Bob Hale

Houston Associaton of Realtors

 

Glenn Kelman

Redfin

 

Agent ratings:  Truth, Consequences or Camouflage?

 

Houston Association of Realtors launched agent ratings after ONE year of evaluating proposal, and establishing business rules

 

Redfin doing with 100% of their agents

 

ZipRealty also doing, too

 

Rating system

Rating model:  single score + comments

Rating participating rules

Rating feedback rules

Rading abuse policy/actions

Rating display rules

Rating automation

 

Client expeirence rating

Videos

 

What does the consumer get?

How competent was the agent?

Did they know the marketplace?

Were they responsive to consumer inquiries?

Overall

 

Realtor gets the rating before it goes live

Able to rebut consumer response

 

Every night, NAR sends email to agent asking if they want their client to be surveyed

Options agent has:

1.  NO thanks

2.  Yes, but I want to keep results private

3.  Yes, I want to know what they think about me, and I want to share it with the world

 

Make it clear that HAR.com will not reuse, or abuse client email

 

Client Experience Rating

Cindy Burns

Click through to see consumer rating

Over 2,300 client ratings?

 

Google keyword search:

http://tr.im/HARatings

 

16,000 surveys emailed

4,000 displayed on HAR.com

 

Dan McCarver

Was hesitant at first, but says agent ratings have been the "best thing HAR has ever done for it's members!"

 

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Redfin reviews

 

Has grown traffic 400% this year, but revenues have only grown 40%

Recognized that questions about quality of agent service were constraining growth

One bad agent can undermine reputation of entire company

 

Redfin very conscious of their reputation

Conscious of brand

 

Want to build a better website than anyone else

Most important thing is customer service

Was easy when they had a few agents

 

In house chatter: we need to get out in the field more so people know what we can do

 

Survey:  February 6, 2006

 

The Ultimate Question:  December 2007

Would you recommend _________ to a friend?

 

Originally did with Zoomerang, can also do with Survey Monkey

 

If you send to people that did not close be prepared for different responses

 

Public reviews:  February 11, 2009

Via private system

Deal history

Survey results

 

Redfin:

Base salary:  $50K up to $100K

If Redfin has a bonus under 65% CEO's bonus canceled, too

 

Ultimate question:  0-10 point scale

 

Bonus: 

100% if 9 or 10 on client satisfaction

64% on 3.5 to 4 stars

50% on no response

0% on 3 stars or less

 

(# Promoters - # Detractors) / # Respondents

Redfin 2009 NPS: 

 

Pictures on the web made a BIG difference, but it was the reviews that made a real difference

 

Every client surveyed

Offer closed or rejected

 

Site users can see where the agent has experience

People find the bad review, and Redfin makes it easy for them to

 

If someone has five or six bad reviews, then hard for them to have a career at Redfin

 

See all of the positive reviews

See all of the negative reviews

Eliminated categories now

 

System was originally created by engineers, and launched by engineers

 

Average scores:  Redfin agents

Distribution of scores:

HIghlight local experience in Back Bay or Beacon Hill

Link to listing!

Used to show multiple agents to clients could see

 

We think this is the best agent for you

Say two other people that might work for you

 

Showing one shot conversion through the roof

If you show too many choices, people freeze

 

Do email on every bounced survey

 

What we learned

Let the scores speak for themselves

Clearly communicate survey system

     To clients

     To agents

Avoid Fraud

     Bounced email

     Unsigned offers

Manage performance

 

Redfin sample rating:  Hannah Driscoll

 

HAR sample ratings:  Site Keyword Search

 

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Discussion:

 

Realtor survey revealed that the #1 thing that consumers want from agents is "someone to negotiate for use"

 

Redfin does give agents the opportunity to respond

Their agents do respond to the bad ones, sometimes that wish they said more

 

Consumers question ratings which appear to be too positive

 

Right now Redfin is not taking new clients in Seattle?  Trying to manage demand

If an agent is too busy, sometimes hide them on the site, effectively take agents off the system

 

Question:  Is HAR planning on making agent rating system available to other MLS systems?

Yes