings Ltd, we utilise allAgents of the two with over 50 '5-star' reviews from landlords and tenants since the start of 2017 alone! However, we always make sure to mention we welcome feedback on all platforms of allagents, facebook and google.
Company customer service incentives
It could take you two minutes to leave a glowing review but could win that person an award in their place of work. Many companies now offer ‘customer service’ incentives where thank you’s received or glowing reviews on websites can earn that member of staff an award and/or prizes. CGT Lettings runs a similar monthly competition to reward staff for going the extra mile, just remember you could be the reason that administrator who helped you move your moving in date so many times walks up on stage one day to collect a prize.
If you want to let us know about your experience with CGT lettings, log on to our facebook at: www.facebook.com/cgtlettings allagents at: www.allagents.co.uk/cgt-lettings/ or simply use your google account to leave a review by searching CGT Lettings in the google search bar and clicking ‘write a review’ on the right hand side.
Angharad Trueman – Operations Manager