Home Builders: Do You Have a Reputation Management Strategy?

Online reputation management is something marketing people like to talk a lot about. It even has an acronym: ORM. But behind the jargon, there’s useful advice to make sure you’re getting the most out of your business’s online presence. And as a home builder, your online presence means a lot. New homes are aspirational, and they’re also costly, so home buyers are going to do their research before signing anything.

We already talked about the importance of having a website, but your online presence is far more than that. It’s the reviews people are leaving on New Home Source and Yelp, what people are saying about you on social media and, most importantly, what shows up when someone Googles your business. If you’ve got the budget and time, you can use fancy software to monitor all of this or you can follow a few common sense tips that can be performed by your marketing team or an administrative staff member.

Take the first step: Explore what’s out there

Reputation X has some in-depth tips on how to get a reputation management strategy started, but at the most basic level, you need to Google yourself (try “[business name] review”). Then, assess what you find. 

Are people leaving reviews that you didn’t realize were out there? You don’t want to leave them hanging, particularly if they’re negative (and remember, customers with a bad experience are far more likely to leave a review). Replying to reviews is important because research has shown that responding results in better ratings.

So, take stock of what’s out there, the good and the bad. If you find nothing, that’s not necessarily a good thing either, especially if you don’t have a website. That means target customers aren’t finding anything either.

Finally, make sure you also search on social media because you know it’s not just your Uncle Bob who takes to Facebook to complain.

Step 2: Claim or create appropriate online pages

Take control of your online reputation by starting a Facebook page and creating accounts on popular review sites. You could potentially create an account for lots of review sites, but save your time and focus on where your customers are already leaving reviews, or are likely to leave a review. For home builders, that’s probably New Home Source, Yelp, Angie’s List, your Google listing, Facebook and etc.

Be aware that you don’t need to have an Angie’s List or Yelp account for people to start leaving reviews on these platforms. When someone leaves a review, these sites will automatically create a page for your business. But as the business owner, you can claim the page, update it to make it look nice and start receiving notifications when anyone else leaves a review.

It’s similar for your Google listing as well. Google will automatically create a listing for your business based on what it can cull from the internet. That means it may not be accurate and there’s a good chance it won’t look great either. Solve this by creating a Google My Business account. Upload photos, customize what you share and make sure your contact information is correct. That way, if anyone searches your name, they’ll at the very least find your accurate listing.