New recommendations for those who rate Estate Agents:

February 16, 2016

Of recent times, the review space in the UK Estate/ Letting Agency industry has heated up somewhat especially with the launch of raterAgent led by Malcolm McCallion impacting on the industry monopoly that AllAgents appeared to have. More and more are entering this field now, I was recently contacted by Feefo who’s approach is different in that they work directly with agents to email out only to their genuine customers thus guaranteeing that reviews are 100% genuine, a kind of invitation only concept rather than a ‘public one’.

An update sent out from raterAgent makes for an interesting read below including reference to the new guidance from the CMA towards review website:

Mal McCallion from raterAgent wrote:

“The real topic on all conversations in this segment of the industry is the validity of reviews and who / what is reviewing agents – Are they real or fake, are they done by competitors or genuine consumers who experiences to share.”

“The Government, through the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), has today strengthened its guidance on review websites.”

Crucially, it requires that review sites;

  • Must subject both negative and positive reviews to rigorous checks for fakes
  • Must have strong procedures in place to remove these fakes
  • Must make it clear to site users why their review might not be published
  • Must clearly disclose any commercial relationships they have with the businesses listed
  • Must not give businesses the right to block reviews they do not like.

rateragent complies with all of these already – and always has done.

“If you suspect that the review site you use does not, you may find that all of your reviews will be treated as fake and removed by the CMA.”

 

“Don’t risk your future reviews by recommending a site that doesn’t comply with Government guidelines. Start building your reputation with a review partner that was built on transparency and trustworthiness – rateragent.”

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

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