It’s no secret that reputation management is critical to the leasing process. Renters rely heavily on online reviews and opinions before deciding to lease. For that reason, reputation should be at the forefront of any multifamily business, large or small. More importantly, if actively managed, it can also be a powerful resident acquisition and retention tool.
However, managing every property’s online reputation — and on every platform — is a monumental task. A reputation management tool can save you time by because it gives giving you consolidated visibility into reviews, community sentiment, social media activity, search rankings, competitive benchmarks, and listing accuracy.
With the right tools, proactively managing your online reputation transforms a monumental task into a strategic advantage that attracts new prospects and keeps residents happy.
Let’s look at three important ways a reputation management tool can help skyrocket your success.
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- What is Reputation Management?
- 3 Reasons You Need Reputation Management
- Don’t Leave Your Reputation Management to Chance
What is Reputation Management?
We all know that negative online reviews can hurt your business. But before we explore solutions to mitigate them, let’s define reputation management.
In the world of property management, reputation management is all about cultivating a positive online image. It’s a complex process that involves monitoring online reviews, social media comments, and even news articles to understand perceptions and follow what customers are saying about your business online.
85% of residents rely on online reviews to choose their next apartment, so your reputation shouldn’t be overlooked. Responding to positive and negative feedback and proactively building relationships with your residents and prospects are the keys to shaping a strong online reputation. By taking charge of your narrative, you can turn satisfied customers into brand advocates and build trust that leads to success.
3 Reasons You Need Reputation Management
Curious about the buzz around your brand? You should be! Online reviews can make or break your business. According to the 2024 Renter Preferences Survey Report, 79% of renters report that reviews influenced their leasing decisions, and 71% of those who research reviews won’t visit a property if the online reviews aren’t stellar.
Here are three ways reputation management can help skyrocket your property’s online reputation:
1. Monitor Your Online Presence
In today’s digital landscape, potential renters can find information about your properties from a vast array of sources, but gathering and managing scattered feedback about your property’s reputation can be time-consuming.
Effectively monitoring your online presence means keeping close tabs on all these conversations and touchpoints. This includes tracking reviews on Google, Yelp, and other platforms, along with social media mentions and any news articles about your property.
When you’re managing multiple social accounts, it’s hard to keep up with every comment, post, hashtag, and question. However, you need a complete picture of what residents love — and loathe — to keep satisfaction high, showcase strengths, and address concerns.
But trying to manage “all the things” has become a full-time job, and likely not the one your employees were actually hired to do!
Using an industry-specific reputation management tool, allows you to see mentions and posts from all your sites in one place, even tracking maps to measure local visibility and web rankings.
When you use a reputable reputation management tool, here’s what a comprehensive approach to online monitoring looks like:
- Review Sites: Get aggregated ratings and reviews from all the major review sites, including Google, Yelp, Facebook, ApartmentGuide, ApartmentRatings, and Rent.com. A robust reputation management tool will notify you of new reviews, both positive and negative.
- Social Media: Track mentions, comments, and messages across all your social media platforms, including Facebook, X, Instagram, Nextdoor, and more. This allows you to pay attention to what residents and potential renters are saying and, more importantly, be ready to engage in conversations and address concerns.
Taking a multi-pronged approach and leveraging the right tools can give you a holistic view of your online reputation. Doing so allows you to identify areas for improvement, address concerns promptly, and showcase the positive aspects of your properties to potential renters.
2. Respond to Reviews in Real Time
If property managers are unaware or not responding to online reviews or social post mentions, it can deter prospects and negatively impact leasing performance. Whether it’s fair or not, 47% of customers expect management to respond to all online reviews.
Given the increasingly large number of platforms where people can share their thoughts and opinions, monitoring this has become a monumental task.
As you think about how your property is managing responses to online reviews and social media, here are some questions to consider:
- Who is responsible for responding to online reviews for your properties?
- How much time do they spend managing reviews and social media?
- How do you control the quality of the responses?
These are all critical questions when it comes to reputation management. Additionally, impersonal responses or ignoring customer reviews can be costly! If you think it’s not that important, well, think again!
Studies show a 15% increase in churn when businesses fail to respond to online reviews. What’s more shocking, 56% of consumers change their opinion of a company based on how they respond to reviews.
In this digital age, customers have come to expect a swift response, so it’s equally important you have a reputation management tool that keeps up. In fact, businesses that reply to their reviews at least 25% of the time average 35% more revenue than businesses that don’t.
Tips for Responding Strategically
- Address both positive and negative feedback to show you care and are engaged with your residents.
- For positive reviews, a simple “thank you” goes a long way.
- For negative reviews, a professional and prompt response acknowledging the issue and outlining how you’ll address it is key.
A robust reputation management tool lifts this burden by combining customization and automation . With the right solution, you can bridge the gap with customizable templates and AI-powered responses, ensuring you have impactful responses to every interaction.
Don’t let stray online reviews or social mentions derail your property’s progress! A proactive and well-managed online reputation can be the difference between success and failure. Take control of your narrative and watch your leasing performance soar.
3. Identify Competitive Trends
Keeping your finger on the pulse of industry trends is crucial. But who has the time to constantly monitor the competition? Chances are, you aren’t looking at what your competitors are doing often enough to stay ahead of trends. And this can be a costly error!
An online reputation management tool can be your secret weapon to gather valuable insights and give you a clear picture of what’s happening at nearby properties.
Here’s how a reputation management tool helps you identify competitive trends:
- Monitor Competitor Reviews: See what amenities and services residents are raving about (or complaining about) at your competitor’s properties. Monitoring allows you to identify areas where you excel and areas where you might be falling short. This knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions about where to invest resources to elevate your property’s offerings.
- Benchmark Your Performance: Reputation management tools provide sentiment analysis, allowing you to compare your online reputation to your competitors. A data-driven understanding of your strengths and weaknesses relative to the competition enables you to strategically target improvement efforts.
- Identify Emerging Resident Needs: Analyzing online reviews can also reveal broader trends in resident needs and preferences. By identifying common themes, you can stay ahead of the curve and adapt your offerings to meet the evolving needs of today’s renters.
By leveraging a reputation management tool to identify competitive trends, you gain a significant advantage with the ability to use this knowledge to differentiate your property and attract new residents.
Don’t Leave Your Reputation Management to Chance
The link between online reputation and property performance is undeniable. Unfortunately, when multifamily organizations try to manage their online brand without an effective, industry-specific solution, getting a consolidated view of overall performance across properties can be difficult.
These proven reputation management practices help you build trust with potential residents, keep residents happy, and position your multifamily property for success.
Grace Hill’s Reputation Management solution offers:
- Convenience: Grace Hill makes it quick and easy to respond to reviews and social media mentions through one convenient dashboard, so you can be sure you won’t miss comments, posts, hashtags, or questions from residents and prospects.
- Competitive Analysis: Our Local Brand Visibility (LBV) score benchmarks trends across five key areas (reviews, social, listings, search analytics, and competitors). It is a single, comprehensive metric that reveals your brand’s true online strength and ranks each community against the competition.
- Advance Integrative AI: AI-powered templates ensure professional, consistent, and authentic responses. Plus, you can use natural language to “Ask AI Anything,” helping you instantly summarize and act on customer feedback. These advanced tools help streamline and optimize your reputation management strategy and elevate your customer experience.
Grace Hill gives you the visibility, analysis, and insights you need to make informed operational decisions to build your reputation online and onsite.
Isn’t it time to skyrocket your success with a reputation management tool that’s built for multifamily ? To save your team time, streamline operations, and drive results, talk to a Grace Hill expert today!
