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May 03
2011
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What Does Your Online Reputation Say About You?
Posted by: Tracey Lott Heitzman on May 3, 2011 00:00 Tagged in: Twitter , Technology , Social Networking , Social Media , RSS , Residents , Property Management Companies , Property Management , MySpace , Multifamily Insiders , Multifamily Executive , Multifamily , Facebook , Customer Service , Brand Monitoring , Blogs , ApartmentRatings.Com , Apartment Training , Apartment Marketing , Apartment Leasing , Apartment Industry , Apartment Community Website , Apartment Community , Apartment , Amenities
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Historically apartment communities have had a policy to ignore reviews in regards to online reputation management (ORM). However, it is important to take the opportunity to listen— and even respond— to what residents are saying online because the conversation is happening whether you choose to participate or not.
What is ORM?
Online reputation management (or monitoring) is the practice of monitoring the Internet reputation of a person, brand or business, with the goal of suppressing negative mentions entirely, or pushing them lower on search engine results pages to decrease their visibility.
A recent survey conducted in the UK and US found that 69% of respondents trusted online reviews as much as personal recommendations. So what are you doing to monitor your reputation?
Where to find online reviews:
With about 855,000 apartment ratings and reviews ApartmentRatings.com is the largest and most comprehensive apartment ratings website. Reaching approximately 30% of apartment hunters nationwide, it is among the Top 5 most-visited apartment hunting sites in the world.
ApartmentGrade.com, a Coralville, Iowa-based site offers a different rating methodology. It doesn’t invite renters to air gripes, but instead actively polls residents about staff, living conditions and the apartments themselves. This active, rather than passive, approach in collecting information and grading communities results in scores on a five-point scale. Only properties with scores of 3.5 points or better are posted, a fact reflected in the site’s tagline: “Only those apartment communities that make the grade.”
One site free to managers to list a property is RenterReviewed.com. Like ApartmentGrade.com, RenterReviewed.com reaches out to the renters and asks them to write reviews. You get a more well-rounded view instead of the negative that’s generally promoted on some websites that offer ratings and reviews. Properties only pay when a review results in a signed lease.
ResidentApproved.com surveys your residents and displays a "Thumbs Up" logo for your property’s listing and a 5 star report when all surveys completed during the previous 7 months average good or better for each category.
Yelp.com has a Real Estate section that includes an Apartment category. As of January 2011, more than 45 million people visited Yelp. Yelpers have written over 15 million local reviews, 83% of them rating a business 3 stars or higher. If your community is not listed you can set up a free account. Just click on the headings aforementioned and scroll to the bottom to click on “Add a Business”.
How to respond to negative online reviews:
The lesson for apartment pros is that positive and negative conversations are happening using these sites, as well as, in social media. Sometimes apartment communities can reduce online complaints simply by providing an easy way for residents to contact them with comments and by following up on their concerns.
Avoid trying to explain why the renter giving the negative review is wrong, it just looks argumentative. Instead, address what’s being done or has been done to respond to the issue. Even disgruntled residents provide valuable feedback. Look at it as an opportunity to find out what is being done wrong and fix it.
For example:
"I am sorry you are having parking issues and can understand your frustration at not being able to find a parking space. As you have posted anonymously, I don’t know what building you are located in, so in order to help you I would like to contact you at your convenience. Or, if you prefer, we are open every day from 9 until 6 pm and our phone number is 000-000-0000. We look forward to working with you to resolve this issue. Thank you.”
Remember, you need 12 positive reviews to make up for 1 negative review... and a typical dissatisfied customer will tell 8 to 10 people about their problem.
How to motivate employees to monitor reviews:
Tie the employee bonus program to the numbers of positive reviews per month and overall approval ratings. Give out cash on the spot or time off cards for teams who are tracking and responding to their community reputation.
How to track your online presence:
With so much happening online, it's important to monitor what people are saying about you. Check out these monitoring tools that can help you keep track of what’s being said about your community online:
Alerts for monitoring social networking sites and the internet:
Alerts for monitoring Twitter:
Alerts for monitoring blogs and bulletin boards:
Sign up for a free RSS feed reader/ news aggregator:
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts.
(Also, be sure to track the URL of your communities’ ILS listings because some consumers use a community’s ILS from the property detail page on Twitter or other social media sites.)
Tracey Lott Heitzman is the National Trainer for Evolv, a full service marketing and training company for the multi-family housing industry. From customizing training programs, launching a brand, or providing our marketing expertise, Evolv can help you increase occupancy and build retention.
www.evolvre.com | theitzman@evolvre.com
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The article talks about how ignoring complaints is a rock solid way to engender loathing. A must read! www.imediaconnection.com/content/28957.asp
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I love this post. Thanks for sharing
With traditonal marketing making less and less impact on todays renters, it is becoming important to not only monitor negative comments, but to solicit reviews from your residents. Many prospective renters will not consider a community until they have seen some feedback from residents on these sites. So if your community does not have any reviews, many prospects will not even bother to contact you.
We have also found that when we ask someone to post a review on apartmentraitings, the result is usually a positive review. Residents appreciate the fact that we want to hear from them.