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Let Your Residents Help You Improve Your Online Ratings

A ll owners today at some pointdeal with negative onlinefeedback, especially in the formof comments on apartment

ratings sites. As an independent owner ofthree communities in central Wisconsin,my reputation is solid. But that image cantake a heavy hit as a result of just a coupleof complaints posted on a ratings site.

In the matter of a few keystrokes by adisgruntled resident applicant whom Iturned away, one of our properties

(Wilshire Woods in Stevens Point, Wis.)saw its 100 score on one ratings websitesliced to 40.

It’s interesting to note that these com-ments should not have even been postedon the ratings site. The site says it pub-lishes comments only from a communi-ty’s existing and former residents.

It’s difficult to gauge whether thosecomments ultimately affected our effortsto fill our next vacant units. Regardless,it’s easy to wage a campaign aimed at

persuading our current and satisfied residents to help us boost our ratings.

Improving our community rating wasone of my personal goals for 2010, andI’m succeeding. Here’s what I did: In February, I sent a letter to our residents,encouraging them to send positive feed-back to the ratings site. I also sent a simi-lar letter to former residents who movedout over the past two years, asking themto describe their experiences while livingin our property. In less than two months,

Campaigns to solicit positive feedback can help owners regain control of their online reputations.

BY RICH SOMMER

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Dear Wilshire Woods Resident,

If living at Wilshire Woods Apartments has been a positive experience, we would like to

hear from you.

We are doing two things in the next few months:

1. We are updating our website: “What do other people say?”

2. We are looking at our online presence and reviews

We often receive complimentary notes from present residents or re

sidents who have

lived at Wilshire Woods. These notes are always appreciated; however, these comments are

not always available to prospective residents. There are two ways you can help us:

1. Write about your experience at Wilshire Woods. You can choose to give permission to

use your full name or your first name or rem

ain anonymous. Any testimonial can be

e-mailed or sent to us.

2. You can write an online review. Be assured that these reviews are anonymous.

You will have to register on

these sites to write a review.

• First site: Apartment Ratings. http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/WI-Stevens-

Point-Wilshire-Woods.html. Please be forewarned that there are two very negative

reviews on that site. I can assure you that neither of th

ese people lived at Wilshire

Woods. We maintain a very high standard for the people living at Wilshire Woods, and

you may not have wanted these people as your neighbor.

• Second site: Google.com. Click on Maps on the top. Type in Wilshire Woods Stevens

Point, Wis. Click on Search Maps. On the upper left you can read the reviews and

write a review.

Anything you can do will be greatly appreciated. Respectfully,

Rich and Carolyn Sommerour rating nearly doubled to 77. As ofJune 3, our rating was 82, and eight ofthe 10 comments posted gave the com-munity a score of 5.0 on a 1-to-5 ratingscale.

Some owners might hope that theirsites don’t show up on apartment ratingssites. These owners are probably missinga great marketing opportunity. Becauseof Google’s immense popularity, ownerstoday should realize that they can’t reallyhide from online ratings sites. Consider

that earlier this year, a prospective resi-dent entered our property’s name on aGoogle Maps search, and the result was alink to the ratings site and the negativecomments supplied by those applicantswho we did not accept that I mentionedearlier.

When I saw that Google link, at first, I felt helpless and at the mercy of thesearch engine. But with a bit of honest,hard work, we were able to turn this intoa positive situation. We improved our

ratings bycommunicatingdirectly with resi-dents and asking them to serve as evan-gelists for our community. We even filleda recent vacancy at the 32-unit commu-nity with a resident who found us at anapartment ratings site.

Today’s tech-savvy generation ofrenters check online reviews for every-thing from restaurants to mobile devices.Choosing their next apartment home is one of the most important decisionsthey’ll make, so they’ll be sure to do their due diligence online. Take controlof your reputation by leveraging one of your greatest resources—satisfied customers.

After sending this letter to residents, Sommer saw the online rating of one of his communities nearly double.

In less than two months, our

rating nearly doubled to 77.

Rich Sommer is Presidentof Sommer Rentals,based in Stevens Point,Wis. He can be reachedat rsommer@wctc.net.

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