LEASING
brent williams | multifamily insiders
Your Online Reputation is Wrecked What Should You Do?
N
ot every community enjoys a sterling
reputation online, and some are flat out
in the dumps, but it doesn’t have to
remain that way. Here is a guide for
communities that are being blasted on ratings sites
and social media:
HONEST SELF ASSESSMENT
Many people have convinced themselves that
ratings sites are inherently rigged, so they simply
ignore them all, assuming that nothing is accurate.
But the reality is that no matter how unfair some
reviews might seem, there are going to be nuggets
of truth.
often see it as baseless and mentally dismiss it. But
even better is to head off the situation before it
becomes a negative review in the first place. Improvements in customer service training can deescalate a situation , helping a disgruntled resident
get their frustrations out before they unleash on
ratings sites.
On another front, there will also be negative
reviews that are not from insane residents, but
It’s one thing to say that you will make
things better, and a whole different thing
to outline the plan. People are fairly
understanding and will give second
chances, but it is important that
they see a plan. What’s great
about this step is that you can
also often roll it up in to your
marketing on how you are
improving the community.
Keep in mind, however, to not lose sight of
the fact that this is penance of sorts - you are
looking to make amends,
and not “doing them a
favor” by making these
operational changes.
IMPROVE YOUR
PRODUCT AND
SERVICE
When people talk about
reputation management, it
seems most times it is focused
on the process of actually responding to the negative review.
And while this is important, it really ignores the ultimate fact that
operational changes probably need to
be made in some way. It does not matter at all how you respond to your reviews
online if steps are not taken to fix underlying
problems at the community.
Anyone who has worked on site knows that
mixed in with all the great residents are those that
are simply a bit mentally imbalanced. Their requests
are insane, their complaints are absurd, and they
end up taking 90% of our time and effort. So when
a property manager sees a review from a person
like this, the first reaction is to simply ignore it.
They are crazy, so why be concerned?
To a certain extent, that actually might be true
- prospects reading those types of reviews will
www.aamdhq.org
Dominoes did a great job at this a while ago,
reading complaints about their crust being like
cardboard. They owned up to the problems and
then fervently worked to fix the issues, creating a
whole legion of new, loyal fans.
DETAIL WHAT IS BEING DONE TO
FIX THE ISSUE
Nobody’s service is perfect, and reviews
are a great way to analyze your own service
and determine where you might be
dropping the ball. The real question
is whether it is possible to analyze
those reviews without taking a defensive attitude, and instead viewing them as opportunities to
improve.
IMPROVE YOUR ABILITY TO
HANDLE ISSUES BEFORE THEY
BECOME A NEGATIVE REVIEW
a role to play in the reviews, whether it wants to
admit it or not. So rather than make excuses,
simply saying, “we screwed up”, goes a LONG way
to appeasing your residents.
GIVE PROGRESS
UPDATES AND
RESOLUTION
rather norm a l
residents who you
just simply
never heard of. Maybe their maintenance request
wasn’t taken care of properly, or they were kept in
the dark on their issue. In some cases, better processes for resident communication could root out
these issues before they hit ratings sites.
APOLOGIZE AND OWN UP TO IT
If your reputation is truly in the dumps, it is
very unlikely that the community is just the victim
of nasty people. Most likely, the community had
So you have made a plan, but
is the plan actually happening?
Don’t blame your residents for being
a bit skeptical. So instead, give constant
updates on the progress of each improvement, no matter how trivial it may seem. The
more these improvements are publicized, the more
faith your residents will have that everything will
turn out wonderful in the end.
And finally, once you feel you have addressed
all the major upgrades, use it as an opportunity to
showcase
your
responsiveness!
Brent Williams is Chief Insider of Multifamily Insiders, the
largest social network in the world for multifamily professionals. His background includes both property management
and supplier, and he writes on all facets of the multifamily
industry, although his focus lies in resident retention.
JULY 2015 • TRENDS | 33