It is never easy for owners to read negative comments about their communities on apartment ratings websites. However, ignoring such reviews—or responding in an impolite or defensive manner—will not help to improve the community’s image.
During an Independent Rental Owner (IRO) Best Practices Conference Call on April 20, hosted by the NAA IRO Committee (IROC) and sponsored by CallSource and Rent.com, Paula Lane, Regional Marketing Director, Pinnacle, and President of the Nevada State Apartment Association, said each community in her Seattle-based company’s portfolio pays $180 a year, in addition to a one-time $100 registration fee, in order to respond to comments on ApartmentRatings.com as the verified apartment manager.
Although it is free to comment on ApartmentRatings.com as a regular user, Lane said her company believes that reply responses carry more weight when prospective residents see that they were posted by the actual owner or manager.
Lane suggested that owners respond to negative reviews with the following:
Dear Mr. Smith,
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. I would personally like to discuss the situation and see if we can help resolve the challenges you are experiencing. If you send me your contact information offline at paulamanager@ppm.com.
I will contact you and set up an appointment. I look forward to talking with you.
Sincerely,
Paula
If a community is fortunate enough to receive positive comments, Lane said it is equally important to respond with something akin to the following:
Dear Ms. Jones,
I wanted to personally thank you for sharing your positive experience about our community. We value your residency and strive to provide the best customer service to all our residents.
Sincerely,
Paula
However, Lane said it is never a good idea for a staff member to post a positive comment just to make the community look good. It is a bad practice and prospective residents know when the response is not authentic, she said. On the other hand, communities can ask their residents to post positive, factual comments.
Victoria Cowart, President of the South Carolina Apartment Association and Vice President of Property Management for Charleston-based Darby Development Company Inc., responds to reviews on ApartmentRatings.com as a traditional user. She keeps track of reviews on such ratings sites through Google Alerts, which provides e-mail updates of the latest relevant Google results (Web, news, etc.) for each of her communities, based on Cowart’s choice of query or topic.
Cowart suggested including both the name and location of the community in the Google Alert to avoid receiving notifications for communities outside of one’s portfolio that share the same name.
Cowart said she receives an e-mail notification from Google Alerts on the same day that a new comment or review is posted on an apartment ratings site so she can respond immediately.
—NAA’s Lauren Boston