Sites like tripadvisor.com, yelp.com and zillow.com have changed the way people expect to find information about businesses and people. Marketing messages are not cutting through the clutter like they used to. It's time for agents - like every other business that markets itself - to give customers what they want: honest reviews from real customers/clients.

Why else should you care about customer reviews? Because they'll help you!

• Your profile will only appear after you've received 1 review, so you need to get at least one to show up on this site
• Your ratings & the number of reviews you have will help you get ranked organically on our search results page
• Potential customers - local and people relocating - are looking for real, unbiased testimonials to see which agent is right for them

80% of homebuyers start the process of shopping for a home online. That means that only 20% of people won't use the Internet to find a home and/or a real estate agent. Are you okay with fighting to win a few of that 20%... or would you prefer to grab for the low-hanging fruit?

So... I guess our question is actually this: How can you grow your business without marketing yourself online? Online is where clients will go first. Online is where they already are. Where are you?

There are 2 parts to What-Customers-Say.com. First, there's the obvious: online word of mouth/referrals help good agents get more leads. This is great for newer agents or those who'd rather hire another agent than turn away a new client.

The second part is less obvious and designed for agents with a decade or more of experience; that's the online reputation management part. Sure, you may not need more leads from our site (congratulations on your success, by the way), but you should be aware of the fact that sites like What-Customers-Say.com are making it imperative that you have an online 'reviewed' presence. Your competitors will have one. Hey, they already do!

Let's be clear: There's no way to absolutely prevent bogus reviews. Online, it's fairly easy for people to make stuff up.

But you're dealing with an online reputation management company here, right? So you can probably trust that we want to keep the reviews we allow on our site as unbiased & reliable as possible... or else we're not exactly managing our own reputation very well, are we? We've got a few cards up our sleeves to help with that:

• Lengthy review process - It takes a long time to rate an agent on this site. Plain and simple. We intentionally avoided a rating system with just one starred rating and a comment box because that sort of system is very easy to fake. We're making it too time-consuming for even the extremely bored saboteurs out there to tarnish your reputation.
• No agents reviewing agents - When you're signed in as an agent, you can't leave a review for a different agent. So, to post a fraudulent review, an agent has to go through the process of signing out and then creating a new account. While this may not deter all fraudulent reviewers, it will help show intention to sabotage, which will make it easier for us to pull down the bad review and ban the agent from the site.
• Hide your reviews - Before you get too excited, let us explain! If you get a review that you think is either fraudulent or is attacking you in a personal way, you can sign in to your account and hide the review from your profile page. Just click "report this review", and the review in question will disappear from your page - along with the associated scores - for our team to assess.

Of course, because our mission is to let people out there know What Customers Say, we take every attempt to pull down a review very seriously. We do not want to pull down legitimate reviews. So, before you consider hiding or reporting a legit review that you just don't like, think about the implications of doing so.

Your profile will only appear after you've received 1 review. So stop reading these FAQs, and get some recent clients to rate you! (Tip: Sign in to your account to find a templated email to send to your clients to request reviews. It works!)

Negative feedback happens. Check out our blog for some recent statistics about the positive effects of even negative reviews on customer trust. That said, you should continue to police your reviews and let us know if any reviews that include defamatory language are posted - and we'll review and/or pull them down.

The best thing you can do is get your best clients to leave reviews immediately. Set the tone for your page early on - start managing that reputation before it manages you!

Because we started this site to help customers find the best agents for their needs. We're customer advocates first and foremost.

Well, you don't have to - but you may find that you want to as time goes by and leads go to top-rated agents on this site.

If you're considering signing up, great! Real Estate 2.0 is a very real thing (the US even has a conference dedicated to it). It's great for customers, and it's great for agents who take customer service and their job seriously.

• You'll be part of a one-stop shop for people who are looking for an agent but don't want to deal with unreliable marketing messaging
• You'll get the benefits of SEO, PPC and marketing efforts from experts who can drive people to this site - and you won't have to manage any of it
• You'll get quality testimonials like you've never seen before
• You'll benefit from comprehensive data about your business and how well your marketing efforts are actually works
• And you'll get all the extras along the way

We were hoping you'd ask that...! We have a lot of offerings available to help you tell potential customers about your services and even get ranked higher on the first page of our search results.

Click here to see a full page of information about how you can make the most of all the great reviews that your current and previous clients are waiting & willing to give.

No - we're proudly independent, thank you. We are, however, customer advocates with years of creating best-in-class customer experiences under our belts. We're marketers, consultants, business school grads, expert communicators and - most importantly - people who believe in the customer... and the Web. Plus, we really like real estate - it's fascinating.

Oh, sure! Don't worry - we've got you covered. We provide Premium and Elite Members with modifiable emails, modifiable letters and even postcards to hand out to your clients to solicit reviews. It's all included with your membership fees. (We've got lots of perks we'll throw in along the way, which is why you might not find this info in the catalogue of services.)

Give us a call: (250) 590-6814. We've got tech support on standby 24/7 (except Christmas and New Year's Eve). For non-technical questions, check out our contact information here