With the birth of review sites such as Yelp, a company’s reputation has never been more easily influenced. It only takes a few bad reviews for prospective tenants to steer clear of your apartment building or multi-family complex. You cannot afford to ignore bad reviews. Although every business will end up with a couple of negative reviews at some point, the most important part of this is getting ahead of the feedback and developing a comprehensive online reputation management plan.
Reputation management is the process of influencing the public’s opinion of your business. Although it originated as a public relations term, it has grown to overtake numerous aspects of every company due to the advancement of social media and the internet. Every company needs to take an active role in this endeavor, and here are the steps to accomplish it.
Create Guidelines for Responding to Issues
From the manager to the groundskeeper, everyone should be aware of how to treat tenants. Most importantly, this involves teaching good interpersonal skills. Everyone who works for you should know what tone and composure to maintain when around tenants. From the moment tenants sign the lease to when they decide not to renew, their experience should be first-class all the way.
Use Metric Tools
After ensuring all your tenants have a good experience, you then need to monitor your building’s online presence. You can look up the total number of reviews your apartment complex has and how well you engage with people on social media. If you only have a couple of reviews from several years ago, then you should aim to get your current tenants to leave some reviews. You can send everyone a friendly email or text and ask each household to leave a review on Google or Facebook.
Additionally, you should receive alerts for anytime someone leaves a comment or post on your Facebook page. You should respond to this post within a reasonable amount of time. This is particularly important if someone asks a question. The first impression of your residential property will be molded by how you interact with potential tenants online.
Work To Correct Problems
When you find a negative review, you should first reach out to the person privately to see what the underlying issue is. From there, you can take steps to correct the problem. Once the tenant is satisfied with the changes, you can then ask if he or she would be willing to update the review. People may be able to see the first negative review, but they will also see that you were responsive and helped the person who complained. Far too many landlords lash out in anger when they find a negative review, and you do not want to fall into that category.
Offer a Resident Referral Program
There are many ways you can fill a vacancy when one opens up. One of the best ways is to start a resident referral program where a tenant receives an incentive for referring a person to your apartment complex. People will only refer others if they have been happy with their stay. Getting those referrals is absolutely worth the few hundred dollars you will give the current tenant. The program ends up paying for itself quickly.
Make Reputation Management Part of the Work Culture
Reputation management is more than just increasing the number of stars you have on Yelp. It is about altering people’s perception of your business. People looking for apartments have a lot of options to choose from, and you need to make it clear you offer something no one else can provide. Other apartment buildings may offer certain amenities you do not have. However, if you can make it clear you provide a customer service experience like no other, then it could be enough to tip the scales in your favor.
Reach Out for Help
Reputation management may seem daunting, but fortunately, Opiniion simplifies the process. Our software makes it easy to collect feedback from your tenants. You receive a comprehensive data set that lets you know where you need to improve. The software is simple and makes your job tremendously less difficult. You can get started with us today, and before you know it, your online reputation will gradually improve.
