In a landscape where consumers are choosing communities based on "vibes," having a consistent brand voice and utilizing data, like Reputation's "Reputation score," is crucial to property success. In this conversation, Liz Carter, the CMO of Reputation, joins me to discuss the radical changes in online reputation management, customer experience, and how the rise of AI is altering how consumers search, driving a need for businesses to move past reactive metrics and adopt reputation intelligence for real-time strategic decision-making.

Chelsea Kneeland: Liz, thank you so much for being with us today. We're thrilled to have you. Do you wanna give us a little introduction and tell us a little bit about who you are?

Liz Carter: Sure. First of all, thanks for having me. I am Liz Carter. I am the CMO at Reputation, and I've been with Reputation almost three years this October.

It's been a great run and excited to join you today.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah.Thank you so much. I know some of the things that I've been reading about new things happening at reputation and just happening overall in the market were a couple of the topics we wanted to talk about today because I am very interested in reputation intelligence.

So tell us a little bit about that and what is making a difference for you all at Reputation.com and what's new with that.

Liz Carter: Yeah. I think everyone in marketing today or even in business today understands that things have really changed in the digital landscapes. Certainly because of AI and all the different search platforms that people go to that are using AI in very different ways and Reputation's right in the center of that, right? We started as a company, more than a decade ago really helping businesses manage their online reputation.

And as that world grew as reviews became bigger, as listings on these platforms became more important, we had just a repository of all this data that our customers can access and use in ways to show up better online. And then we got really further into the customer, the world of customer experience.

Because you have all this online data and now you really wanna understand more about your consumers and what's happening. So really understanding the voice of the customer. And so anyway, we've been in, we've been in that business for a long time, but as these changes took place, we decided, the reality was we were gonna have to actually change the way we brought data in, analyzed it, and served up insights to our customers. That's what we've always been about. Always know, always act on this customer feedback.

But with AI the world has changed, right? AI is meant to really process so much data, but the old ways of housing that data, to make that, to make it valuable, weren't gonna stack up. So we actually spent a lot of time making a decision to re-platform our products.

And you mentioned reputation intelligence, what we really wanna do is serve up, more reputation intelligence to customers so that they can make really strategic decisions so they can have it in the palms of their hands when they need to ahead of, some big brand failure. That can happen really quickly in today's market. We wanna give them access to that data really quickly so they can make smart, strategic decisions.

Chelsea Kneeland: I love that. I've always said in the world of online reputation, that we should move away from reacting and that, I wish it would act more as like a warning system. To be aware something's starting to happen here. And it sounds like that's a lot of what you're moving towards and have been doing.

Liz Carter: Absolutely, and you think about voice of customer programs were built around NPS scores and surveys and CSAT, right?

Which, those are great metrics and have gotten businesses really far because if you rally around something, you can make it really important and impactful to your business. But survey data is also reactive, right? You collect it over time. You look at it, one or two or three times a year to understand what's happening.

But in today's market, things are changing every day. As the dialogue shifts online, your brand is being looked at, potentially in a different way because a new review popped up and it went viral or some sort of social post, and you just, you didn't have access to that data in a time.

Or that was never gonna come to you in a survey result. So I just think you, you have to really rethink how you are thinking about your brand's reputation every minute of the day.

Chelsea Kneeland: I agree so much, and one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about is how our consumers are searching now with AI and with more of a generative response versus just the typical Google response and how that's impacting the way that they're managing their reputation. What have you seen or what are you like, girl, let me tell you about this. This is what we need to know.

Liz Carter: Let me tell you about this.

Actually, I- we're partners with Google. They're a huge partner of ours. We do a lot of business with them. And one of the stats that they presented at an event I went to, like earlier this year was around how, I think it's 15% of daily searches are brand new. So think about that.

And this is in Google Sphere, right? What that means is people, 15% of people are searching in a very different way than they used to, right? They're searching with so much more intent and emotion. They're, I am doing the same things. Now all of a sudden, you know that AI can really pick up on your intent or your emotion or what experience you're looking for.

So Google's trying to think through that. Okay, they're searching with all this intent. We've gotta make sense of that intent, and then we wanna serve up the right answers to meet that intent. And so that's a big shift, that's a shift, right?

Where it used to be these, search terms and phrases and you could really rely on people to search in that way. Coffee shop near me. Now that's just, that's too bland, right? I want a coffee shop with great atmosphere that is going to make me feel good about my day, or I want a coffee shop that's quiet and I need to study in the back corner, right?

Those are two very different things, and you might want a very different answer for that. So businesses today really have to understand the intent behind their consumers and what they're searching for.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, I think that is so true and I think it's really fascinating to see the difference of when I got in the game, we won't talk about how long ago that was, of the being told and knowing that we searched, even when I was a renter, two bedroom, two bath near me, or two bedroom, two bath luxury, like nobody is looking that way anymore.

They are wanting search results that are very specific to what they're particularly looking for in that moment. And the details that they're searching for, they know so much. Today's consumer is so much better informed than I feel like we ever were, and it's really impressive. But then also as a marketer, I'm sure a bit scary, to have consumers who are this informed.

Liz Carter: And not just informed. They can create their own sort of journey, their path to finding you, right? Where it used to be you're looking for an apartment, you go online, you search using those phrases, you get the list of apartments. You already know whether you're showing up in the top 10. So you know you've made their short list. 

Today, a renter is looking, for a whole an experience. They're looking for a place that's gonna give them a certain type of experience and they're doing research in ways that you can't even always see, right? Online. And so you have to be sure that your brand is showing up in the way that they are searching in these different places, right? So knowing the intent behind your renters, your residents, right? And understanding how to serve that up to them, whether that's in social, making sure your listings are up to date, and they talk about, the community that you provide, oh I think even Google says that, visual imagery and video it's ranking higher for them, right?

So making sure you have those visuals out there that they can pull from. 'Cause they wanna show visuals, and because that's what the consumer wants. And so really having to think through all of those elements in a different way.

I think it's an exciting time to be in marketing. Things are shifting and changing. Actually, your brand and your reputation is just so much more important than ever before.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, I know I did research in past life that we looked at how renters were looking and one of the things that really came across as wild to me was that often, to your point about pictures and videos, I would see them when we watched their behavior when we were monitoring like the actual consumer.

They're like opening up a website to search, and they were just clicking around on a bunch of different photos. No real like budget, or I only wanna spend this much, or I wanna live within, three miles of this particular area. And I remember at the end of that research talking with one of my other researchers and saying, it's like it's just vibes.

That is how they're making that decision real early on. And then they wanna qualify that with, am I on the right track with my vibes of the reputation where I believe in previous times, it feels like maybe even 10 years ago, the reputation is what set you apart at the very end of the funnel when I would have, three apartments I was deciding between, and then I'd just go double check that everybody was okay and someone wasn't talking about roaches all the time. But now it feels like it's much earlier in the funnel if it's not managed well. You're really getting kicked out of the choice. Like you're not even getting to have a tour or show them that it's different or anything like that.

Liz Carter: Yeah. They would just, they just won't even call you, right? They won't even walk in your door if your Google ratings are below a four, right? How many places do you even, do you look at a, hotel or a rental property or that is below a four because you just are thinking that's, that's not good.

And so yeah, they don't even make it to you. And I think that companies have to be A. Very aware of that if they're not already. I think most companies are aware of that. But they have to really understand how do you manage that in real time?

And if companies have multiple locations, how do you have your brand voice, the who you are show up, in your review responses, in your listings and all of those things. And sometimes especially in property management and real estate, these companies have different brand feelings, right?

Like one property is very different than another, and you're, and you are looking for different types of people, the different intent that those people are shopping for. And so it actually gives you a lot of ability to market to the audience that you think would really wanna be where you wanna be.

But you have to have that information. You have to really understand that that consumer's journey, why they're buying, what they're looking for, why they're renting, all of that.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah. I know today there are so many different ways that a consumer can get from point A to point B. To the end of, I've got a lease here and I love it.

And it can be really difficult to figure out what a successful campaign looks like or what success with your reputation looks like, because there's so many different touch points. What do you think is most important for today's marketer as far as success? Like how should they measure success?

Liz Carter: Yeah. It's a great question and frankly, I think marketers, businesses, ask themselves this every day. This is like this is the holy grail of something you're trying to do constantly. I think that you have to boil it down to a few leading indicators, right?

What are your leading indicators? Lagging indicators are things like, hey we have to have so many people, renting prop, so many full units, right? Versus, but if you don't have those numbers, you're already behind, right? So you need leading indicators.

What's getting people to even consider you as a business. And one of the, one of the indicators we provide at Reputation is called your reputation score. So this is an indicator that is showing you what is your online reputation. We score it based across 10 to 12 different factors about how you show up online.

Whether that's in Google, in, in other search areas, your ratings, your response rates, how often you respond, how quickly you respond, the sentiment of all of that. Anyway, we give you a reputation score. This is real time, right? This is based on data that's coming in every day, and so it, it evolves quickly.

And to me, and to our customers, it's a leading indicator of what's happening in the market. They can very much tie their reputation store score to foot traffic, people coming into your office or calling your office to get a tour, like what you said. And they manage their locations based on that reputation score.

You can invest more in some of these locations because they have a high reputation score and they're doing well. There are others where you think, okay that location needs, needs something. We're not connecting with the locals in the right way. How do we do that better? Let's dig in and figure that out. And so I think you're, I think having something like a reputation score is an indicator and something you can measure your business on. And then you have to choose the other leading indicators that you want. And there can be others, for sure. I think, but you need a couple leading indicators to really manage your business well.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah. I think that's so true. More so today than ever before because it, we've said this over and over again already, just in the few short minutes we've been talking about, but things are changing so quickly, and I know there is such a push for more centralization and for our operations teams to just have, a really nailed down ability to act quickly and to have all of their operations really streamlined.

And I can't help but wonder, what does that look like to the end user and to the consumer. We've seen some really interesting dialogue around that online, on LinkedIn, talking about, "Hey, we went and secret shopped some properties and we got the exact same email response from 15 of them, within however many minutes."

So I think it is so important to have those leading indicators that are gonna tell you before your occupancy is dropping. Hey, this is what you are the message you're putting out to consumers, even if you are not fully aware, because it is really hard from the inside trying to decide what it looks like.

Liz Carter: Yeah, one of, one of the new products that we're we've recently launched is called Voice of Brand, and it's really focused on helping businesses understand, what is the voice of brand we are putting out there in the market and what's the voice of brand that we wanna be. Do those two things match?

We can take your brand guidelines, we load them into our tools and systems, and then we help you shape, with your employees, how you respond to reviews. How should you show up if that is the voice that you, if this is the voice you want to have or not, right? And we can flag things to you, "Hey this went out and it's not really in line with your brand guidelines," right?

How do you wanna maybe do training in a different way so that people understand, your voice as a brand and what they should be putting out there in the market.

Chelsea Kneeland: I think that is so important because I often do a little baby market research with my teenager, and I always think it's fascinating when she thinks that a brand has a certain personality or this is how they are.

And if they try to be cool, every once in a while you'll see a brand trying to be like snarky on Twitter or wherever it is, like trying to have that kind of voice and she's like, "Ew." That's not, she would think that was hilarious from a brand that gives them that feel.

So I think it's so important too to figure out who you are, how you're perceived, and also to, not that you can't shift, but to stick to that in a way that resonates with your customers.

Liz Carter: Totally. A lot of examples of companies that have tried to shift away from who they were and maybe that didn't work for their ultimate consumer.

But yeah I think that, any sort of, I think in today's market, that brand management has really risen to the top. And getting your arms around your brand, your reputation in the market is just, it's very different than it used to be. And so ensuring you have your finger on the pulse is what is really important. And you need to have partners and tools and technology to do that well in today's market.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, I think it is so vitally important and then we can chat about some other things as well. But one of the reasons being is, again, when I watched how renters were looking, I was really fascinated to find out that so many renters or prospective renters were looking in markets that weren't even the same area.

I can remember a time when we considered our competitors, the properties that had similar rents within three miles of us, and I was watching renters go, "I don't know. I might live in Austin, or I might move to Nashville. Or if I get a roommate, I might move to Boston."

And I was like, what are you talking about? You don't even know what city, but they weren't choosing by city. They were choosing by the actual community first before they even chose the metro area they were gonna live in. And that just blew my mind.

Liz Carter: I think you and I probably were shopping for, apartments, I was back in Buckhead doing the same thing. Just looking within a certain mile radius of where we wanted to be. And absolutely. That was where you wanted to be. And then you were just trying, you were just sorting through what are the spaces you wanna be in.

Yes, we can thank a lot of things for today's market and people who are looking for homes and rental units. Remote work makes things a lot more accessible. So you have a lot more options than you used to. And that's just true for anyone. And you're a business, you're, you have to understand consumers are out there and they have a lot of options, especially as it pertains to locations and movement and they're not tied down like they used to be.

I also think that Google even said at the same event that I was at that that people are looking for an experience. Like they were talking about travel and how travel people are looking for a local's experience.

Like even when they travel, they wanna go and be like a local. And I think that translates into like where people wanna live, right? They wanna live in a community that feels like something they could connect to. And so I think that, especially when you're thinking about people that are looking for places to live, and you said it I think earlier, they're looking for a vibe. They have a certain vibe in mind. They're looking for that. And that could be right where they are, that could be, a thousand miles away and they have a lot of options.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, it's so fascinating. I was just reading an article about a community that is, they're touting to be the first, I won't argue with them. I don't know if they're technically so don't come if it's not the first.

But the first car free community that has been built, and I believe it's in Arizona. But the article was talking about their success and that it's because people in Arizona are not the ones moving there.

That this community has such a vibe that people feel like it is, like more. One of the people who lived there said it was, they felt like they lived in Greece because it was all, bright whites and murals and like little pathways and that the lifestyle lent itself to getting prospective tours. All over the place. So how wild to think we're in an age where you can be creating a brand for yourself that is so far reaching that you could lure like a Texan to Arizona or someone from Maine to go live there.

I think that's just what a world of opportunity we have, much more difficult. It's wide open.

Liz Carter: Yes and no. I think it creates a lot of opportunity, right? And it actually to me, what in as a marketer and as somebody who loves branding, loves telling a story. This is a great time to really figure out who are you as a brand or the multiple brands under you, and how do you really reach the consumer, the renter, the resident that you think would love to be where you are. And that's what it's all about. And so it's not fundamentally different than it used to be.

It's just though finding your path to making sure you put that out there in your listings, in your content, in the videos and the pictures that you have, and then you can see how people are reacting to it, right? And your reviews as you show up online, is it matching that brand vibe that you're looking for?

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah. And so important now to have that brand awareness, because if I can live anywhere, but I know this brand is what spoke to me and what treated me well, or the group that I loved in Austin, maybe that's what I look for in Nashville. Or maybe that's what I look for when I'm hoping to live my dream someday of Summering in Maine so whatever it is.

Liz Carter: Exactly well, and you recommend to a friend, right? Just because maybe that's not your thing anymore, when you see someone who's looking for that, like you're now gonna voice you're gonna give that to somebody else.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah. It's so incredibly important overall.

So what would you say, Liz? What is the one thing that you wish, for real estate marketers, for our world, for property management, what's the one thing you wish they knew? If you were like, "Oh, I just wanna impart this one piece of wisdom to them for modern day marketing," or for generative search or whatever it is.

What's that one thing that you're like, they need to know this?

Liz Carter: Yeah. I guess, I think you said it earlier, and this is to me, this is cross industry. But given we're speaking to folks that are in real estate marketing, I do think that being sure of who you are as a brand.

And then ensuring that you are consistent about putting that out there in all the different ways that you are today. And as that grows and changes over time, that you continue to do that. And if you decide to make a shift. In that brand personality, you need to be really thoughtful about it, and you need to then be consistent about it.

Because I think consumers today don't like things that are not backed up, right? They don't like any inconsistency or question marks in, in marketing, in what they're seeing and reading about you. And so I think you just have to be really thoughtful and it is why I think the other thing for me is just data.

Like you gotta pick your one or two leading indicators that you really manage your business on, and you gotta make sure that one of them is real time, meaning you're getting an update on a regular on a daily, hourly basis. 'Cause that's how quickly things are shifting in today's marketplace.

And so you've gotta have a leading indicator and then you also just have to be really consistent, and if you're changing and shifting, that's okay. I think consumers understand that world shifts and brand shift, but you gotta bring them along on that journey. And I think that's where people get that wrong and they make a shift and they don't bring people through that journey with them.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, I can think of a million examples. I won't name names, I promise.

Right now as you're saying that, I'm going in my head like, okay, yes, I can see this. Yes, I can see that. And I think it speaks again to how there's so much data out there that even for our consumers, they can check, right? They can check to see if what you're saying is backed up. And if it's not, you lose that credibility so quickly, and it's so difficult to get it back.

Liz Carter: Exactly. Yeah.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah. I love that. And I love the idea of focusing on KPIs that you can do something about and not on all of them. I think everyone is drowning in data right now.

Liz Carter: Totally.

Chelsea Kneeland: Maybe it's just me.

Liz Carter: No, it's not just you. We all are. I think everybody is and, and the expectation of AI. Whether it's in its hype, the highest part of the hype cycle or just the beginning, it's unclear, but there's a lot of pressure on business today to understand in seconds what's happening, and I think that we all fall victim to that. And so anyway, I just think really understanding what your leading indicators are,sticking to them, evolving them as things shift, but I think it's a really important thing.

Chelsea Kneeland: I agree. Thinking about the future state of things, what are you most excited about for the future of marketing or the future of real estate?

There's gotta be something that you're like, "Ooh, I get a little pumped up about this."

Liz Carter: I think I said before, it's an exciting time in marketing today and to be in real estate and to think about some of the things you and I had talked about already on this call is just, I think that there consumers have so many more options. Renters, residents, they have a lot of options.

They can be really picky, right? They are searching based on things, very different things than they used to. So it's really upon all of us, as marketers to understand that data, to think about who are we and who should we be marketing to, because they're gonna be the best person to come to this place and to make it a home and get a lot of value out of this community, right?

So I think that it is an exciting time because you can really. Try to understand so much more about your buyers because there's so much data out there at your fingertips. And do some really fun and creative things. Speak to the consumer that's meant for you in a way that maybe you weren't able to before.

'Cause you didn't really put that stake in the ground and say, this is who we are and who we wanna be serving.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah, I think I get really excited about when I think that this is a time where there's a bit of a leveling of the playing field. I can remember when only the communities with the biggest budgets could really reach renters or make an impact.

And now it feels it's gonna be a bit more, maybe I'm hopeful, but a bit more honest, that maybe it's gonna be the communities that are treating their people best and have absolutely a really great sense of community or really excellent customer service, that it's going to even that playing field out a little bit of put your money where your mouth is, and also if you have a smaller team, you have access now to tools and opportunities that you just really didn't before.

So I get really thrilled when I think about how maybe some of our, no shade to our larger operators, we love you, but that some of our smaller operators with maybe smaller budgets will also be able to shine in a way that they couldn't before.

Liz Carter: Totally. I love that idea and I think that, at Reputation, we've always said and as we've shifted into this era of AI and really looked at building our platform with AI at the center.

It's about using technology to actually strengthen the relationship between those residents, and the community that they choose to live in. So really helping give these operators the information they need to connect in the way that they should, with those residents.

And I think that's what's really important to us, is to not disconnect, right? Not use AI to be disconnected from those renters and those residents, but actually to better help you find the ways to connect in the right way.

Chelsea Kneeland: I scream that from the mountaintops and I'm like making your friendship bracelet right now because I am so on that same wavelength.

And I've been saying that for years and years that technology should be helping us so that we have the time to have better personal connections. Because it does not matter how far in the future we are, humans are still gonna human, and they want to be seen and they wanna be heard, and they want to feel a connection with the other people, especially when it comes to their homes.

So whether it's making connections between neighbors, with the staff, all of those things matter so much. I still have the wind chime at my house that's outside my window that one of my residents gave me in 2001.

Because they were thanking me for something and like I think about that connection 20, what are we going on 25 years later, that's still going strong and how privileged we are to manage and take care of people's homes for them.

Liz Carter: Exactly. Now what an emotional kind of decision people have to make.

And it's so important for them to be getting to make the right decision, to live in a place. And I think, I know that the operators take that so seriously, right? As they're, doing their marketing out to get people in. And I think it is, it's just, it's a special thing.

And to be able to really understand how to connect in today's market, I think is a game changer, like you said for any of them.

Chelsea Kneeland: Yeah. I really think even in the future, when I think about how to prepare, my kiddos for the world, the professional world in the future, I'm like, man, if I can just teach them logic because they're gonna need it when interacting with the computer and how to interact with other humans, I think they're gonna be pretty far ahead of the game.

And I think the same with today's marketers. If we can teach them that data is great, but they've gotta figure out what data matters and how to still connect with humans, it's gonna be a great world that we live in the future.

Liz Carter: Yeah, absolutely.

Chelsea Kneeland: This was the best conversation. It's been so much fun.

Was there any one thing that we should leave on that you're like, "Hey, I didn't get to tell you this about what Reputation is doing," or any other wisdom you wanna impart on us before we…

Liz Carter: I'm not sure when this airs, but we have an event coming up on September 8th where we are launching a set of new products on top of our built for AI platform.

And I think that really it's just about. Like I said earlier on, it's about ensuring our customers have access to the intelligence they need to really make strategic decisions. And because things are changing on a regular basis. And so I would encourage listeners to either listen to that recording or join the event live and and really understand, what's the sort of foundation that you need to ensure you're managing your reputation in real time and how that can actually benefit you from a strategic position.

Chelsea Kneeland: I know I'll be watching if I can. I love all of this information and I love hearing about all the new innovation that companies that I've known and loved for a long time are coming out with and the ways they're changing.

I just think it's so impressive. So thank you Liz, so much for being with us. We appreciate you and we love hearing all the amazing things that Reputation is doing. So we look forward to hopefully chatting again in the future soon.

Liz Carter: Sounds good. Thank you so much.

Chelsea Kneeland: Thank you.