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Written by rosalind renshaw

A new estate agency review site is to launch next month into what is rapidly becoming a crowded market.

Concentrating only on London, estate agents that have already registered for a three-month free trial include Douglas & Gordon, Benham & Reeves, and Winkworth.

Like others, MeetMyAgent claims it is “set to change the face of the estate agent industry” and “disprove the generally poor opinion of estate agents held by the public”, whilst supplying leads to agents.

The site allows home owners to research and request valuations with local estate agents, whom they have chosen based on reviews and recommendations from previous clients.

Sellers and landlords can search for listed estate agents serving a particular area or postcode, read reviews written by past clients and request valuations directly through the site.

The site says that every review is moderated by the MeetMyAgent team before being published, and must adhere to strict quality guidelines.

The site says it only allows reviews from sellers and landlords, and gives agents the right to respond publicly to comments.

Ivor Dickinson, managing director of Douglas & Gordon, said: “We have worked hard to ensure that D&G has become a name synonymous with excellent customer service and innovation, which is why we were proud to be the first major independent to join MeetMyAgent.

“The website stands only to benefit those agents who are doing a good job for their clients, particularly in an industry which has such a poor reputation.”

Agents are rated by branch, which the site says benefits agencies both small and large. The site’s rating system excludes feedback older than six months. This ensures that ratings reflect current performance and rewards agents who are consistent or have made improvements to their service.

Liya Fateh, director of the site, said: “In an industry perceived to be fraught with bad practice, MeetMyAgent provides agents with a platform to challenge that perception, receive honest feedback and generate quality valuation leads through recommendations.”

The site is to launch in London next month after its current pilot in south-west London. After a three-month free trial, it will cost £25 per branch per month.

Comments

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    Ms Fateh: On reflection, 'dismissive' was possibly too striong a word to use - I thetrefore retract it and apologise. Nothing personal was meant or inferred by its use - I was trying to say that your answers, whilst comprehensive, did not give me the confidence that what is being said by people who, lets face it are your prospective bill-payers, was being considered as constructive criticism - and more like a swipe at what is no doubt hard work on your and others parts! It is, after all, human nature to believe that we are perfect until proven otherwise! ;o)

    You are I would suggest talking a very good fight - and that is where in my opinion you must come away from, and start believing that the posters are saying what they are saying for a purpose, not just to pooh-pooh your work.

    There is an old saying that an objection is simply a plea for information and reassurance. Personally I reckon that is merde de taureau - however if there was not some genuine interest in what you are doing, no-one would post.

    Speaking as an ex-Agent, anything which would give me a competitive edge over my competition was gratefully accepted and used to death!

    BUT - I needed to be convinced that something WOULD give me that edge before I would adopt it - because if it didn't then I lost ground. See what I mean?

    Which brings me to a query, if I may. You say "We want to do the right thing by our clients...". That is an admirable statement - and one which, IF you get it right, will reward you well. Just WHO ARE these clients, though? You seem to chop and change from Agent to vendor/Landlord, to buyer or tenant whenever 'customer', 'client', or other buzz-words (THANK YOU for not adopting 'end-user' in any of your responses - my personal pet hate...! ) - so who exactly do you consider to be your customer?

    Lastly - and going back to good old Google and its strengths and weaknesses...

    You highlight the fact that the closer to the goal you get before you shoot, the easier it is to score. In other words, IF I was to type in 'meet my agen' - then I would be hard-pushed I reckon to get any more than ONE search result.

    I was wrong. Eighty-six MILLION possible results, apparently - and it took Google one tenth of a second to come up with them all! Thankfully, apart from the paid subs, YOUR 'meet the agen' came up as top search. There are, however, MASSES of very close search results...

    You use RM and Zoopla as examples of searches - and how the less letters you type the less chance of coming up with the goods you have. Now, whilst that might qualify as a 'No sh!t, Sherlock...' type of argument, it brought me to trying something.

    AARDAARK. Second word in the dictionary. Pretty distinctive in any case - and to my knowledge there is no other word which the first three letters are 'a', 'a' and 'r', so, like 'meet my agen', you would expect to get close, if not precisely, where you want to be. Nope. Not even bottom of Page 1. Or 2. Or Page 3 for that matter.

    I gave up on Page 6. These aardvarks SERIOUSLY need seo!

    Try Googling it for yourself...

    Have a pleasant evening ;o)

    • 08 December 2011 19:50 PM
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    @PeeBee

    I apologise if you feel like I was being dismissive, that was not my intention. I have tried to take the time to listen and respond to all the comments made on this forum with thoughtful answers to justify my beliefs. You made assertions regarding the words that we target, and I responded giving reasons and statistics to validate why we have chosen a different strategy. Similarly, @wardy suggested using a code system for reviews and I responded giving justification as to why we did not choose that route.

    As in any commercial business, we stand to profit if we perform well and deliver what we set out to achieve for our clients. Our strategy has to be concerned with the best way to facilitate that, meaning that we must focus on targeting relevant keywords – until we become well known our name, to some extent, isn’t. However, once there is consumer awareness and traffic increases on the site we would also expect a search on our name, or a part of it, to show us at the top of the results. RightMove shows up for 1st page for ‘righ’ but not ‘rig’, and Zoopla for ‘zoop’ not ‘zoo’, but this has little to do with their SEO.

    We want to do the right thing by our clients and are using a strategy developed with feedback from agents, consumers and SEO experts, however we are always open to suggestions and can be contacted via info@meetmyagent.co.uk.

    • 08 December 2011 17:26 PM
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    Ms Fateh:

    "As you said, Google gives you a “squillion possible references” and the words are quite frequently used. However, if you type “meet my a” then we are the first ones in the suggestion box"

    Yes, you are first choice in the suggestion box. Not everyone, however, has this facility - and I for one don't use it often.

    Googling 'meet my a' should STILL get you to number one, should it not? Such a pity then that it fails to do so. You are, in fact, listed as number EIGHT down the page - TENTH place if you take into account the two sponsored ads in pole and second.

    You are pushed down the league table by such uber-relevant listings as Black Eyed Peas - and the Mayor of Leicester City!!; two movies and a TV programme; some ship singer's blogpage (better seo than you?) - and, of course... a dating website!

    That's not good - IS IT?

    The following is MY opinion. I mean it in a CONSTRUCTIVE way - although in order to get the message over, as so far you seem relatively dismissive (which in fairness is understandable - this is your 'baby'...) of any comments made, I am being forthright - so please take it the way it is intended:

    I believe that by trying to be 'clever'; 'inventive'; 'relevant' or whatever other synonym you care to put forward, you have blown it big-time and potentially risk any slim chance of this site catching on and achieving what YOU want and expect from it (the REAL purpose and not the "...our main focus – to help consumers find estate agents..." cr@p - MAKING MONEY.

    Be honest with yourselves and us, the public... lose the ego... act on what people are telling you (whether or not you include me in that list or not I don't care - plenty of others are telling you what you NEED to be told) - and THEN you have a half-chance.

    Listen to Agents. THEY are your path to profit.

    Yours, with respect,

    PeeBee

    • 08 December 2011 14:54 PM
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    @PeBo

    Just replying on behalf of Ashley. No, neither he nor I are ex-employees of Allagents.

    We operate in the same space as Allagents, just like Zoopla, findaproperty, etc operate in the same space as RightMove. I don’t believe that new businesses in any industry would restrict themselves from entering the market purely because there is competition - Allagents are in the process of setting up a property portal, which may seem incomprehensible given that there are so many existing portals with great brand presence. You may have similar ideals as existing companies, but it’s how you achieve this that sets you apart and ultimately helps you succeed.

    I realise that the comments made on this forum are extensive to say the least, so briefly we differ from Allagents in the following ways:

    - MeetMyAgent is aimed specifically at homeowners who are looking to use an estate agent in the sale or rental of their property and so, unlike other websites, we only publish reviews from sellers and landlords.

    - Consumers can request valuations directly through the site, something we have seen other models do not currently do.

    - Agents are rated on a branch level allowing consumers to get a real indication of how well their local estate agent performs, as there can often be varying levels of service between offices within the same company. This also improves competitiveness within the industry as it gives independent agents a platform where they compete with chains on a local level, rather than as a brand, whilst allowing corporates to monitor individual branch performance.

    - Ratings are dynamic and exclude feedback older than 6 months. Being a service industry, especially one with such a high staff turnover, this gives both consumers and agents a true reflection of current branch performance and rewards agents that have improved their service as well as those that are consistent.

    - We as a company are transparent about who we are and what we do. We provide real customer support to all our listed agents - we are always contactable via phone or email and have a target turnaround of less than 24 hours to respond to queries.

    • 08 December 2011 12:44 PM
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    @PeeBee

    I’m not quite sure why our website not showing up when someone types “meet my” means that our business is not viable. As you said, Google gives you a “squillion possible references” and the words are quite frequently used. However, if you type “meet my a” then we are the first ones in the suggestion box. I’m sure if someone wanted to find us they would type our full name, or at least enough letters until we start showing up as a suggestion. Nevertheless, this will never be the primary way that people search for estate agents, and that is our main focus – to help consumers find estate agents.

    • 08 December 2011 12:03 PM
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    Ms Fateh. "We did a great deal of research to ensure that we targeted relevant, high traffic keywords in order to deliver the traffic that estate agents listed on the site can and should expect."

    Good for you. You can't beat a bit of research when it comes to something that you will be stuck with (unlike dating sites where I would imagine you drool over a very old and fuzzy picture and firmly believe that now out of prison, 'Jake The Axe' WILL be a model husband and donate all his spare cash to feeding stray cats like he says he will on his profile...).

    I sincerely hope that you and your keywords are very happy together! ;o)

    What you did NOT apparently do, is research the viability of such an enterprise as that which you have embarked upon. This is not a fault you should blame yourself for - well, actually, yes it is - but it seems to affect a great deal of people these days who think that they can bake the next 'Hovis' here on t'internet, so don't feel too bad about it...

    Okay - here's the thing. Forget 'keywords'; 'relevant traffic' etc. Someone, someday might get to hear about you and decide to type you in without going through the 'keyword' malarkey. they know what your name is, and, having stopped laughing at it, want to find out more.

    So - I Googled you. Actually, I stopped at "MEET MY" - it is the first two words in your site name, therfore I think that should be just a little bit relevant and produce results. After all - Google not only offers to finish what you are typing - but it gives you seventy three squillion possible references as well to trawl through

    Sorry - but I got bored after scanning the first TEN PAGES for your website so I gave up on that one...

    So - I closed it up; lost the space. EVEN MORE relevant?

    Well - at least this time you made middle of Page 3.

    Congratulations. Now THAT will get you far more admirers than your website ever will... just ask Linda Lusardi.

    (You might need to Google her to catch my drift - I'm going back a while and I have a suspicion you are a relative young 'un. You won't need to look hard - my guess is she will come up top of Page 1...)

    • 08 December 2011 11:27 AM
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    @ ashley alexander

    Are you not just an ex employee of allagents.co.uk??
    I am stunned that its taken you over a year to come up with the same business model as this site.

    Every thing that you have said here, including the "transparency" stuff is all off their site.

    Yet you only looked at yelp and a few dating sites!!

    I think I will look at yelp and a few dating sites over the next year and come up with an idea to develop a property portal exactly like rightmoves!

    • 08 December 2011 00:39 AM
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    @PeeBee

    We did a great deal of research to ensure that we targeted relevant, high traffic keywords in order to deliver the traffic that estate agents listed on the site can and should expect.

    The phrase “rate an estate agent” would be used by people specifically looking to review or rate estate agents, rather than those searching for an estate agent to use in the sale or rental of their property.

    Using Google’s Keyword Tool you will also see that for exact searches:

    rate an estate agent – too low search volume to quantify
    rate estate agents – 46 searches per month

    We have instead chosen to target a number of general search terms related to the function/nature of the site, as well as ‘local’ search terms aimed at providing local estate agents with relevant traffic from local consumers. I have listed some of them below with the monthly search volumes and our current ranking, and we would expect our rankings only to increase over time as we continue forward with our SEO strategy:

    (General search terms)

    estate agents london – 14,800 searches per month – page 10 (NB this is newly targeted by us)
    estate agents uk – 3,600 searches per month – page 2
    find estate agents – 170 searches per month – page 1
    best estate agents – 1000 searches per month – page 1
    local estate agents – 1000 searches per month – page 1
    estate agent reviews – 470 searches per month – page 1

    (Local search terms – a few examples)

    estate agents fulham – 480 searches per month – page 4
    estate agents putney – 480 searches per month – page 4
    estate agents hammersmith – 260 searches per month – page 2

    N.B. - All the above figures are for ‘exact matches’ – as you mentioned, changing the order of words can change ranking. The ‘broad matches’ have much higher search volumes but aren’t necessarily useful trying to work out your SEO strategy e.g. when choosing whether to target ‘estate agent reviews’ (470 searches) or ‘review estate agents’ (73 searches), it’s clear from the figures that we should target the first specifically, which also indirectly helps us with the second.

    With regards to the name, you can completely blame me for that... but I believe that love is contagious :)

    • 07 December 2011 23:25 PM
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    Ashley Alexander: "...and even dating sites (@PeeBee, don't scoff - some of them are multi-million pound models!)..."

    With respect, Sir - when YOUR dating-cum-Agent-review site is a multi-million pound model, I will retract my scoff with pleasure.

    I will also bare my hintend* in Fenwicks window to boot...

    * hintend - when you Google it, you will find it top slot of page 1. Now THAT'S SEO for you!! ;o)

    • 07 December 2011 14:27 PM
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    At least sites like this keep the people who work at them off the dole

    Burglar

    • 07 December 2011 12:44 PM
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    Dear All,

    I am Ashley Alexander, co-Director of MeetMyAgent. I hope everyone is well and thank you for all your comments - feedback helps improve businesses and service, and we are no exception!

    Please forgive me if my responses are sporadic, I am currently travelling and will return on Saturday but I have my laptop and am still working! Liya has responded to the large majority of questions and I thought i would give my input as a former manager within an estate agency so you can see where we are coming from.

    @Puzzled Tunbridge Wells -

    Agents do of course drive reviews to a certain extent, and currently this is the only way the site is getting reviews. However, as Liya mentioned in an earlier comment, once the site is promoted to the public their will be more balance in opinion - firstly because an agent's "unhappy" customers will also hear about the site and may decide to leave their comments, and secondly because it creates a cycle of users finding agents through the site and then leaving reviews.

    Many agents place testimonials on their websites, but they are ineffective as consumers will believe that they have chosen to only post their best reviews. However, if your customers had posted their experience on an independent platform such as ours, it would have a much more influential effect - it shows you are willing to be open and potentially be subjected to criticism, so receiving mainly positive reviews only reflects the quality of service you provide. That's a powerful message to the public!

    I would agree that the model is different to TripAdvisor, but it is easiest to draw comparisons to. We have taken what we consider to be the best of tried-and-tested consumer website models, from TripAdvisor to Yelp to the various property portals and even dating sites (@PeeBee, don't scoff - some of them are multi-million pound models!), and designed a site which based on the feedback we have received is intuitive for consumers to use.

    Similar to you, I knew who the local estate agents in my area were because, like you, I was an estate agent myself so it's our job to know who operates in our locality. However, that doesn’t necessarily apply to the locals who live in the area and also homeowners who don’t reside in the area (BTL property owners, etc). In addition, even if they do know who the local estate agents are by name they won’t necessarily know who is the best to use. I found that most of my valuations came as a result of word of mouth recommendation, although I still received a good number via internet searches, property portals and due to our board presence.

    Consumers will no doubt be influenced by board presence, but as you know most vendors will tend to call in 3 or more agents to value their home. Most agents will say something similar in the valuation and largely market via the same portals, so for the owner there isn’t much to differentiate them by apart from board presence, fees and valuation figure - a great deal of vendors end up choosing the lowest fee and highest valuation, but are they the right agent to instruct?

    I know from experience this isn't always true, as when I was an agent we had a rival who undercut us on fees and gave high vals. They couldn't sustain their business with the low fee levels (they were quoting and ended up misappropriating holding deposits and using rent collections to pay their overheads. That is an extreme example as to what could go wrong, but after the downturn in 2008 many agents have been struggling and unfortunately we heard of a few cases like this in the industry. This is what sparked the concept of MeetMyAgent, a place where homeowners can get an idea of how well agents serve their customers before they instruct them and where good agents have a platform to shout about the service they provide.

    I just wanted to sign off with an example of the community we are trying to create, where owners are happy to refer their agent and help others. Yesterday we were emailed by a vendor in East London who had come across our site and asked us to list their agent so that they could recommend them. This is exactly what we are trying to replicate: an environment where customer focused agents can be seen as such, rather than being tarnished with the same brush as the few rogue agents who ruin our industry's reputation. This is clearly not for everyone - I have met agents who are very enthused while others are completely terrified. We have also had a number of sign ups from agents searching for sites like ours, and as long as there are agents like that who exist I know that all the hard work and effort put into MeetMyAgent was worthwhile.

    Regards,
    Ashley

    • 07 December 2011 12:26 PM
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    Ms Fateh: "...we employ external companies to develop the website and manage our SEO."

    May I suggest you enquire as to what they are doing.

    Googling 'estate agent reviews' got you on page 1, fourth from top. Typing 'review estate agents' moved you up to third spot.

    HOWEVER, when inputing 'rate an estate agent', instead I find nothing for you in the first six pages, at which point I got bored. PISTONHEADS made it onto page 4!!

    Do you find that worrying? I would.

    You see... most people type 'rate', I would suggest.

    Other than that - whose idea was the flamin' site name? Sounds like a dating site for lovelorn spies if you ask me...

    • 06 December 2011 17:52 PM
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    Liya: "We believe that there is no point in having 'bad' agents on the site when consumers won't use them, so instead we allow agents to list voluntarily and prove why they consider themselves to be the best in the area by being transparent about the feedback they receive from their customers."

    So, the reviews on the site will be generated by agents asking customers who they are sure are happy with the service they received to post a review on your site.

    And, this is transparent in what way?

    Very little difference between that and agents posting customers' reviews on their own web site.

    A site like alltheagents (or whatever it is called) that lists all agents surely has more credibiity.

    • 06 December 2011 15:46 PM
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    Liya - one other thing - the reviews all seem to be written in reasonable English.

    Every review site, or forum, or anywhere on the internet where people post comments in their own words has text that is littered with spelling and grammatical errors.

    • 06 December 2011 15:41 PM
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    Liya - I have no axe to grind - but I do think the basic business model is flawed.

    How many people when they are looking to SELL a house - think 'I'll go on the internet to find an agent'.

    The searches you describe in Google are done by people looking to buy. I dream of moving to the West Country - I regularly tap 'Estate Agents Padstow' into Google. But, when I want an agent to sell my house, a whole raft of things comes into play - who I've used before, how many boards up, who is selling houses very local to me ... etc. The one thing I don't do is type 'Estate Agents Tunbridge Wells' into Google - I know the agents in the town I live in.

    And, as for making a judgement on who to invite to pitch for the business, I would take any reviews on any web site with a large pinch of salt - particularly positive ones.

    I wish you well with it though - but your business model is not like TripAdvisor's.

    • 06 December 2011 15:35 PM
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    @wardy -
    Having had a look at software you mentioned I see a number immediate problems with incorporating this or something similar in order to facilitate a code system:

    1) The data is provided by agents, therefore if agents do not upload their weekly data then we do not get any information. As the site says, "We can only provide reports on the information available to us, so if some agents are not updating their online presence with new information, then we cannot reflect that in our reports."

    2) The information is based on the number of properties the agent markets online and also weekly sold reports, and does not provide individual customer information - otherwise an agent's competitors would be able to contact them, and I'm sure this would also infringe data protection laws. You would require explicit consent from customers to allow their data to be shared in this way. as well as consent to be contacted, and this would require agent's to acquire signed consent forms which again is reliant on the agent.

    3) Monitoring this across thousands of branches across London and eventually the UK... would need some kind of automated system to generate codes and send to customers, but again this would be reliant on gaining consent as in point 2.

    • 06 December 2011 15:21 PM
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    Liya,
    There would be various ways of getting around the agents that would only give codes to happy vendors. You would need the vendor on board from the time of instruction. This would require you to contact them directly and not rely on the agent to hand the code out. Time on the market/instructed on date is easy to cross reference with a tool like vizzy homes.

    • 06 December 2011 11:52 AM
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    Liya - I will watch with interest, I looked at setting up a similar site last year.....I guess you are hoping that it generates revenue other than the fees from estate agents. I dont think it will be a success but i hope it is, Good Luck

    • 06 December 2011 11:00 AM
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    @omg, by "payroll" it was implied that it meant interested parties (the original comment was whether "Darren Brown" was on our payroll). Myself and Ashley Alexander co-own the business and we employ external companies to develop the website and manage our SEO, so these are all the interested parties - my comment was simply to state that I do not believe any one of these parties would pose as a landlord as the site can be judged on its own merits.

    I have been working on the site for a year and 4 months but this includes the time from conception of the idea to market research to development of the business model and, finally, of the website itself, which was built from scratch. We launched a pilot of the site within south-west London - Hammersmith, Fulham, Putney and Shepherd's Bush - in August with 20 agent branches covering those areas. The pilot allowed us to work through any technical issues on the site and also to build our online presence. We have in the past few weeks listed another 40 branches, most of whom have not yet generated reviews. We received 12 valuation leads through our website in the month of November, mainly going to those agents who participated in the initial pilot.

    • 05 December 2011 21:20 PM
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    Sorry let me get this straight, you have got both yourself and your business partner on the payroll. You also have a developer and an seo expert , you have been working I. He site for a year and you only have about 35 reviews???

    You stated earlier that already had a "number of valuations" from the site. Can you clarify how many valuations that you have had???

    • 05 December 2011 19:03 PM
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    @where is darren brown???

    I'm always happy to respond, although I would like to reiterate that I am in no way connected to Darren Brown since your question seems to also be directed at him.

    We currently have around 35 published reviews - remember the site is brand new, and many agents have only just listed and therefore haven't had time to generate reviews.

    Of those, there are only a handful of 3- and 4-star reviews, but this is to be expected as there isn't yet public awareness of the site so the only people who leave reviews are those that the agents themselves have asked (and you wouldn't ask your unhappy customers to leave reviews, would you?). However, with increased awareness you can expect that the range of opinions will be more balanced.

    Furthermore, as only agents who list can be reviewed, there is no scope for pee-d off consumers (for lack of a better word) to come and berate their agents - this is unlike AllAgents and other sites, where literally 'all' agents are listed even if they don't want to be. MeetMyAgent doesn't aim to be a forum in that sense, instead we want to be where consumers can 'meet' customer-focused agents, and we believe that those are the type of agents who will list. We believe that there is no point in having 'bad' agents on the site when consumers won't use them, so instead we allow agents to list voluntarily and prove why they consider themselves to be the best in the area by being transparent about the feedback they receive from their customers.

    • 05 December 2011 17:44 PM
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    @bilko. I have tried getting a hold of Allagents last week about ther transparent agent scheme. Is it true that are closing the scheme to agents that haven't joined by the end of the year?

    • 05 December 2011 17:21 PM
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    @everyone I saw this site a couple a weeks ago on a google search so when I saw an article on them i thought i'd comment. I do not know liya or anyone who operates this site. I came here to impart my opinion, biased yes because i like the site and what these young people are trying to achieve.

    @Liya I am sorry if my comments have caused an issue for you and your site, that was not my intention. I have looked at your site and think it has a lot going for it.

    @editor, if my comments have caused an issue then you have my permission to take them down, its not fair to them when I have nothing to do with them!

    • 05 December 2011 17:09 PM
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    Where is darren brown now?? He seems to have went quite when we have real questions to ask him!!!

    What a lot of crap this site is. The only reviews that will get written on it will be from the agents themselves.

    Perhaps liya could answer a couple of questions for us.

    1. How many reviews do you have on the site right now?
    2. How many of those reviews are nagative.

    It will be interesting if we get a response from either of them.

    • 05 December 2011 17:01 PM
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    "...we employ a web development team and SEO company - all of whom I would think/hope would not be stupid enough to pull a stunt like that."

    Then your trust is far greater than your knowledge...

    • 05 December 2011 16:25 PM
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    @wardy -
    There is a site called agenttracker that generates codes to give to vendors, but I feel that agents a) would wait till after the process and then only give us the info if the customer was happy and b) would generate codes for themselves and post fake reviews. This would almost be more difficult to moderate as we as a site could never know/guarantee that code request was made at point of valuation, and it'd be harder to disprove agents who are reviewing themselves because they have a code meaning it 'should' be genuine.

    I do agree that if the client actually requested a valuation through the site then this system may be workable, but not all clients will do so - some will pick up the phone and call you, and other happy clients of yours may not have originally found you through the site. We need consistency with regards to how and who is able to submit a review on the site, and for all these reasons we believe the code system was not the best way forward.

    • 05 December 2011 15:25 PM
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    @syco -

    1) Only a few reviews, but this is not a bad thing for agents signing up because they all start off on an even footing. We are encouraging agents to join now and ask their customers to leave reviews so that they have a profile on the site when it starts getting promoted to the public.

    2) We don't target things phrases like "foxtons reviews" - partly because the type of consumer searching specifically for Foxtons already has a perception of them. Most of all, by us targeting such phrases it lessens our impartiality as it is promoting them - but what about one branch estate agent Joe Bloggs? In addition, if I am only concerned about my local Foxtons, using sites like AllAgents would mean I would have to go through the entire list of reviews to maybe find one review about my local branch, which is not enough information to make a decision on.

    We therefore target local keywords, and actually the volume of searches on Google is higher for these than for "foxtons reviews" - across London, each area has an average search volume of 3,500 so by targeting "estate agents hammersmith", "estate agents fulham", etc. we drive more relevant traffic to the site.

    3) I don't think D&G etc necessarily endorse us over other sites, but I believe that they have decided to list because they like the ethos of the company, and also they like us as people. At least, I hope so lol.

    • 05 December 2011 15:15 PM
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    Don’t get me wrong here. Crap agents should be exposed; I think we all agree with that.
    Here is an idea.
    At the point of a valuation, agent says to prospective vendor that they have signed up to a scheme where you will be asked to leave a review by an independent company. You (the review site) then contact vendor at the time of instruction and give them a unique code that they can use to leave the review on completion/withdrawal of the property thus insuring reviews are made by bona fide clients only.
    I would sign up to that.

    • 05 December 2011 15:09 PM
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    @wardy - I really don't know who Darren Brown is unfortunately, and it doesn't seem like EAToday moderates these comments before publishing. My payroll consists of myself and my business partner, we employ a web development team and SEO company - all of whom I would think/hope would not be stupid enough to pull a stunt like that. I've spent a year working on this site and I believe in what we stand for, and all I can ask is for you to judge me on my own conduct and responses.

    This does of course highlight the problem of fake reviews, and we try and combat this in a number of ways. We collect information about where the reviews are coming from and publish them on a time delay, allowing us to spot patterns of suspicous activity. Our system also looks at the way in which reviews are written, identifying keywords and phrases which are used multiple times, and as the number of reviews increases so does the dataset which we cross-check reviews against. This means that if today a fake review is published, any attempt to publish a similar review would flag up both the new review and the initial review and may prompt us to take the review down.

    Agents can alert us of a suspicious review themselves through their admin section. At this point the review will be publicly marked and we will investigate it further, although we may not take down the review if we cannot find any evidence of the review being fraudulent. However, all agents have a right to reply and we would encourage them to use this to demonstrate to other users that you are proactive in your customer service, as well as highlight concerns about the review.

    Unfortunately, as is the nature of such sites, one or two fake reviews may still filter through. In addition, problems can sometimes arise and a client may have genuine criticism to give. However, as demonstrated by the TripAdvisor model and numerous other review sites, the majority of reviews are genuine and consumers look at trends, disregarding reviews that seem out of sync with the consensus.

    The best remedy to these problems is of course to encourage the satisfied majority of your customers to leave reviews on the site, to ensure that the number of genuine, happy client reviews far outstrips the small number of fake and/or negative reviews. Since we exclude feedback older than six months from agents' ratings, this also acts as a self-correcting mechanism against fake reviews.

    • 05 December 2011 14:48 PM
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    I believe review are an important factor when it comes to selecting an agent and I wish you all the best.

    Meetmyagent.co.Uk though Is a mirror image of Allagents.co.Uk and i am not sure if there is a Market for both.

    I have spoken in great depths to Martin at Allagents.co.Uk and I am impressed at their set up.

    all of their investors are multi millionaires ( one I was told is exceptionally wealthy) and they are planning on launching a million pound marketing campaign in march once they have completed their beta testing of their portal and other features, all of which I believe will be free for their "transparent agents" .

    I think next year will be an interesting year for the estate agent industry

    • 05 December 2011 14:34 PM
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    My point is this.

    Is darren brown a real member of the public or is he on your payroll? We will never know. Will the bad review discrediting my company be from a vendor or from the twit who just lost an instruction to us.
    Either way it proves my point.

    • 05 December 2011 14:21 PM
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    @wardy the previous comment attributed to me was unfortunately not my own (I spent the morning writing my own response to everyone's comments!) and I have asked the editor to take it down. However, thanks to Darren Brown anyway, I can only say that you must have had a real bad property experience in the past lol. Whatever it is, it's nice to know that people understand the ethos that the site was built on :)

    • 05 December 2011 14:16 PM
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    @Darren Brown. You would get more respect liya if you stopped writing about yourself or at the very least declared yourself.


    A landlord that's just giving his opinion.... Come on do you think we are all stupid here!

    You of all people should be promoting good practice

    • 05 December 2011 14:10 PM
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    Wow, what a response already! Thank you everyone for the feedback, I would just like to take a little time and respond to some of the comments made.

    @Puzzled at Tunbridge Wells, unfortunately the decision of which estate agent to use can be difficult, especially when there are so many operating within the same area whose websites and marketing will by and large be very similar. The number of boards up, while a good indication of the agents that are most active in the area, is not necessarily a reflection of the service that the homeowner received or whether they received the best possible price for their property. In addition, when people buy a property they tend to stay there for a number of years, and with estate agencies having such a high staff turnover this can often mean that the member(s) of staff you dealt with no longer work there. This is one of the reasons why our rating system is dynamic, giving both consumers and agents an indication of current branch performance.

    The majority of agents would say that word of mouth recommendation is their biggest generator of business. However, that information often doesn’t travel much further than family, friends and colleagues. Word of mouth can also be detrimental as when people have a bad experience they will tell all their friends, and that business is already lost. On the other hand, if those friends then saw a selection of reviews on the site showing that the estate agent generally performs well and deals with negative feedback in a positive way, that may change their perception of that agent and result in the agent securing business that they may not otherwise have won. The website therefore aims to use the internet to amplify the effects of word of mouth recommendation by transforming it into what we like to call “Word-of-Web”.

    Consumer awareness is key, and with the increasing trend of people using the internet to search for everything from holidays to energy providers to estate agents, we have spent the last few months since our pilot building a strong online presence, and rank on the first page of Google for keywords such as “find estate agents”, “best estate agents” and “estate agent reviews”. We have also begun targeting local keywords such as “estate agents ”, which will enable us to direct highly relevant traffic to estate agents within those areas. In January we will also begin our consumer advertising campaign to also further this end.

    As @hmmm says, I agree that people are likely to search out forums to voice their grievances, but this will always be a minority of customers. Sites such as TripAdvisor demonstrate, however, that happy customers do show their loyalty and leave reviews – again, this is down to consumer awareness of the site to which, unfortunately for the estate agent industry, there currently isn’t a comparable. While other sites such as AllAgents etc do exist, there is no public brand awareness and this is what we are aiming to create.

    In addition, as agents list voluntarily they will also be motivated to ask their customers to leave reviews and, while some customers won’t, overall the positive will outweigh any negative if you are providing a good service. However, constructive critical feedback not only helps agents improve but also gives consumers an idea of what could go wrong, and therefore how to mitigate the issue. Our site aims to empower both agents and consumers, and will help make property transactions a pleasant experience for all involved.

    @Anonymous Coward, you suggested creating your own testimonials page on Google, but without some form of moderation (especially with regards to reviews by buyers and tenants) this can lead to inappropriate and/or irrelevant content being published about agents. Google’s rating system is also a simple average of all reviews, which can be an uphill struggle to improve if you were to receive negative feedback.

    @tradingstandards, agent’s pay a monthly subscription fee to promote their feedback to other consumers, and it is up to them to embrace the site and use it as a transparent tool for their business. The subscription fee itself allows agents to receive unlimited leads (that is what our site is for!) and for us to give technical and customer support to the estate agents listed. We have already had a number of valuation requests submitted through our site for agents in our launch areas, and believe this is an indication of the potential power of listing with us.

    Our independence is demonstrated by the fact that we charge all agents the same fee regardless of size, therefore we have no incentive to manipulate the feedback published on the site. We do not endorse or have any affiliation with the agents mentioned in the article, however we are greatly appreciative of their support of us as a new business. We believe that agents who are confident in their services and committed to excellence will decide to list on our site, and these agents are only an example of those who have already listed.

    Before I sign off, I would just like to make a final point which was only briefly touched upon in the article. Rating on branch level improves competitiveness within the industry as it gives independent agents a platform where they compete with chains on a local level rather than as a brand, whilst allowing corporates to monitor individual branch performance. Of course, branch ratings also ensure that consumers get a real indication of how well their local estate agent performs, as there can often be varying levels of service between offices within the same company. The site therefore aims to benefit both consumers and agents by creating a community where customer focused agents can showcase their services and consumer can choose and instruct their agent with confidence.

    You can find out more about myself, my business partner Ashley and why we set up the site at http://www.meetmyagent.co.uk/aboutus. We are always happy to answer queries and can be contacted via the website or email info@meetmyagent.co.uk.

    Best wishes,

    Liya

    • 05 December 2011 14:08 PM
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    Oh the irony.....
    Darren brown. So you are a member of the public giving opinions on review sites are you. Not only that but comparing them to the other review site that had an editorial on this site not a few days ago. Then enters liya fateh. Aparently they dont know each other but couldnt agree more.
    Do you think the readers of this site are stupid? The pair of you have just proved how flawed this concept is. A fake reviewer, reviewing a review website. You can not make this stuff up.

    • 05 December 2011 14:00 PM
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    @Mr Coward @Syco (had to abbreviate no offence!)

    They really do need to advertise and get themselves out there, will be interested to see how they go about that. They have clearly just got started and piloted and in my opinion done well to attract some of the names they have, I think its down to the quality of the site @syco i think its better than ok, just feels so much better than allagents.co.uk, that site just has too much going on, banners flashing up everywhere just generally not user friendly. It may be the name, just caught my eye, for me as a consumer summed up their intention, for me to meet my local agent, and also to help other meet them to enjoy the experience i did. i think thats quite clever.

    Another gripe about allagents is their reviews come from all angles buyers and tenants who are going to have complete different objectives to the owner. I want to see how well the agent rented my flat, not hear about the boiler breaking down or the tenant moaning about the agents mini! meetmyagent seem focused on the relevant party, the client. Also I could be looking for an agent in chelsea and there will be reviews from people in farham (with the chains) I want to know how the local branch to me is doing not someones experience in farnham!

    If i was asked by my agent to leave a review I would, most people use the net anyway, its no hassle to pop a review on. they are getting reviews so people are beginning to use it early stages albeit. If they are giving a free trial and you are a decent agent just don't see why you wouldn't give them a crack? If it don't work you make a judgement call after the trial i imagine?!

    I understand as a business you must get your monies worth, i do hope they have a good strategy to get out there and drive traffic, because as a consumer i think it is a winning site and has the ingredients to really help both the consumer and the agents for me that can only be a good thing surely?!

    • 05 December 2011 12:58 PM
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    But thats precisely the problem - getting that happy person to take the time to make the review!

    • 05 December 2011 12:35 PM
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    The site looks ok, however there is not that many reviews there.

    I do also agree for the site to work, people have to find it.

    I just just typed "foxtons reviews" into google and up came Allagents.co.uk with all the stars next to it. Google have even picked up the word votes as well. Very powerful and eye catching.

    That's how I would search for an agent if I wanted to find out about them.
    Review sites are not really designed for agents to pick and choose which one to endorse. I mean imagine getting slaughtered on an established review site, yet your trying to endorse a site that's just fresh out of a box.

    It's a bit like a small property portal trying to compete with right move.

    Google has a powerful review section, however they only allow users with gmail accounts and they dont have the ability for agents to respond.If you want my opinion, agents should accept established sites like Allagents.co.uk. Just like google and facebook, everything is free on it. Including their property portal.

    • 05 December 2011 12:34 PM
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    Darren - I agree, but the main problem I have with it is either they spend a fortune getting the public to know who they are or they take years at it instead. They will not be able to spend the money and I don't have years. I just think better routes to achieve the same thing are available.

    My other one at the moment is web designers trying to get me to have a website that I can change with news articles and stuff myself.Who is ever going to look at my website for specific content just from me that week. If you are going to do it, use Facebook or Twitter and then embed those into your site.

    Cheaper, achieves the same result and your customers are already using it for other things.

    It's like having your own app! A buyer is looking in my area - will they download the Rightmove app, or one from every single agent?

    Yet every agent in my area either has one or is considering it at huge cost - mental!

    • 05 December 2011 12:33 PM
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    @Anonymous Coward (Love the name btw!) I, like you use alot of review sites to check products and services before i buy/use them, hence why this particular site took my eye, because it concerns my most valuable assets!

    When I am searching for a hotel on trip advisor for example I look at the general trend, whether it is swinging to good or bad. One bad review is not going to influence my decision. In fact, people need a balance of opinion to make a comfortable decision because nothing is perfect.

    Lets face it, you are always going to get that one sticky customer, but if 90% of the time you are keeping them happy, the public will generally instruct you. Who gets 100% satisfaction ratings?!

    I think some of you agents are missing a trick here by being closed minded and also underestimating the ability of the public to make balanced decisions. We have to make decisions on who to instruct really based on what you tell us in our homes, this gives us an alternative and i personally think it will help you win business.

    I found this site by searching for best estate agents in google a couple of weeks ago, they were highly ranked so people like me will find them and you. Still researching this site, but its the only one ive really paid attention to, because its so easy to use is attractive and focused on the homeowner. The 8% lettings fee and 5% management most of you charge, sure you can afford £25 quid a month after 3 months of seeing if it works?! I say if you are good take it if you not leave it i guess.

    • 05 December 2011 12:23 PM
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    I did miss my main point though in my last post.

    Why pay extra for a website that no-one will visit.

    Google - free.
    Facebook - free.
    Twitter - free.

    And loads of people have already bought in to using them.

    This is a case of someone trying to re-invent the wheel and charge us poor agents for the pleasure.

    • 05 December 2011 11:57 AM
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    I think reviews are very important because the differential between agents is almost impossible to discern at valuation - all us agents offer the same things.

    If I want to buy a new TV, I go and look for reviews of that TV.

    If I am on Amazon, buying a new hard disk drive for my tired old PC, I will ALWAYS look at the reviews.

    I think that estate agents would gain hugely from reviews, but the damage that one bad review could do is enormous.

    Consider iSold.com and Tesco's - a very brave union if you ask me. if iSold irritate one of Tesco's customers then that customer will go to Sainsburys (or ALDI or LIDL or whatever) and go round bad-mouthing them to all and sundry. One sale worth £100 to Tescos is not worth losing years and years of weekly shops.

    So reviews listed publicly are definitely a double edged sword, but remember if you can convert that complaint into a satisfied customer you will often get an evangelical supporter.

    It depends on how you set it up and whether or not you pay the whole thing lip service (it will come back and bite you on the arse) or really commit to it (where it will pay dividends).

    • 05 December 2011 11:55 AM
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    As a Landlord, review sites like these would influence my choice of an agent. Problem is all the agents say pretty much the same thing when they come to value my properties only difference being fees and value! You don't really know what experience you will get until you use them, so having a little background information before I instruct does hold an attraction. I had a good look around the site and I have to say it looks very neat and well thought out, very user friendly no clutter very easy on the eye. I have to say what amuses me is every agent would come to my property and wax lyrical about how great they are, what they will achieve for me etc but seems they become frightened of a site where the owner can give feedback, so really are they that good? We pay your fees guys, as far as I understand it's for homeowners only so if you can't keep them happy then that surely leaves alot to be desired. Frankly if you truly want to improve your business, you have to take some criticism too. As a landlord its how problems are dealt with that counts and if you are smart can turn it into a positive outcome. If I have disinstructed an agent its been down to how they have mishandled and event rather than the event occuring itself. I like this site, its good for the consumer and for agents who do what they say on the tin! I hope it takes off I will be keeping and eye on it looks promising.

    • 05 December 2011 11:29 AM
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    Puzzled...: Pleased to be in agreement with you on this one... ;o)

    Fun Boy Agent: 'Martin' has undoubtedly left the building.
    (I heard Maccy D's were recruiting in that area and he wanted a job with a future...)

    • 05 December 2011 11:25 AM
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    We are near to completion on a site offering a now kind of service for agents to get instructions.

    Would you like to show your own testimonials on our website?

    • 05 December 2011 10:49 AM
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    These sites just don't work. They dont give a balanced, official and accurate opinion of an agency.

    People who are happy, just on get on with their lives. Even when prompted to write a review, people are either too busy, can't be bothered, will forget or just don't think it's important

    Yet people who are unhappy, well you'll see them stay up another half out at night if it meant voicing their frustrations and grievances against an agent

    • 05 December 2011 10:36 AM
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    Did anyone at EAT call 'Martin' at 'Allagents' to find out what he thinks about the viability of this new business?

    • 05 December 2011 09:55 AM
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    Is one allowed a yawn?

    As a business model it baffles me. You want to sell your house - come and 'meet estate agents' (because you don't know who your local estate agents are, which one has the most boards up in the area, which one you've used before, which one sold the house up the road recently etc. etc.) - and have a look at what people who have used them before think about them ... and, if your an estate agent ... and if you have good reviews ... and if anyone has bothered to look at the site in the first place ... you might get a lead forwarded to you.

    But, if there are any negative reviews, and most people can only be bothered to post a review of anybody/anything if they have something negative to report (unless they are the owner of, an employee of or a shareholder in - the business) - you sure as hell won't be getting any leads forwarded.

    Is this a 'me too' thing ... 'so and so have signed up, so we better had too'

    • 05 December 2011 09:39 AM
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    Guys, guys

    You do not need another review site.

    Do you really want to up your profile with customer reviews.

    Here is some SEO advice.

    1. Google Places - don't know what it is? Type "places" into Google and have a look. Register your business, take ownership and fill in the details - apart from anything else when people use Android Sat Nav on their smartphones it will help.
    2. Get Testimonials from clients.
    3. Create page on website with the words "testimonial from Mrs Smith, SuchAndSuch Road, AnyTown". The search engines love that and look for it on purpose.
    4. Get clients to put testimonials on review section of Google Places.
    5. Ditto Facebook
    6. Ditto Twitter

    Downsides - people can say some very nasty things for very little reason. Be prepared to deal with it promptly and make sure that you can turn every negative into a positive.

    This takes a lot of work and is almost worth hiring a specific member of staff...

    Yes, I know the cost is difficult to justify at the moment.

    Maybe outsource.

    These guys do it for us at the moment: www.xmkt.co.uk.

    • 05 December 2011 09:38 AM
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    Just what we need another review site!

    • 05 December 2011 08:48 AM
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    A review site where agents pay a monthly subscription to be slated.....mmmm.

    This site can not possibly moderate a review site independently and receive monthly income from the agents.

    I would say that this site will not only fail but should be immediately shut down as misleading the public into trusting that this site is freely open for negative critiques is worse than the agents misleading the public.

    These agents seen publically promoting a site like this both publically and financially should be ashamed of themselves for trying to make the public's perception of the industry worse than it is.

    Review sites MUST remain independent of agents for them to gain the trust of the public

    • 05 December 2011 08:01 AM
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