Success stories: Winkworth Kensal Rise

This story is interesting, not simply because one individual within the branch has achieved so much (although he has) but because all our clients (and those considering joining) can learn from this experience.

The story: a Winning Strategy

Winkworth Kensal Rise - along with its sister branch, Willesden Green - joined almost exactly a year ago, in June 2015.  At their HelpHound briefing a single member of staff - Yanick Lumsden, their office administrator - was detailed to take on their review management.

Yanick was briefed by HelpHound on 30 June 2015 and implemented our recommended strategy. The reviews began to flow, exactly as predicted, plenty to their own website and some great individual reviews to Google, until a critical review was posted - independently - on Google for Willesden Green.

This review was first noticed by a HelpHound moderator who alerted Karen Hutchings from HelpHound client services. Karen spoke to Yanick, and, once they had discussed his response to the negative on Google, they went on to talk about ways to increase the volume of reviews - to their own website and to Google.

The timing of this conversation was just about perfect; Yanick was now completely familiar with Dialogue and our Resolution process (having successfully managed five cases there). He knew how any given client would react to the invitation and was already modifying the invitation depending on client circumstances.

Karen talked Yanick through the recently introduced 'multi' invitation - it probably helped that this had been successfully pioneered by Greene & Co nearby - and henceforward Yanick would make his own judgement when sending out the invitation, by sending either:

• the standard invitation - inviting the client to write a review to their website, via Dialogue (knowing that they would be invited to copy their review to Google)
• or the multi-invitation but, as yet, restricting this to the option of Dialogue or Google (Facebook will come later)
• or straight to Google

The results have been nothing short of fantastic... 

On their own website:

Read about the journey your potential clients make before they contact you, and you will see just how important displaying independently verified review on your own website is

On Google - for the search [Winkworth Kensal Rise]:

  Bear in mind that everyone who contacts you conducts a search like this - even if only to find your phone number! People are now used to looking for scores and rich snippets - the three quotes Google pull from your reviews - make sure both do your business credit

On Google - for the local search [estate agent Kensal Rise]: 

Criteria for appearance in the 3-pack is a closely guarded secret at Google - for obvious reasons - but we are not going to argue that looking great in the opinion of your customer is not a factor; it makes so much sense from the consumers' point-of-view. By the way: two of the three agents shown above are HelpHound members - no prizes!

And they address the questions we hear most from both our new and prospective members:

• Will our clients write reviews to our website?
• Will they write reviews to Google?
• Will they join G+ to write a review?
• Will Resolution enable me to address unfair or inaccurate reviews?
  

Combine this with the proven influence of reviews and you have a sure-fire winner!