One of the essential marketing tools for mortgage lenders is their online reviews. Everyone checks a company’s reviews when they are shopping for new products or services. Don’t you?
Consumers that are on the hunt for a mortgage broker are no different. Folks looking to buy or refinance a home will be particularly interested in the best mortgage lenders they can find with great reviews from previous clients. They are about to make a big decision in their life. Shopping clients want to have as much confidence as possible in your mortgage lenders before even making contact.
That’s why mortgage lender reviews are so critical. Here we’ll go over where to make sure your firm is showcased, and highlight how to get some stellar reviews in no time.
Where to be Listed As A Mortgage Lender
People sometimes don’t realize how important it is to have a mortgage lender. Many new buyers won’t know that you can shop around as a mortgage lender and find them the best prices. So, you want to make sure you are all over the internet and able to reach first-time homeowners and more seasoned ones.
The truth is, you want your brokerage house to be listed anywhere and everywhere. Think of it as casting the widest net possible. The more places, the better for potential buyers to find you and learn about how you can make their homeownership and loan products journey amazing.
A few good sites include:
Google Business Profile
This one is great because of brand authority. Google Business Profile is the most used online directory in the US. There is a little more setup involved, but it is well worth the effort.
Zillow
Everyone that is shopping for a home loan looks at Zillow. Use that to your advantage.
NerdWallet
Regarding everything financial, NerdWallet is the place to go when people are looking to save money. And since you’re going to offer your clients the lowest mortgage rates around, get your name up on this site for significant results.
Best Practices for the Best Mortgage Lender Reviews
Being the Best Mortgage Lender
First and foremost, your firm has to provide outstanding service. No algorithm or formula will get you a wealth of great online reviews if you don’t live up to the stellar performance first.
If you strive to provide the best client experience on your loan products, it will show every single time.
A few ways you can ensure you provide “review worthy” services are:
- Reply to calls and emails quickly. A leading theme in mortgage broker reviews is how rapidly the broker responded to their questions.
- Try not to make the client feel rushed. A mortgage is a big life decision your potential clients are making. People appreciate working with a patient mortgage broker.
- Don’t ever skip out on any details of the loan products, services, or mortgage rates and fees. If you look at any review site and search for mortgage brokers, it’s almost certain that the first mortgage review will say something along the lines of “they were so knowledgeable and really helped us understand every step in the process.”
Ask Customers to Improve Your Mortgage Rating in Your Reviews
So, you have delivered phenomenal home loan services to your client. You guided them through the tricky process of financing their dream home with your loan products. It was a long, tiring, and complicated mortgage process. And you were professional, knowledgeable, and responsive the entire time.
There is no shame in outright asking for some feedback in the form of an online mortgage review. After all, you worked so hard getting the lowest rates and closing costs for them. Perhaps offer some assistance if they have questions about where to post or ask if they already had a Zillow account to use.
Of course, do it kindly and respectfully, after the closing is complete, and your content client is settling into their wonderful new home. The simplest way to ask for a positive review is to do so through a communication platform that your clients feel comfortable with. Podium makes it easy, so you can ask for positive reviews from your clients all in one simple text. It includes a link that directly allows the client to write a review within seconds.
Check Current Reviews and Compare Mortgage Companies
The best place to start is the beginning. If you are unaware of where your firm stands, do a simple Google search to see what kind of online presence and reviews you have currently among mortgage lenders. Pop in “Your Firm Name Reviews” and check it out. Or you can type in “mortgage lenders in your city,” and you will also get some good research too.
Are there comments on specific things you can improve? Is there a theme to most of the reviews that you can find? Doing your homework can only help you improve your company to be one of the best mortgage lenders in your area.
Researching your current reviews is also a reliable technique for getting an idea of where people speak up about your services. Take a mental note of what sites you had the most chatter on and maybe work to streamline your efforts there.
People will write a negative review if you look at them funny. But don’t let that bother you while you are scrolling through the latest feed. There is a lot of research to suggest that those types of reviews aren’t necessarily to be trusted. Folks get online in the heat of the moment and lash out. It doesn’t mean you actually did a bad job as their broker, and you can still be one of the best mortgage lenders around. You can address bad feedback as well, as most listing websites will allow the customer to change the review they made. (More on this in the next section)
*Pro Tip: Take a peek at the local competition’s reviews. See how they stack up. Maybe find some pain points their clients mention and then work to be an industry leader in those ways!
Follow up on reviews.
Once reviews start rolling in, make sure to reply to as many as you can. Sure, it’ll be challenging when you have thousands of fantastic reviews to keep up with, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
When you engage and interact with clients online, it can make a big difference in how you are perceived as one of the best mortgage lenders. When folks are shopping around for a mortgage broker and see that you have been interactive with past clients, this will set you apart from your competition.
The people who go from mortgage lender shoppers to happy customers will be much more likely to leave you a review on that same platform. They will remember, “oh yeah, we found our amazing broker on Facebook Recommendations, and they were so communicative. We should leave them a review there too!”
At least we can hope. Most customers will love to have their new home and the last thing on their mind is going online to give you a review. Hence, the dire need of asking for reviews can not be expressed enough.
Consider Online Reputation Management
Once your mortgage brokerage is booming from all your positive review referrals, and the management of it all is getting to be too much, think about hiring someone. It’s a bit of a new concept, but now your reputation online can affect your client base.
Something as simple as one single star review listed at the top of Google can tank your rep. You don’t want that. But as a busy and successful mortgage broker, you also don’t have time to worry about something as simple as review stars.
Find a person that’s more than just a social media manager. Think about hiring another broker that will understand the struggles of the industry. Someone with an in-depth knowledge of the mortgage world who can take over your review replies is ideal. The second pair of hands to help manage getting your firm listed on the latest mortgage broker review platforms will be helpful.
If hiring an individual to manage your reviews and online presence is too expensive, consider a review management software where you can see all reviews from all sites in one seamless platform. Did we mention it is free for the first 200 review requests?
Generate a Positive Feedback Loop
People love to talk about themselves and their experiences. If you put your listening cap on and take in all of that feedback, it can only help you polish and perfect the loan services you provide.
Let’s say you just closed on a couple’s first home. They have never been more excited. And you helped them get there. While asking these happy clients for a review is the perfect time to glean some insight directly from them. Ask a few basic questions about their experience and how you succeeded or things you could do better.
Taking the time to do this can earn you a 5-star review. What broker asks for direct feedback like that? It sure does show that you care about the buyer’s whole experience.
Listen intently, maybe take notes. Then take all of that information to heart, and down the road, years later, when that couple is looking to refinance, they will turn to you again. After all, you were so wonderful to work with last go around.
Being a rockstar mortgage broker the first time around and hearing what they had to say can land you their home loan business again. Plus, by using the initial feedback, you can blow them away with this interaction all over again.
Sure it’s a time investment, and you’re banking on repeat clients for a second great review. But you’re a rockstar among mortgage brokers, remember?
How to Increase Your Mortgage Review Ratings
The moral of the story is that the best way to get lots of terrific reviews is to be the best broker out there. Proving success takes a lot of time and energy. But we promise, if you stick to providing exceptional mortgage loan services to your clients, the reviews will come.
Now, of course, there are some things that you can do to get fate on your side. Start by finding as many review platforms as possible—the more, the merrier. What are the top three review sites that came up? Start there!
Typically, you will want to be on Google, Bing, and Facebook to begin with. Then make sure to submit to all the big citation websites too. Then you will want to submit to the aggregators. A lot of listings websites pull from the aggregator’s data to make their own listings on the web. Lastly, a word of caution when submitting is to make sure that the name, address, and phone number of your business are all the same across all listings (and aggregators). For more information on local SEO best practices you can go here.
Then once you have an account on multiple review websites, you can monitor them and manage good and bad reviews.
Also, don’t be shy. You deal with difficult situations every day. It’s not going to kill you to ask a happy customer for a review. And don’t forget, a good manager knows how to delegate.
So maybe hand over the reputation management tasks like replying to all of your reviews. This is a great opportunity to bring an intern on to handle this responsibility. Offer to mentor them in exchange for their time spent addressing your reviews.
It also couldn’t hurt to get everything in one place. Check out Podium Starter to help get you and your firm to an all 5-star rating online.
