The new agency review site, raterAgent, has taken its website out of beta mode and officially launches today, saying it will put an end to “rampant fakery”.
The launch seems to have entered a world of dirty tricks.
The site says it has checked every single one of hundreds of reviews and “caught out dozens of agents trying to inflate their own credibility or ruin that of a competitor”.
Promising a sea-change in what is, and what is not, acceptable behaviour from review and ratings websites in the property industry, raterAgent now starts its ‘True Review’ campaign.
It says: “For any agency wanting to increase its instruction volumes and protect fee rates, genuine reviews from an independently-verified source are now a vital part of their marketing mix. raterAgent checks all reviews for genuineness and stops those that it finds are fakes from being published.”
Chief executive Mal McCallion said there was a “gulf in class” between the checking undertaken by his site and those of his competitors.
He said: “All you need for Google Reviews is an anonymous Google account – they don’t check if the review of you is false, they want to maximise the take-up of Google Plus, so that they can know more about what to advertise to consumers.”
He claimed: “allAgents still won’t confirm what percentage of reviews it manually checks, if any reviews at all.”
raterAgent launched in beta mode in January and now says it has signed 300 branches, and that via a crowdfunding campaign it was more than 170% over-subscribed.
Agents signed up to the new service include Marsh & Parsons, and Keatons.
“every single one of hundreds of reviews”……not attracting many reviews then!
Perhaps what they have found is that that the public aren’t really interested in reviewing their agent on a 3rd party site and after they have “dealt with” all the dirty tricks and dodgy reviews there wont be many on the site at all.
You only have to check the more established rating sites to see that many agents in your area wont have been reviewed by any of their customers on the site….many years after it’s launch.
Fact is, most satisfied customers will thank their agent direct and that agent will put those “reviews” on their own website.
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Hi Wilko, Mal here. For a business as young as we are, we’re happy about the volume that we’re driving through. We’re focused on growth, of course, and obsessed with proving the quality of estate agency wherever it can be found.
I think that your argument about ‘more established review sites’ not having reviews of agents is more to do with how those sites work than the willingness of people to leave reviews. If it’s hard to leave them then people won’t. It’s easy on raterAgent. And we’re trustworthy, so people can feel happier leaving their thoughts with us.
Finally, reviews on your own website have value, for sure, but very few people believe they’re the unvarnished truth about your service. That’s why independent review sites exist in other markets, because people want to read them and to trust them. They can with raterAgent.
Thanks for your comment, it’s always good to get feedback and I’d be happy to discuss anything on mal@rateragent.co.uk. Have a great weekend, Mal
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“Fact is, most satisfied customers will thank their agent direct and that agent will put those “reviews” on their own website”
SPOT ON!!! Completely agree….. the Vino, cards and choccies say it all…. plus the person who walks in the office and says “X, Y or Z said I should call you as you were great when you sold their house”…..
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“The site says it has checked every single one of hundreds of reviews and “caught out dozens of agents trying to inflate their own credibility or ruin that of a competitor”.”
So… NAME AND SHAME, then!
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Hi PeeBee – they’re on a final warning and if they carry on then we will! Cheers, Mal
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Oh, well… that’s gonna sort them out without a shadow of a doubt!
On your website, you state: “Choosing the wrong agent can mean you lose thousands of pounds in low valuations or poor negotiations”
And tapping a lying, cheating one on the wristypoo and telling them not to get caught again is going to make them the ‘right’ Agent HOW, exactly, Mr McCallion…?
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