Check Out The Latest Updates on ApartmentRatings
1. New Events Timeline Feature
The events timeline feature offers prospective residents viewing your community on ApartmentRatings the opportunity to see a timeline of relevant events that you, the community manager, create! Not only does it highlight your dynamic epIQ Grade, it also creates a record for visitors to see your community’s history. A visitor can see how your community has grown over the past months and years, and how your epIQ Grade has changed. Using the events timeline allows community managers to tell the complete story of their community, build a sense of community, and help influence the decision-making process for a potential resident. Below are just a few of the options we recommend adding to the historical events timeline:
- Community Updates
- Resident Social Events
- Management Changes
- Capital Improvements (new amenities, property expansions, etc.)
The events timeline feature is available for all manager center clients. To start creating your community timeline, login to Exchange and visit the Training Videos tab in the Education Library.
2. Video Reviews
Video has become increasingly relevant in all industries, but especially in multifamily during the pandemic as renters were often not able to visit communities in person. Independent consumer studies have found that 72% of people would rather learn about a product through video rather than any other channel and video can increase conversion rates by up to 80%.
Videos added to reviews are a great opportunity for user generated content – renters can tell the story and highlight their favorite features of their apartment or community, including:
- Apartment layout / furniture arrangement options
- Unique community amenities and décor
- Cleanliness and landscaping of community grounds
- Favorite apartment and/or community features
- Nearby neighborhood amenities and hotspots
- & more….
To meet the needs of renters as well as the ever-evolving multifamily industry, we have added the opportunity for renters to utilize videos in their community reviews on ApartmentRatings. Renters now have the ability to record and post a video review of their apartment and/or community up to 2 minutes long. The video accompanies the rating of the community as well as the written portion of the review. Before posting a video, renters will be provided with a strict code of conduct to adhere to and all videos will be reviewed by our abuse team before being approved and posted. Any videos in violation of our conduct will be completely removed (no edits will be made).
All video reviews are an additional part of a regular written review and can be responded to in the same manner as written reviews on the website via the Exchange platform. To learn about how to view and respond to the video review feature, login to Exchange and visit the Training Videos tab in the Education Library.
3. Not Recommended Reviews Feature
At ApartmentRatings, we are always striving to provide the most honest and authentic information to the renter community. In that respect, we are constantly adapting to make sure renters have a full picture of a community to make the best buying decision for themselves. Our latest feature allows renters to not only write a review, but also evaluate and ‘not recommend’ other reviews written about a community they are viewing and/or live in.
Our not recommended reviews feature allows renters the ability to express concern about reviews they experience by flagging them. A review is able to be flagged via the Report button, and a number of reason codes are available to the flagger. Any given review can only be flagged one time per individual renter. Reviews flagged for a reason that violates our Terms and Conditions will immediately be forwarded to our Abuse team for evaluation. Reviews flagged multiple times for any other individual reason may be moved to our new Not Recommended reviews page for the community. Renters will still be able to read those reviews by clicking on the not recommended reviews link on the community’s page, but those reviews will no longer contribute toward the epIQ results or any award earning efforts for that community.
If you have any questions regarding the new product updates & features, please reach out to your dedicated ApartmentRatings & SatisFacts Account Manager or email: [email protected].
Learn more about the epIQ (Experience & Performance Intelligence Quotient) Index and how it is used to provide a reliable way for renters and industry operators to determine how well a community or portfolio of communities meets the needs and expectations of its current, past, and prospective residents using a familiar letter grade & report card format.
