Social Media Reviews and Comments Best Practices for Your Mortgage Business

Tried and True Ways to Stand Out Online

As a mortgage loan originator or mortgage broker, customer satisfaction and retention are essential for growing your business in this hyper-competitive market. More and more customers are relying on online research with 93% of consumers finding local businesses online in 2020 and 34% searching every single day according to BrightLocal.  

That means both positive and negative reviews can impact your business because customers will likely trust the experience that others have had.   In a perfect world, all reviews, posts, and comments would be glowing praise, but the reality is some people may be unhappy regardless of the quality of service your mortgage business provides.  

There is an upside to this though – whether the review/comment is positive or negative, you gain the opportunity to show off your customer service skills. You could also turn a potentially negative situation into something positive if handled strategically. Social media marketer Mack Collier found that after customers received a response from a company about their experience, 33% changed their negative review to a positive one and 34% deleted the original negative review altogether.  

When responding to reviews and comments, no matter what the tone might be, our two biggest pieces of advice are to:

• Respond professionally and positively as soon as possible. Ideally, within 24 hours so you can work to resolve any issues quickly. A timely response also shows that you care about their feedback.
• Thank the customer for their feedback and offer to discuss the situation offline if applicable.

How to Respond to Social Media Reviews and Comments

Reviews and comments typically fall into one of three categories: positive (or mostly positive), negative, and inappropriate. Here are a few tips for responding to each type.  

When comments are positive: Be gracious and thankful. A short response is often enough.

When comments are negative: Stop and take a moment to think before responding. It’s easy to get defensive when you know how much work goes into the loan process, but responding defensively will not help. Analyze the problem then opt for a neutral statement and/or offer to follow up offline. Give the customer a phone number or email address so that they can contact you directly to resolve the issue.

Resist the urge to make false promises and always be polite and respectful even if you think they are completely wrong. That being said, if they have incorrect information, feel free to correct them and/or share the correct information. (Just be sure to never disclose sensitive personal information in a public forum.)

When comments are inappropriate: You don’t have to respond to a comment that portrays hate speech, discrimination, or anything else that doesn’t align with your company culture. You can always delete comments and ban/block those that continue to be disrespectful. If it’s on a platform that doesn’t allow you to delete or block, there may be a function to flag or report the review.

Reviews or comments can also be opportunities to learn from your mistakes. If you made a legitimate mistake, reflect on how you can prevent the situation from happening again in the future.  

How to Get Reviews

The best way to get reviews? It’s simple – just ask! Customers are often happy to share their positive experiences. Another way to get reviews is to add a link to your social media channels in your email signature and/or newsletter footer.  

Above all else, focus on delivering a consistently high-quality customer experience and the positive reviews and comments are sure to follow!