Yesterday a coaching Client called and was wildly upset. A current client of his had just "Googled" the Agent and found a very negative review posted on www.intellignetagents.com. It was a very NEGATIVE review. Luckily he had enough rapport with his client that he was able to explain the negative review and keep his client. Just think how many potential clients saw the review and never contacted him. By the way he also claims the review details are very inaccurate. This posting had been there for over a year and this Agent had no idea.
This Agent often checks his web presence. The problem is he goes by a shorter version of his name so he never thought to check his full name with results. Let me explain. He uses Bob (not his real name) for all of his marketing, branding etc. He had never thought to check "Robert Smith" and the only way this bad review would appear in a Google search was if he specifically Googled "Robert Smith Realtor"
He called me frantic because this particular review was posted on a website that he did not register to but in doing some research we discovered the site was protected under "Public Information Act." He has a state Real Estate license which are public records. This site is also opinion based therefore they will not remove the bad review. Had he known about it he could at least have responded to the review. The only way to combate the review is by having this Agent contact some of his satisfied clients and have them post their own reviews thereby driving the bad review further out of sight and "hiding" this one negative one.
The moral of this story is. Check the web not only for standard search terms but also all variation of your name and key words that could be associated with you.
We are recommend that you take extra care to monitor and manage your image.
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