Harcourts have partnered with RateMyAgent to create benefits for their agents by increasing the volume and reach of their online reviews.
The Announcement:
Harcourts Australia today announced a partnership with leading online agent marketing platform, RateMyAgent.
The partnership sees RateMyAgent assuming responsibility for prompting sellers and buyers to review Harcourts agents, and publishing reviews to the agency’s Google My Business profile as well as their own office and agents sites, and the international brand website.
Chief Operating Officer of Harcourts Australia, Lisa Pennell, explains that both RateMyAgent and Google reviews play a central role in decision making for today’s seller.
“RateMyAgent has emerged as a key decision-making tool for savvy sellers; in fact, 82 per cent of properties sold in Australia during the last financial year were sold by agents with an active RateMyAgent profile,” Ms Pennell said.
“We know our agents love RateMyAgent and want to use the platform. However we do know the other major online source of confirmation for sellers is Google Reviews which is vital for brand trust, local SEO, and client feedback,” Ms Pennell said.
“Up until now, our agents had to choose one or the other. But now, they can have both without any effort. Our plan at Harcourts is to free up our agents to focus on the people-to-people activities: listing and negotiating.
“By partnering with RateMyAgent, we’re creating efficiency for our agents in their profiling activities at a time when reputation and online profile are the two most important assets for any agent.”
The partnership is global, and aligns with RateMyAgent’s international expansion strategy. While the product dominates the Australian real estate market and is growing rapidly in the United States and New Zealand, where Harcourts have a significant network, this partnership allows RateMyAgent to create a footprint in South Africa where Harcourts is a market leading brand.
“Agents use our data to build their digital profile to market themselves on ratemyagent.com or social media, while sellers use our data to compare agents and find an agent or agency to sell their property,” stated RateMyAgent CEO, Mr Michael Davey.
“RateMyAgent is the dominant agent review platform In Australia, collecting over 220,000 reviews in FY21. RateMyAgent also operates in New Zealand, where particularly strong growth has been experienced in Auckland. Over in the United States, we have connected with over 820,000 agents and collected over 200,000 reviews. “
“We are excited for this mutually beneficial partnership, which has the potential to unlock significant upside for all stakeholders.” he said.
Source: Harcourts