Just that word “review” makes us shutter. Why does it always make us uncomfortable and
think the worst? It is usually because
the people who take the time to review you have something terrible to say.
On a personal note I have recently had this happen at my
property. I woke up at 4 A.M. unable to
sleep and decided to open up Facebook. My
property had notifications from a gentleman named Slick Mick, no kidding this
was his name, and I read them. Note: Never, ever look at anything work related at
4:00 A.M! This review had very nasty
things to say about the work or lack of, in his words, going on at the
property. It went on and on, post after
post. And a positive post brought
further comments. How do you begin to
combat such a thing?
Since we are all guilty at looking at reviews prior to
purchasing any product, why would apartments be any different. For most people,
a review is the number one driving force to either buy a product or not. In
some cases, people are coming from another part of the country and cannot
physically see or touch an apartment or the community and therefore have to
rely on these reviews in order to determine where they will spend the next year
of their life. That alone should
motivate us to make sure that our property and staff is the best that it can
be.
No one likes to see a negative review; however we do have to
learn how to deal with them. Both
positive and negative reviews should always receive responses as we need to let
our residents know that we hear them and will do whatever it takes to make sure
they have a positive experience while living at our community. The following tools can be utilized to assist
you in responding to these reviews.
Always review the post, draft
a response, and review it with the team prior to posting. Even bad posts deserve an empathetic,
professional, and courteous response. By
not responding at all, you are only sending the message that the staff is not
interested in their comments. In
addition, you need to listen to what your residents are saying, whether it is
good, bad, or indifferent. Are there
other residents posting the same complaints?
And most important, what do we need to do to fix the problem?
When receiving a positive
review, thank them for the review and remind them that all of their comments
are heard and shared with the rest of the staff. We should always be willing to hear about
their experiences at our community and let them know that customer service is a
priority.
Getting residents to write
a positive review is not as easy as it sounds; however there are ways to
encourage other residents to write a positive post in an effort to counteract the
bad ones. Have contests at your property
with incentives for residents, which they will surely write about in a
rating. You can also post everything you
have done and will do at the property on your Facebook page. It is important to let people know what you
are doing as it will keep current residents informed and prospects interested
and impressed!
Here are a few tips for responding to ratings and reviews:
Don’t react immediately.
Always remain professional in your response.
Always address the issue and research the complaint prior to
responding.
Focus on what the real issue is by listening.
Sometimes people tend to have a bad day and they will just unload
all kinds of issues at once, even though they may only be upset about the fact that
they got a rental increase or a legal notice.
For an extremely negative post, take it offline and offer to
meet with the resident in person. If
this does not work in resolving the issue, make sure to post a simple message
in response to the post so that others realize you are addressing the issue.
Property Management brings customer service to a whole new
level. I think we would all agree that
our profession takes a great deal of patience, perhaps more than we ever knew
we were capable of on some days!
At the end of the day we could sing a familiar tune, “where
everybody knows your name.”
Our job is to make sure it is for the right reasons!
~The Cubs
Great advice!
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