View Video Transcript
0:00
So welcome again everyone to on-site insights live. We are really excited to have this new series. It is the first one of 2020. I am Lionel Cole Smith. I’m the vice president of education and performance for satisfaction apartment ratings, and my co-presenter is Jennifer Carter who is our director of client performance. Good morning. I am excited for the new series.
0:30
This year. Yes, and this one is all about prospects and I have to say the title very slowly so I don’t have a tongue twister, but it’s prospects prospects prospects. That’s what we’re talking about for the first quarter of the year and part one. What we’re going to be D is delving into today all about prospects and how they feel about online reviews, you know, are they even reading them?
1:00
They take them seriously how big of an impact do reviews have on their decision to lease at your community. So, oh I live from start to finish 30 minutes. We’re going to give you all the goods. We would love for you to stick around for the after-party where we’re going to share best practices amongst all of us because you know, that’s kind of where the magic happens the chat box is always open.
1:26
So if you have any questions, feel free to chime on in as we’re Going through the info Jennifer and I will be sending a follow-up email. It will have a recording for this session. And also where you can go to download the slides because the slides are going to you know, kind of give you a little bit more to work with after the webinar is over with and we love for you to come back for parts to and parts three and we’ll give you the titles and topics what those are all about as we wrap up the webinar. So, you know those of you who have registered.
2:00
Didn’t have to pay to participate in this webinar and that is because of sphere experience is our webinar sponsor and a little bit later in the webinar. We’re going to hear some information or look at listen to you some information from sphere eggs, but we thank them greatly for their generous support. They have been our sponsor for years now.
2:24
So in a great company great people to work with so we’re going to start out with some quick stats just to kind of lay the groundwork as to how important reviews have become for prospects in their Journey. So stat number one, when we asked visitors to apartment ratings. Are you going to read the reviews before you make a leasing decision 89% of all the visitors that took the poll on apartment rating said, yes. I am here to read reviews before.
3:00
Or I decide where I’m going to least. That’s a big number almost 9 out of every 10 visitors are factoring reviews into their decision.
3:13
All right, and we also ask them. Excuse me. What is the most influential factors when deciding which Community to sign a lease with? So top four options we gave them was ratings and reviews and that one also came in at number one. So again kind of really putting that stamp on knowing that prospects are reading those reviews that are on apartment ratings.com. Just so you know falling behind that you can see amenities available.
3:43
Leti and photos. So again really wanting to understand I think from the prospects perspective of what it’s truly like to live at the community from a current resident that lives there and potentially even what is the management team? Like if they’re seeing responses, you know, what I thought was really interesting about this top for we don’t see price price isn’t on here.
4:06
So everyone’s really looking at sort of the quality of the community, you know, what life is like like at the community and price has really become, you know, a less important factor. Well, yeah, it kind of comes back to the value right of the amenities, you know, and really what are people saying like you said that that experience of what it’s going to be like to actually live there. Yeah, really interesting. Here’s another stat quick stat number three from our online renter study.
4:36
One of the questions that we asked was which do you tend to trust more and we gave The respondents a list of you know, these five here. What do you trust more when it comes to doing business with a management company number one was ratings and reviews. It rated higher or rank higher than feedback or Word of Mouth from you know, their friends family coworkers. Social media was number three. The company website is number 4 and then advertising, you know advertisements about the community is number.
5:12
5 so we’ve been doing this study every other year. So on odd years we’ve been doing this study and back in 2017. We’re going to show you how these ranked back in 2017. So back in 2017 ratings and reviews were number two word of mouth was number one. So those things have flip-flop check out social media. It has gone from number five in terms of being a trustworthy source to number three.
5:43
In just two years. So what we’re really looking at going back to Jennifer’s point in those things that are important is what stories are coming out of your community. What is that experience if I choose to live here? Can I see it? You know, can I read about it or other people talking about it? So again, we spend a lot of money a lot of time on our marketing, you know getting that messaging right and making sure the website.
6:12
You are looking great and have all the information but we have to back that up, you know backup that I guess the filtered selfie if you will we have to back that up with that wisdom of the crowd what are other people are other people kind of echoing the image that we laid out for ourselves?
6:36
Alright another great quick stat here. This is very telling I think as well into the story that you’re starting to kind of see with the information we’re providing. And so again, we asked the same folks do you tend to trust more as a relates to deciding to do business again with that apartment community or management company and this is really Broken Out by age. So I overall I look at this and I say no matter the age range right whether you’re 18.
7:05
Or you’re 65, right? If you are managing a you know, Active Adult Community or your may be managing a you know, student housing one no matter that age. You can see that the percentage of folks that are saying online ratings and feedbacks from customers is important. So I think it really a telling picture when you see that those percentages, you know for each of the age range. Yeah. And so again, sometimes the argument is well. I’m at a senior community.
7:35
And they don’t really look at our reviews and you don’t really care about our reviews or you know, it’s I’m in a student Community. They’re all about what our social media looks like.
7:44
Well, obviously when we’re doing our study with for our today’s online renter, this is you know, the the story that’s coming out of it if you will, which is interesting you say that because I just look here and it’s always amazes me social media even for 65 plus is 32% So really again, everybody is no matter the age is Out there reading reviews looking at social media, you know from all angles. Absolutely. So the final stat. Well, we have one after this would you trust a rating and review site? If all or most of the reviews were only positive 59 percent of the respondents said no, I would not trust a review site.
8:28
If all or most of the reviews were only positive and we say this all the time it’s need a little dirt. They need to know that you are human. They need to know that you know mistakes will happen. But what they also need to know is how you recover from that and that’s where those responses are going to be. So important. We have been doing a bunch of focus groups and talking to them about how they feel, you know about reviews them in general and one of their main concerns is how the management team actually is responding to a negative review.
9:05
You they don’t really care so much about the positive, you know, it’s great like to acknowledge and give kudos back to the person who gave you a review but they’re really honing in on how well-crafted that response is to a negative review. I think that that tells a little bit about the community itself if they see a response, right?
9:28
We know that it that it particularly prospects think that management company teams our office staff have great customer service and They’re willing to tackle, you know those responses that they’re seeing online exactly.
9:43
All right. And then the last one we have here is how often we asked you read manager responses. So not only are they reading reviews right? But are they reading those responses what you just talked about Leah and always 45.8% say yes, it always are reading the responses. So kind of tying in what I just mentioned is that your prospects are reading your responses and they’re thinking you know, how is this handled is management, you know customer service, you know, are they trustworthy?
10:12
For the and is that how I would be treated if I were to move in there from you know, the response that they’re seeing. Yeah, and I think what I take away from this table is 81.5% right 81.5% of the visitors are at least glancing at your responses. They are eyeballing them. They’re looking again. Like you said Jennifer to try and get a sense of how well the community team treats its residents, you know. Mmm.
10:42
If you’re doing that kind of copy and paste they maybe think that you just kind of dialing your service. So yeah, it’s super important that reviews are being responded to so all of that data that we’ve gathered at the top of this webinar really boils down to this number one prospects are reading reviews to help in their decision. It’s just another layer of information. It’s part of the filtering.
11:12
Process, you know, how do I get the how do I get to make the best decision possible?
11:20
And then of course reviews are the most trusted source for your prospect. So when I think of these two things combined, I think that just as much time as we spend in our websites right in our other forms of marketing we have to spend the same amount of time in the review area of our community absolutely.
11:40
Next is a perfect online story could potentially work against you we know that 59% would not trust a review site if it’s All or mostly positive so it’s okay. It’s okay to have a negative review here and there just make sure that that negative review is an outlier, you know, it’s not a common thread or common complaint that your residents, you know tend to have in their reviews. If it’s you know that one off they chalk it up to that person’s experience. And what’s the chance that that’s going to happen to me if I decide to become a resident?
12:18
Responses offer a glimpse into the quality of customer service. So again again those responses are just as important as it is to have those reviews because without the responses it may appear to a prospect that management or the staff isn’t caring or is an attentive to their current residents. So as a prospect they might start to question. So we really want to make sure that we have responses that are quality.
12:45
Absolutely and then finally Social media should just tell the prospects what life is like, you know, we want we know that they’re looking we even had a focus group participant said, yeah, I kind of stalk their social media pain. I’m I’m I’m out there. I’m looking at, you know, see what’s going on and what’s happening, you know, we want that to be again a chapter in the story of Life at the community, you know celebrate you’re right.
13:18
Go ahead. I always say as prospects. We want it. We always want to make sure that they have a little foam. Oh right as a prospect you think oh, that’s socials cool as a resident. I want to do those kinds of things that they’re showcasing on their social media Pages. Yeah, and I think honestly as an industry communities have gotten so much better. Oh, yes.
13:38
Yes, I even enjoy going on their pages and looking to see what’s happening and checking out their Instagram and you know all the Fun photos of everything that’s going on.
13:50
We just want to kind of keep that going, you know, just let that be sort of the megaphone to the rest of you know the public as to what’s happening at your community and what life is like All right, so tips for reviews. So if anything this is this is going to give you some good valuable takeaways that you can put in place. So most important within 90 days is what resident prospects rather excuse me are looking at so looking at reviews within the last 90 days anything beyond that right prospects are really not saying that it’s relevant. They’re just not taking really any concern into that.
14:32
So at least four to six reviews During that time. So that’s the key of what you want to make sure that you have in really that they’re fresh right? You probably can think about things that you do in your daily life that you look at that you want to see reviews that are for current things. So four to six reviews prospects are looking at during that time frame.
14:54
But they will consider up to six months. But we again want to make sure that they are as current as possible. So there is the opportunity might look back but really again most important is that 90 days?
15:08
All right, so anything later than one year little consideration, right? So it’s kind of considered stale. You know, they somebody might be complaining, you know, or talking about, you know the dog park, but maybe it doesn’t even look like that anymore. Right? So we want to make sure that we have some again relevant information for prospects to take advantage of yeah, I think prospects don’t really consider anything older than a year because that person may no longer.
15:37
Event the community. Yeah management team might have changed. I’m so you know, there’s a lot that happens in the course of a year at a at an apartment community for sure. Absolutely. And then lastly that’s social proof is the wisdom of the crowd. So again wisdom of the crowd is kind of saying polling. What is the majority of folks saying about this community we use this example a lot is if you have four total reviews right in three are positive is one is negative.
16:07
In that instance, the wisdom of the crowd is a positive 1 write those three positive are going to kind of outshine that- and that negative one might not have as much weight when it comes to that prospects decision. So that’s just kind of a quick example of wisdom of the crowd Jennifer.
16:25
I think one of the points that you made about prospects reading kind of four to six reviews, I think that speaks to the fact that you have more prospects using their mobile devices using if I To keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. I just I’m just going to read a few of them, you know again liquor for that wisdom of the crowd and get a general sense like okay, this place seems legit, you know based on what I read in these reviews. I can move forward but using that mobile device. I mean, I’m not going to sit there and kind of scroll and scroll all day absolutely totally agreed with you for sure. So then we have tips for responding. We know that responses like Jennifer.
17:07
I said kind of give you an idea of how residents are treated or that’s the perception for your prospects. So it really is that litmus test of your customer service, you know, if they see the same repeat things over and over again, you know, they might again just kind of feel like, you know, they’re not residents aren’t treated as individual. So you want to avoid those copy and paste responses.
17:31
And I know it’s tough when you have a slew of reviews that you have to respond to its like How better can you word or you know how differently can you word? Thank you for your feedback. You know, what else can I say and you know that it’s just a difficult kind of sentence to you know to reword over and over again, but that’s where that creativity is going to come from because if your prospects are reading your reviews and they are they do have the tendency to look at the responses.
18:00
And if the first sentence of every response alludes to thank you for your review, they’re going to just kind of feel like like the management team is dialing it in at that point or just responding for the sake of responding and not really for you know, trying to really be custom, you know craft a customer spots. You want to respond within 24 hours. I think this is most important for a negative review prospects want to see engagement. They want to see that you are being attentive that you know, what’s going on at your community and that you’re also jumping.
18:37
Any kind of issue because if if this were in real life and not on a screen, you know, you all would be really quick to respond. We all you know, if there’s an emergency on site if there’s an unhappy resident on site in real life, I mean teams are on it they are, you know, resolving the issue, you know, maybe kind of you know, making sure the residents. Okay, you know, they don’t have any existing problems. So it’s kind of the same thing.
19:05
It’s just done digitally, you know, they they want that same action that same level of action when there’s a negative review and again for that negative review. They want you to demonstrate with your words how that issue is being handled how that issue is being resolved. What we heard from one of our focus groups is that the one of the most frustrating things for them is when they see sentences like, please contact the office with your concerns.
19:35
We know you want to make the Effort to take the conversation offline. Absolutely. We don’t need that ping pong match going back and forth with the prospect but or with the resident, but think of it in terms of the perception coming from the prospect. They want, you know again what action items can be done and I think something as simple as saying I would love to meet with you in person, please contact me and let me know when you’re available to come in. That sounds so much better instead of please.
20:07
Contact us with your concerns. What what do you say Jennifer? Oh totally agreed if we can hit it straight on and really, you know be I would call Direct and so we’re answering those questions are those concerns. I think it goes a long way. Absolutely. All right my favorite tips for social media. I was just going to say your favorite. How’d you end up you have to slide. I know right?
20:31
So showcase that communities personality, you know, just really kind of let the prospect I didn’t know what what you’re about at that Community if you guys are the fun, you know crew and you’ve got some fun resident events showcase that so don’t be afraid to you know, really bring that out in your photos and your posts for social media post daily y’all if you don’t post daily, I know it probably sounds like it’s probably a task, but if you don’t post daily you will get lost in those folks that are actually searching for you or even just coming to your page. So you want to post alien.
21:07
And and post things that are happening at your community. Maybe there’s Renovations that are happening just even residents that are moving in just everything that you are able to talk about at your community.
21:20
Just put that out for social to four people on the social media side to see Respond to comments solely talked a little bit about creating that engagement and that’s what we want to do by responding to the comments again becoming a part in creating that sense of community Through social media and that can be done by responding to the comments and creating a conversation online.
21:46
Make it about the residents because really it is all about them. I know I love seeing my photo on social media. I know the residents due to they’ll probably share it with other people, you know, really kind of make it all about them. And I think they will definitely appreciate that. They’ll feel like they’re a part of the community. Yes, and they will tag share like, you know, they’ll keep the conversation going. Absolutely.
22:11
I when I love this ride the 80/20 rule so 80% Then of that should really of what your content is for social should be that for what’s the best way to test for residents, right or for that process of that just wants to see about your community that 20% really should be, you know on on the the apartments that are available or we really kind of want to steer away from that rent is due those kinds of things. We want to showcase more about the communities personality than what I would call like the rules and regulations of that side.
22:45
Yeah, and We used to say 70/30 remember like a couple years ago. We had it was 7030 like 75% about the experience and 30% about the marketing if you will, but you’re really you know, now that we know that prospects are you know, looking a little bit more often. They’re trusting social media a little bit more often and they’re trusting your advertisement and your website less.
23:11
We want social media to look less like your website or look like S like your advertisement and make it just be about those stories that your residents are telling and and you know the fun stuff. I mean there’s so much great stuff that’s happening on site new different events. There’s milestones and birthdays and new hires and and you know new residents moving in pets. Absolutely this past week.
23:36
There was like a pet costume day or deck or you know, dress up your pet day and I I mean my Ig was like flooded with cute photos of Of pets in their their little sweaters and whatnot super cute, but we want to definitely make it more about them and less about us.
23:55
So it comes to the point in the webinar where we are going to take a bout a little 60-second break and hear from the good Folks at severe X.
24:11
Let’s get this to plan. Here we go.
24:53
Alright, so once again big shout out great. Thank you to the good Folks at sphere X.
25:01
And before we jump into the key takeaways, we’ve got some questions coming in which we will of absolutely address. So keep them coming and when we get to our section and just a second to open up for more questions will start to address those. Yeah, they’re definitely coming in Fast and Furious. Yes. Yes. I didn’t want anybody to think we were, you know forgetting about them. So let’s jump into our key takeaways. So we got those of be transparent. I think that’s really important again.
25:31
Prospects want to know who you truly are and what you are really representing. So be truthful of who you are, you know be transparent address things, you know directly is especially in those responses and I think it will go a long way for those prospects that are reading the responses on the reviews.
25:54
Yes, and to Tandem the transparency you want to be real I think prospects, you know, they’re super a smart, you know their tech savvy, you know, they some of them maybe even have had living experiences where they were burned in the past, you know, so they’re trying to avoid that same kind of thing happening with their new apartment community. So they’re being really Discerning, you know, and if you know all they see are you know, sort of the everything is positive and everything looks great.
26:25
And you know, there’s never a problem here at this community that could actually very well may be the case and if Although I would love to live there but we know that that mistakes happen and you know, sometimes you know things are going to happen and if there’s a blemish or two on your ratings and reviews, it’s all right. It’s just gives you that opportunity to kind of stretch your customer service muscles and and show those prospects what you truly are all about.
26:53
Absolutely and lastly is be consistent be consistent and posting on social be consistent and responding to those reviews. Consistency goes a long way. I think it showcases really what the team is about. And again, they’re really making that decision of where to move or live next based on what they’re reading.
27:13
So if they know that you’re consistent with being interactive and engaging on social and then responding to those reviews, they will then feel that they become a resident that You will be consistent and you know creating that sense of community and you know responding to them as a resident. Yes, you know, Jennifer something just hit me that I just thought about. You know, when you mentioned that prospects are looking at reviews within you know, they’re reading four to six reviews and they really want they’re concentrating on like the 90 days for anyone who has a pinned review on your grasp a yes. I talk about this. Yes if you have a pen.
27:53
And review on your apartment ratings page and it is not within the last 90 days. This is a great opportunity to change out that pinned review. So if you know, you’ve pinned a great review, but that review was from 2018 or even the early part of 2019.
28:11
You want to go into your apartment ratings page so that you can select a fresh new review that’s you know, still great and still paints your community in a great light, but that’s more Current because if someone sees that pinned review which is the first review that’s going to show on your page, but it’s from 2018 or 2017. They may just disregard it all together. I complain they’re missing all of the more relevant stuff. Right the more current stuff that’s below that so I always say put the pin and then maybe put a little reminder on your calendar, you know to kind of go ahead and refresh that, you know, how often you know, depending on when you need to.
28:51
Yeah, I think the beginning of every Doctor, you know the from the first month of every quarter just go in there and and refresh your pinned review. That’s probably an easy, you know way to to think about it. Yeah, for sure. All right, so want to know from the group as we open up our after party and the chat, what is your big takeaway from today or if you have any questions for Jennifer and I because there was a bunch of them that have come in feel free.
29:20
The question in chat box is now Out open so take it away. Jennifer are right first question. Our Barista is as if a former resident response again to a review response, so we’re saying we have a review and then management team has responded and they’ve responded again and says we are lying. What’s the best move should we reply back? I would leave it alone. You’ve already issued your response. You know, you’ve got you’ve given the prospect.
29:53
A sense of what you’re all about in terms of customer service when that Resident wants to kind of jump into The Fray with you. What happens is that the prospect immediately Tunes them out. They just feel like this product. This resident has wants to pick a fight and so it almost discounts their review altogether. They just don’t take it seriously anymore. I think it’s great that you responded.
30:18
You showed the effort and you know, let Let It Go and the prospect like we And they’re smart enough to you know, kind of tune that stuff out. Yeah, I was going to say that to that point. I think that we don’t give the prospects enough credit sometimes in being able to discern and know that that person might just, you know, be really irritated about something and that’s not really you normally the case.
30:45
All right, what else we got some more coming in? We’ve got somebody else need for more examples of review responses.
30:54
Oh, that’s an interesting one. Okay. So about two years ago we came up with what we thought was a bright idea to create a template of 100 Review responses.
31:09
And what has happened in that time frame is that Those responses have become obsolete pretty much because you you really want to be able to tailor your response to every single review individually instead of like oh this one will fit. Let me paste that in there you want to pull from what your reviewer has said into your response. So if they talk about the fact that you have a great location mentioned something that’s around that location, you know mention.
31:43
I’m the fact that you know that there are 12 restaurants within walking distance from your community. So those kind of hundred responses are still templates. And so we want to avoid templates all together and look at really using the residents words or the reviewers words inside of your responses. You know, it’s funny because I just literally just came to me when you were saying not to use templates.
32:09
It literally made me think about how if you have a prospect that comes into tour like say if three people you wouldn’t say the same thing to prospect one as you would a prospect three, so like that would be kind of the same example of reviews where you don’t want to use a standard templated response because it really might not obtain or pertain rather to that person’s review. So you as a prospect and assuring you really do customize your tour and you answer their specific questions and answer those concerns right as a prospect touring so you should do the same in the review.
32:44
World, I guess yeah, I like that and I think one of the best practices that I always like to give out when it’s responding think of if that person read you their review face to face. So I get they firmly gave you this review. How would you respond back? You know, would you be like? Oh, thank you for your feedback. I so happy to know you love living here, or would you be more you know, oh my gosh, that was so great. You know, I really appreciate it art.
33:13
Team works very hard, you know, thank you for acknowledging that get it. Just imagine that the review was told to you in person. How would you respond and that goes along the same lines Jennifer what you were saying when you’re working with a prospect and how you’re touring and you’re answering questions with them. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, we got some definitely got some more folks leave giving us some questions and thoughts. So let’s get to though.
33:39
So Audrey also says, sometimes we get negative comments about pricing on social media like this run is ridiculous. No one can afford this. Should we respond to these kinds of comments? What’s your take Leah. Yeah. That’s that’s a good question. And I think too if you look at anyone’s social media any product you have people who are like that is so expensive, you know, I yes, there’s a there’s an ad that’s on my Facebook feed right now for Hamilton Hamilton tickets and it’s you know, it’s here in Atlanta.
34:11
It’s coming here to Atlanta and so they’re really Promoting it, you know here in the city and if you look at the comments are so many people who are like the ticket prices are ridiculous and you need to lower the ticket prices. So people can go but then you have fans on there. It’s like I don’t care how much the tickets are no it you know where you know, it’s worth every penny. So again thinking about the prospects and how smart they are. I don’t think you need to respond to someone who is complaining about the price.
34:43
Ice what you want to do is amplify the value and I’m going to try something on your website. So when our excuse me on your social media, so when you do post post about things that I think value equates to time energy and money, what are those things that you all have that save your residence time energy and money residents also want to know where their dollars are going.
35:09
So if you have any, you know improvements that have happened you’ve added team First to your team, you know, your team members have gone through some kind of special training not celebrate that kind of stuff because again your story can be value and when someone’s griping about how expensive it is a comic comes across as a whisper, you don’t really, you know, the prospect doesn’t really pay attention to it because they’re so many other things that speak to you value at your community.
35:41
For sure for sure. We have one from Jody any words of advice on handling declined applicants that blast us and social media which in turn have left us so many nasty reviews. Well, I first and foremost kind of go back to what I think we’re talking about is like our prospects that are out there looking really can discern. You know, let’s say what’s real and what’s not or which when somebody is just frustrated inventing. So again, I’m not I would personally advise me.
36:11
Not to respond to those but you really probably need to look at making sure you are, you know continuing to get reviews from your current residence sharing their experience so that the negatives are maybe more of the outliers and you have more of the positive experience on your social media page.
36:34
I think what I think here in this case because they’re talking about that the kind of the negativity has come from having to decline or deny residency to an applicant is that I definitely would get my corporate office involved number one and then all of the reviews that are not coming from residents at your community or someone who can speak to the experience and they’re just blasting you because they’re friends of the denied applicant. You can report abuse you can flag those reviews. You can do that on Google. You can do it on Yelp. You can do it on apartment ratings.
37:11
Explain why your flagging those reviews so that they can investigate it and you know, if it looks like, you know, an influx of negative reviews have just come in and the timing is right after this applicant has made their declaration about how horrible you are.
37:27
You know, that that helps your case, you know, it helps with Google it helps with apartment ratings, you know anywhere where your reviews are coming, but I would definitely first stop would be my corporate office to give them a heads up as to what’s going on and then proceed with flagging those negative reviews.
37:47
All right. I’ve got your arse just gonna say what the what Google or even apartment ratings, you know, what would happen is that they would look at the IP address of that review, you know, what computer where in the world did that computer come, you know that review come from and if it’s out of the country if it’s you know a thousand miles away and it’s not someone who lives at your community again flagging those reefs can be super helpful for sure for sure.
38:16
We got it Nancy asking us a question just to repeat the 70/30 80/20 rule. So yes, social media versus that marketing side. So again, we used to see 70/30 or that’s what we used to kind of share. We really want to stick with that new 80/20. So 80% of your social media really should be more about the community Story the community experience focusing more on maybe resident events Leah, you mentioned maybe been showcasing your employees.
38:47
You know some anniversaries and birthdays even some things that are going on around the community. Maybe it’s you know a park or you know, maybe it’s some holiday things whatever that may be versus that 20% should be or would entail more of the apartments that are available more on that marketing or selling side. Yeah, like think of someone’s on their phone and they’re scrolling through your news feed.
39:16
They Have to go through like five, you know things about the community before they see one post about a vacant two-bedroom special that you have.
39:27
You also want to keep in mind that if your residents are looking at your social media and they see that this, you know, moving special $500 off but they just got a renewal letter last week where the rents going up, you know, so we want to keep it very, you know more about like Jennifer said the Unity life and very little about any kind of you know, marketing promotion vacant apartments that kind of stuff and Gina has a great, you know, thought here. She says we like to post free events in the town to post on Facebook such as kid events blood drives to help drive that sense of cute sense of community, which I think is great kind of being that I call it One Stop Shop where your residents may want to go and I’m even prospects to say hey, they give us things that are happening in the community.
40:16
Unity, oh, I think that’s great. Great. I love that. Great Point. Chris is asking what’s the best way you have found to drive people to leave reviews? Okay. So there’s a couple different ways that you can do it the main way you do not do it. Do not offer any incentives whatsoever.
40:42
Whether that, you know, sometimes people think it’s okay because they’re just saying well, it doesn’t no matter if it’s a positive or negative review. Well, here it goes if I think I’m going to win a prize. What’s the chance that I’m going to leave a negative review? Right? So it almost just incentivizes people to lead the positive reviews. So we don’t want to offer any contest any prizes any giveaways not even a free pizza pizza for a review. But what you do want to do is check in with your residence regularly, if you know they’re coming in and they’re they’re paying rent.
41:16
They’re picking up a package, you know say hey, how’s everything going? You know, you have you been really happy here. You know how some past year been for you? Let the resident tell you their story and then ask them to repeat that story, you know, we’d love for you to share. I’d love for you to share with our corporate office, you know exactly what you just told me.
41:36
Would you mind leaving a review because our corporate office reads all of our reviews always give the resident a because when you give them a reason In it seems less self-serving, you know, it’s like because you know, they’ll be able to see the great job that James is doing or because we get a lot of people out of state looking for apartments here in the city and it would be great for them to know that we have, you know, happy residents. Like you living here always give them that sort of reason that’s probably my best advice would be check in with your residents. Ask them how they’re feeling.
42:16
When that story is positive take it a step further and ask them to repeat that story in terms of a review.
42:24
Yeah, I think the only thing addition I would give us a suggestion is in addition to asking them. You could always even say, you know to make it easier for you. I will go ahead and email you all of the review sites that were on and if you could leave one making it easy for them to get to that website, then that would be a great way to but but always give them all of the options, you know that of where you’re listed. That’s a great Point.
42:50
Thank you for adding that of your Vita says that there were Working on their company website and need your opinion on putting a picture of the team and a short bio about them. Is this a go or a no? All right everyone. I’m going to pose this to everyone who’s on the call. Is it a yes or no should be te put a photo of the team on the company website along with short bios. What do you all think? What’s is it appropriate? Does it work?
43:22
Let us know I’ll share my opinion on our website. We have more photos that are bios. I might be a little bit harder to do at the community level because you know things change so much or could tend to change so much but if there’s you know, not an issue in like updating or making sure that stays updated. I would like to see an actual person, you know on the website, but that’s just my opinion. I would agree with you on that.
43:51
It’s know somebody here Nancy says give a face to those who will Review and I really think that when we see who serving us or going to serve us we kind of connect and relate to them, even if it’s just a photo so I would say yes, and as long as again, you can keep that fresh and updated. Maybe it’s just a group photo as opposed to individuals that way, you know, if somebody does kind of, you know, leave the team you can just maybe do a quick, you know photo of the team new team and then send that off to get updated.
44:22
I do also like some of The other suggestions here is make sure or you have the option to do it on social as well Nancy mentions highlight an employee on Insta stories info. Send some info about them. So again, there’s multiple ways but I do I do think website would be great again. It kind of knows who you’re talking to or when they do call as a prospect. They have that picture in their mind of who that is.
44:48
Yeah and Chris also shared the same concern that I had is that people change he says, Says people change too much. So if it’s easy to upkeep, you know, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a big burden. I did. I love Nancy’s Nancy’s comment about you know, not on the site, but what about Instagram or Facebook? Because that is more of a social, you know, kind of area. So everyone who’s saying?
45:15
Yes, the majority Vita are saying yes, just so you know, but those that are saying no or has a lot to do with sort of the upkeep of it or even offering a different alternative to kind of take it onto your social platform, but I don’t have anyone that’s like flat out.
45:36
Don’t you know our right we got one more thing question may be coming in was a great got y’all. We really appreciate everybody’s feedback. So we have something that says what advice do you have after flagging multiple reviews and that’s not working specifically looks like Google and removing reviews that were clearly from friends and family of a disgruntled resident. I don’t, you know, I don’t have a whole lot to offer.
46:06
For in terms of how Google handles their abuse, you know their reports of abuse.
46:15
Okay. Yay, I think for me what I originally say because you really can’t maybe control what they are using as their you know rules or how they manage that. What I would say is all we can know what we know is we can reiterate is that prospects are very smart and we heard it even in our focus group testing. Right? Like they can pull out what is just a disgruntled resident or from you know, kind of just off the beaten path.
46:43
And so although I know from The sun site teams. It’s frustrating. But I hope it would give you some sense of ease knowing that if you have a large amount or let’s just say 10 reviews and you only got a few from some disgruntled residents friends of disgruntled residents the prospects going to be able to kind of differentiate and understand that there’s somebody just venting and looking at you know, the value and what those other reviews have.
47:14
Have to offer that that would be kind of my my feedback. I guess they’re I think that’s a great great way to answer that question because that is super cop for s*** is to heaven and I know I know honestly, I know it’s hard being on site and you kind of feel like each negative 1 is very impactful, but try not to get wrapped up in every negative one because again, we personally have heard from this true Testament that they can really discern those grundle ones where they’re just vent.
47:45
Versus you know some reviews that have some value and Truth in it. Okay. So here’s a reason why I absolutely love the brain power in this group Haley I think has saved the day. All right, Haley chimed in and said I have actually dealt with that.
48:00
I responded to the post by thanking them for the review and also informing them that they are not a current resident and encourage them to private message us with their contact information to personally assist them with their concerns Okay, I like actually how I actually have seen that to some some response that says, you know, we don’t currently have you as a resident in our system and then kind of to the to the point of what Haley makes so, you know could be an option as well. Yeah. Wow. This has been a great great little chat session. I think things are still coming in as we are still Fielding questions couple of reminders. We announced this last month, but it is official.
48:47
We are podcast is now live it launched on the 14th of January the first episode we asked renters to complete the following sentence. I wish my management team would dot dot dot and let me tell you they did not hold back at all. So you can head on over to our podcast page on our website satisfaction.com forward slash podcast, too.
49:17
Listen, it’s only 20 minutes long, but it’s really interesting good information. And we’re going to be dropping episodes every other week on that website and also on iTunes Google Spotify Spotify sticker. We’re kind of everywhere. So would love for you guys to check that out and part two and part three of this series. We have prospects and tours. We’re going to be talking about in February.
49:45
How do you kind of switch it up and come very memorable because we know that the prospects are seriously shopping multiple places and then part three is going to be in March prospects and closing. How do you get that first? Visit least? They are so hard to come by we did a focus group with some renters and we asked just 10 of them. What would make you lease on the first visit nine out of ten said I would not least.
50:17
On the first visit. I don’t care. I’m gonna you know, I want my options. So we’re going to try and help with that. How do we get a little bit better at the closing? How do we get, you know the prospect to really see themselves there during that visit to really make your time and their time worthwhile. Absolutely so quick. We got a couple of the questions.
50:38
We’ll get to those in just a quick second want to make sure that you know, we are on Facebook and Instagram, so please follow us on those at set This fax and for Facebook and then satisfaction education for Instagram. It looks like we’ve got a question. How do we sign up for part two and three you already have if you are on this call, you are already signed up for part 2 and 3.
51:02
So if anything feel free to share the webinar information and sign up for the future ones, if you have not of your employees or colleagues have not signed up for this one you can have them do that in from our follow-up email. Yes. So, thanks again everyone for joining us. This was a good one. I mean a lot of good feedback and brainpower of you guys are helping each other out helping us out in the questions and chat box. So, thanks again for joining us have a fantastic rest of your afternoon Jennifer and I will be sending out the follow-up email and we will talk to you shortly. Take care everyone.