Objective: Effectively collecting and using reviews to grow the brokerage

Buying and selling houses is a relationship business. Without word-of-mouth recommendations, clients turn to the next closest thing: reviews for the agent who will guide them through the process.

Reviews go a long way in building trust quickly. “Anything we can do to increase the perceived value of our services, the better off we’re going to be,” says Brad Whitehouse, broker/owner at RE/MAX Professionals in Littleton, Colorado.

The team knew reviews were powerful, but sourcing reviews takes additional time and legwork, sometimes distracting agents from focusing on client relationships. The process was awkward and time-consuming, especially since agents already juggle many other priorities.

“You have to constantly find new clients while serving existing clients,” says RE/MAX Professionals REALTOR® and Team Leader Landin Smith.

Even after gathering reviews, Brad admits they didn’t always put the reviews to good use.

“We really struggled with gathering reviews in a meaningful way so we could use them to build our business,” he says. They couldn’t quantify client sentiment, and review posts on social media were inconsistent.

Brad realized the brokerage had to support their agents with these processes in order to operate efficiently and grow the business.
“Agents are salespeople—they are really good at being in front of people. It’s the backend admin stuff that typically fails, and that backend stuff is critical to the success of the business.”
– Brad Whitehouse, Broker/Owner at RE/MAX Professionals

Solution: RateMyAgent makes collecting and posting reviews effortless

The perfect opportunity arrived with RateMyAgent Brokerage Pro. “When we saw an opportunity to create a system and workflow that allowed us to secure reviews efficiently, we jumped all over it,” Brad says.

RE/MAX Professionals could leverage RateMyAgent on behalf of its agents, relieving them of an additional burden while creating a seamless and consistent process.

“When there are 37 things that agents need to do after a closing, and each one of them takes three or four minutes, that’s a lot of time invested,” he explains. “We decided as a brokerage that we would support our agents by requesting reviews for them.”

Now, when a sale closes, the brokerage automatically sends clients a review request through RateMyAgent. Agents no longer need to think about, they can spend their time elsewhere.

Landin says RateMyAgent’s greatest value is its automatic distribution of new reviews to sites such as Realtor.com and individual agent Google Business pages. It also posts reviews, listings, sold properties and awards to social media, so agents don’t have to worry about various formatting from one channel to the next. RateMyAgent’s templates make social posts look great and remove any friction from the process.

“I love the fact that I don’t have to do anything, and my credibility is growing,” Landin says. “RateMyAgent is a great way to help me multiply my efforts.”

Brad agrees, adding that while they set the parameters, RateMyAgent now does the hard work. “The lift for us is light, but the impact is strong.” 

Outcome: More reviews win new clients with $47M in sales value

“We can see the tangible impact on our agents and their business,” Brad says, adding that the time investment is minimal.

Landin notes that on a per-agent basis, RateMyAgent pays for itself 20-40 times over after a single sale. “I don’t know how many tech products can get you a 20–40X return, but this is a powerful one with a wide reach that can scale your business in ways I don’t think other products can.”

In a market where an online search for local REALTORS® might yield tens of thousands of results, Landin believes improving an agent’s ranking is the tool’s biggest benefit. Since adopting RateMyAgent, RE/MAX Professionals agents have won 9 awards and 32 agent recognition badges—such as Trusted Agent and Top 20 Agents—all of which attract more attention to the brokerage and improve their credibility.

With a new way to amplify their efforts, the brokerage can continue to grow while providing the high levels of service that clients expect.