I came across some interesting research this morning that further demonstrates the value of opening up our portals to resident/prospect reviews. Here are some of the highlights:
- 77% of online shoppers use reviews and ratings when purchasing (Jupiter Research, August 2006)
- 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews. (CompUSA & iPerceptions study)
- 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friend’s recommendation over a review by a critic, while 83.8% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. (MarketSherpa)
I believe this will be a trend to contend with in the apartment industry soon enough. Apartmentratings.com is already providing a platform for it so why not do it yourself. If you do, really think about full transparency. In other words, avoid the temptation to edit the comments. The only time I would be an advocate for that is if residents/prospects got really personal with their positive/negative feedback. Even then it would have to be pretty egregious.
See related story: Apartment review sites; friend or foe, it’s up to you
Technorati Tags: apartment reviews, transparency, authenticity, mike brewer
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I could see where it could be helpful but most often times, these forums would turn into a bashing and only provide negative feedback from the one time the tenants leak wasn’t fixed in five minutes….Not sure if this would work, nonetheless I love your blog keep up the good work…
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