Online... your reviews ARE your reputation... (or as close to it as you can get)...  Their words are definitely worth more than yours.

This is something I tell my clients to do - but am really terrible at doing myself.

As a copywriter who writes a lot of agent bios, I find the reviews /testimonials to be extremely helpful. When an agent is a bit hesitant to tell me what is special about their service, I often find what I need in their reviews.

Thanks, Bill.  Very important.  If you look up a business on Google you will find a review area to right of the listing.  You can ask previous clients to write a few words and give you a rating.  Good natured people will do that for you.

Very true!  Thanks for the reminder.

I find it easy to send a link from Zillow to clients for a review.  I need to do more with Yelp and other online review sites.  Thanks for the reminder!

under review...

Thanks for the encouragement - I need to do a better job of this. I try to ask all buyers and sellers and all seem happy to do a review, but getting it done is another matter.

Jeff

You said it all...

I'd consider consumer reviews the 2nd best thing to actual referrals provided directly to their friends and family.  The words of someone who has been there and done the exact thing a consumer is searching for carries a lot of weight.

I really need to work on this also, Bill, but I haven't had good luck to date. The majority of my customers are over a certain age and some don't even use a computer. Those who do don't want to put their name on the internet for privacy reasons which I can understand as I won't do so either. It's a dilemma...

I always read reviews and I think I'm pretty good at spotting both the fake kind and the asshat kind when I'm shopping, staying somewhere new etc. And I don't ask often enough. In fact I really should sit down and reach out to a few past folks and ask for a few new ones to keep them fresh, it's been months since I did that.  The ones you don't ask for and get are awesome though.

I don't ask often enough for reviews, and I do think they are important to have.

Absolute truth!!!

In advertising, I expect facts to be stretched, supposed benefits and results overglorified.  Yeah, I'm basically a hardcore skeptic.  

It's such a challenge to get them to post on the independent site. My company has a great system of collecting them immediately from clients at closing and they go on Testimonial Tree that can then be shared on social media. However, sites like Google, they have to login and do it themselves instead of quick jotting it out for the company to upload. 

Reviews are everything and i learned something yesterday as well. SOme people dont write online reviews, but one former client gave her review to everyone at the beaut salon, enough that a lady called me to list her house based on that... It is different but very much the same

The sooner we ask, the better too. Although, frankly, I don't pay much heed to online reviews - I do however, ask for client testimonials and references before hiring a compnay. 

I just sent out requests a few days ago.  Looking forward to see how they review me.   Always 5 stars before.   Need to look at other sites that I have ignored. Thanks for the reminder,