How to get real estate testimonials

Malaysians love to check online reviews before making a purchase – anything from booking a hotel to buying a new phone. The same goes for the real estate business in Malaysia. Client testimonials are vital for a business to thrive, Shiv Singh the Global Head of Digital Marketing Transformation at Visa Inc. says, “The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates customers.”

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Hearing how past clients are satisfied working with you will give those who are visiting your sites an idea of what to expect from your business. However, not everyone is willing to put in the time and effort to write a testimonial. Here are some useful tips on how to secure positive feedback from clients.

1. Tools to Help Get Real Estate Testimonials

People will be more inclined to leave you a testimonial when they realise they don’t have to write a long story. These tools make everyone’s lives easier.

• Typeform – It helps you to send out customised surveys to your clients.
• SurveyMonkey –You can create surveys, poll clients and leads on their home search, and request sales and marketing preferences from current clients.
• Boast – It lets your clients go beyond the written word and record short video testimonials.

2. How to Write Real Estate Testimonials

You can choose what information to include (or exclude) and the presentation format but you can’t change the wordings. So, it is important to consider how to package your client testimonials in the most attractive way.

• Add multimedia elements to make testimonials more compelling.

Images and videos elevate your testimonials as it helps people to associate faces and voices to words. Be respectful that not everyone is comfortable to have their faces on your sites but try to include images of your clients with the homes they have bought or sold.

• Try different formats and styles.

People who visit your testimonial page are just going to scan through the information to get the gist of it. So, ensure that you help them to ingest as much as possible quickly. Some ways to do this are:

• Use bullet points
• Try a Q&A structure
• Keep sentences simple but powerful
• Use bold or italic headlines
• Experiment with different fonts but no more than two types or it becomes messy
• Use a video testimonial like Tracy McLoughlin of Pacific Union International Christie’s Great Estates

• Include positive feedback in testimonials … but know when to stop.

Always remember: less is more. Consider the attention span of your readers – they are not likely to spend more than a minute to skim through your testimonials before heading to your property listings. The main point of a real estate client testimonial is to promote your business so don’t bore people with lengthy stories.

3. Questions to Ask Clients for Real Estate Testimonials

Some clients are willing to write you a testimonial but they may not know the right things to say. Help them along with these questions.

• “Why did you hire me to represent your home sale/purchase?”

Potential clients want to know what your past clients thought of you – specifically, your background in real estate, qualifications, personality, and niche sales speciality (if you have one). Having positive reviews about you and your work helps people to trust you.

• “What led to your decision to buy or sell your home?”

When potential clients are browsing your site, seeing other people’s personal situations and motivations, helps them to identify with your client base and get a clearer picture of your business.

• “What could I have done better to help you buy or sell?”

It may not be pleasant to hear, but negative feedback is important so you can improve your sales and marketing, and ultimately your bottom line. It’s okay not to share this publicly but constructive criticism will help you to be a better real estate agent.

• “What did I do best to help your home sale or search?”

Emphasise the thing that your client most enjoyed or appreciated about working with you. It could be something big, like you helped them to get a lower buying price for their home or something small, like how you braved hours of traffic jam to make it to an appointment with them.

• “Would you ultimately recommend my business to others?”

Malaysians are generally a helpful bunch but sometimes, unless you ask point-blank if they would suggest your business to others, it’s not the first thing on their minds. Assuming you had a good working relationship with your clients, don’t hesitate to ask and get them to explain exactly why they would. Potential clients are interested to know the motivation behind their answer.

4. Places to Publish Real Estate Testimonials

Share the testimonials you have collected about your real estate business to Malaysia and the world with these options.

• Dedicate an entire page on your real estate website to testimonials.

Remember that generally, all real estate agents in Malaysia offer similar services which mean clients are not paying for your unique services, they’re paying for your unique results. Testimonials are proof of the results you can deliver. Create a dedicated page just for client testimonials on your site. Use this link to lead people to view all your client testimonials in one place just like how Fidelity Real Estate St. George Associate Broker Odete Cesar has done.

• Incorporate your real estate testimonials into your email marketing

Develop an email campaign that highlights your happy clients’ testimonials. You can utilise real estate CRMs to automate this process and schedule emails to targeted groups of people. The email should include a short extract of the testimonial, a photo of the happy client with their property and an invitation to view the full testimonial on your website.

• Schedule social media posts featuring your testimonials

A marketing automation tool can help you to schedule updates on your social media accounts. Use attractive headlines like “What a pleasure to help the Lim family to purchase their dream home!” And then provide the link to the full testimonial. You can also request satisfied clients to leave you feedback on your social media accounts like Facebook and Google+. These reviews on social media not only boost your credibility but also increase your website’s search engine ranking.

Stay tuned with the realestatemy.com/blog for more up-to-date tips and guides for real estate marketing professionals.