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How Do You Receive Criticism in Reviews?

How Do You Receive Criticism in Reviews?

Let’s face it.  Apartments are kind of a dime a dozen.  Unless you are in a super niche submarket, there is a good chance your competitor has very similar units and amenities.  That means your physical product is not what makes you special.  It’s also not what is going to lease your units. 

The customer experience and the sense of community at your property are what make you special.  Both of which are often lead by your site teams. 

Your site teams are your partners. If you do a lousy job selecting and educating your partners, everyone fails.  Take advantage of every learning and training moment that comes your way.  Don’t wait until there is a classroom situation or a formal review.  Grab that moment when it happens.

Naturally, ratings and reviews are one of my favorite ways to have those education moments.  I think that by now we all understand the importance of reviews.  We don’t have to sell it anymore. But, now we need to take a step back and make sure we are really processing the feedback. 

How open are you and your team to criticism?  I know…its not one of those questions we really like to answer.  And, it can be difficult to be honest.  Receiving criticism isn’t something that is always easy, but it can be learned.  I know because it is something I have learned.  It is a humbling process that will not only make your teams self-aware but also more confident.  It could actually be the key to their success.

Examine how each of you personally receives feedback.  How do you process it, and how long does it take for you to process it?  Getting negative feedback about your community is kind of like getting a less than desirable performance review.  There is not one way to receive feedback, but there are better ways.  The important thing is that you know your process.

How do you receive feedback? 

 
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

I once got called a "Nazi" in an online review-back when I was an assistant manager...good times.
I do believe that reviews are hugely positive in the sense that they provide snapshot feedback of a customer's experience...whether we think it's valid or not. What I used to do with our team is go through them and see what we could learn from it. I had to emphasize all of us detaching ourselves emotionally from the words and look at it as objectively as we could..."Could we see why someone might say this?" And then we'd figure out what we could do differently the next time. This is where I think the manager's role is crucial in providing tips, tools, techniques, encouragement, correction and maybe most importantly, context.

  Rommel Anacan
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site

I completely agree! It can be pretty difficult for managers to be objective as well.

  Misty Sanford
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We just talked about this in a manager's meeting. Our first impulse is to explain why that person was unhappy, that they owe money, that they were unreasonable, etc. We're trying to change our attitude, because a lot of the time they are right. We've really taken our reviews to heart and are looking for ways to improve communication especially, as well as the other complaints that people have about our community. Pushing the responses out to a regional (me) has helped because I don't know the backstory and I'm less involved, so I can help the managers figure out the root of the problem without all the emotional reaction. The only thing that bugs me is that it is such hard work to teach your onsite people to ask for positive reviews, and happy people don't usually spontaneously review, but those angry ones will go up at 1 a.m. to put something on.

  Donje Putnam
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Hi, Donje. Thanks for the comment. I agree that it can be sooo difficult to get onsite people to ask for reviews. It is something they just have to get over. I've gotten some past this awkwardness by easing into it. "Have you checked out our reviews on Renter's Voice? We have some really good feedback we are working on..." It seems like if you get them to ask about it sort of passively at first, they are better with it. Other times, I tell them to pay attention to how waiters and restaurant owners ask for feedback. They do it ALL the time, and you don't even notice because it seems so natural.

  Misty Sanford

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