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Apartment Reviews – Reimagined

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Looking back

 Back in October of 2007 we wrote about participating in the conversation via rating sites and even suggested incorporating a mechanism into your property management website to make it easier. Here is a bit of a revised excerpt from that post;

 “If you are still of the mind that dismisses the value of sites like apartmentratings.com, listen up. The feedback outlined in the brief above [Deloitte] should move you to action as soon as possible. I truly think we should all open up our company websites to include a consumer and resident feedback mechanism. Instead of internal score keeping, make it completely transparent. My only suggesting is that you have an editor just for the sake of carving out names and character attacks as we know they will come despite our best efforts. Even with that in mind you have to be courageous enough to leave the meat and more importantly act on it.”

 Two years later

 Here we are nearly two years later in the midst of the conversation marketing buzz and while a good many of us are participating there is still a hesitancy to move that conversation to our websites. Even those that have don’t really have a great deal of participation in terms of consumers reviewing them.

 Two years from now

 Not only is the writing on the wall but the ink is dry and the conversation is going on with or without you. And, the benefits are immense when you bring the conversation to you;

  •  You have the ability to increase your credibility
  • You have the ability to participate
  • You have the ability to influence
  • You have the ability to increase your Google Juice
  • You have the ability to innovate with your consumer
  • You have the ability to create evangelist
  • You have the ability to generate further participation
  • You have the ability to create loyalty
  • You have the ability to create an environment where people feel they are part of something larger than themselves
  • You have that ability to respond in lieu of react [there is a big difference]

The more important point here is: how do we increase participation to an Amazonish or iTuneish type level? Do we ask former potential, existing or former residents to review their experience relative to their specific unit such that every unit takes on its very own unique rating? Would that allow us to price higher rated homes differently than lower rated homes. I see it as a great mechanism to allow us the opportunity to really maximize our rents. Maybe the lease rent optimizers out there employee a unit rating lever into their pricing algorithms. The ideas are endless – acting is the key.

 

 

0 Responses

    1. Stay tuned over the next 90 to 120 days – we will be moving in that direction. To what extent, I am not 100% sure but we are in talks now.

      Thanks for the question Mark – I hope your weekend is good so far.

      Reply

  3. Hey Mike, Good to see you back at penning your thoughts. Hope all is well with you.

    I like the idea of looking back to see what we have done verses what we said we should do. This whole idea of embracing Rating Sites is so on target. I believe web sites of the future will be one large interactive conversation as opposed to electronic brochures but I digress.

    We have added Yelp and Get Satisfaction buttons to our Urbane Lobby site. We have also added an Urbane Talk site to our main web site that aggregates comments automatically from our Yelp, Get Satisfaction and Apartment Ratings via RSS feeds onto a single site consolidated into one place.

    The beauty of the Urbane Talk site is that it also very simple to re post emails, pictures, facebook postings and such from residents right onto the site. It also adds another blog to your Google Juice Arsenal. Lastly, and most important, it has become one of our highest Landing Pages. It is a work in progress, but you can take a look at it here http://urbanetalk.com/ It is a fairly simple concept.

    Reply

  5. E,

    Thank you for taking the time – it feels good to be back although I will be taking a much needed vacation next week where I will be unplugging altogether. It's kind of a spiritual vacation – trying to get back in touch with reality and what is truly paramount in life.

    I actually looked at your site while writing this post – I really thought I would find more there given the time and effort you and your team put into encouraging this type of engagement. To find four reviews, one of which came from one of the bloggers you employee [I think that was the Yelp review if I am not mistake] was a bit of a let down. Not a let down in terms of your efforts but that of the willingness of your evangelists to share or participate.

    My mind is wondering how you get more people [without baiting them] to give feedback and or start their own conversations on any one of those platforms. What are your thoughts on this point?

    Mark, I would be interested in your thoughts as well.

    Have a stellar weekend guys.

    M

    Reply

    1. If you just constantly and consistently solicit feedback I don't see how that could be considered baiting. It's no different than my car dealership surveying me every time I get service. They want the feedback. How many management companies constantly survey their customers? (Internal surveys that are not publicly shared.) Are they consistent with them? I would guess that many do not consistently survey their customers (other than the big guys). And, I wonder why this is? Is it because it is expensive? Is it because it's a pain, and time consuming to do? Is it because they are scared to hear what people have to say?

      I think a first step in getting feedback is to just survey your customers internally. Find out what's really going on. After you feel comfortable with that there are plenty of opportunities to solicit additional feedback on public sites. I just feel the majority of companies are not going to solicit the feedback on these sites until they really know what's going on. My guess is that they think they know, but they really don't.

      So, step one, start surveying your customers. Get a program like The Resident Connection and survey constantly and consistently. Once you get comfortable with that information and how you are responding then ask them to hit Yelp! or ApartmentRatings or whatever. For Eric, he already has a good handle on his service and can already push these sites. As companies grow, however, we have to find a system to ask for more feedback. Most companies don't have the intimate relationship with their customers like Eric does. These companies might need to take a step back first. Obviously monitor rating sites, but don't start soliciting that feedback until you feed comfortable with you own internal surveys and how you're handling that feedback. And when you do solicit that feedback ask everyone consistently and constantly.

      We still have a long way to go.

      Reply

  7. Thanks Mike for this article. I am going to post it on my facebook page. Great thoughts and much for the multifamily industry to keep pondering on.

    Reply

  9. @Jonathan – thanks for the kind words – I agree we, as an industry, have some pondering to do and in the same respect we have a golden opportunity…

    Reply

  10. Heather – thank you for taking the time. It's great to hear that things are going well for you. We are in the beginning stages of change with regard to our web presence and I think the timing could not be more wonderful. Should be fun and I can't wait to get the ball rolling. We have a lot to learn and absorb and we are ready and willing.

    Hope your weekend is stellar.

    Reply

  11. M – thank you for the thoughtful response.

    I agree 100% with your feedback, where I struggle is that even Eric with all his success has little feedback on his site or the third party sites. I say that in respect of the absolute time he has given to building and executing the amazing resident experience.

    My real question is what would prompt a prospect/resident to record his/her thoughts on any feedback site? Ideally we would want it to be self-governed and how do we get to that level of intamacy? How can we get there without blasting them for their thoughts every time they turn around?

    I am pondering this one heavily as we re-imagine our web strategy.

    Have a great weekend, sir.

    M

    Reply

    1. Mike, I see where you are going. I guess what I was trying to stress is that we're not consistent in asking them questions in the first place. Your post http://multifamilycollective.com/2009/09/you-are-not-you… was an excellent explanation of this problem. We're just not as intimately involved with our customers as we should be, and we haven't trained them to want to share the information because we're just not asking for it. It's not routine.

      For example, why is it new prospects ask “what are your specials.” It's because all our competition, our advertising, and signage reinforce this message. We keep it in front of their face. Yes, a few people might try to negotiate or ask for a deal, but we've trained them all to ask for a “special” because it's a constant and consistent message. We can train our customers to give feedback as well. I contend that if you make it easy to do (even using incentives), they will begin to catch on. If our staffs understand how important it is to get the feedback, and we give them tools to make it easy to gather the feedback it will come.

      I think the real issue is with upper management and owners. I know Eric has always contended this. Many of these folks think they are in the real estate investment and management business. However, we're in the customer service business, we just happen to lease apartments.

      Reply

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