Produced by Multifamily Insiders: http://www.multifamilyinsiders.com Every single apartment community has experienced a negative review on ApartmentRatings.com, on Yelp, or even on their own Fan Page. This webinar explains how to properly react to negative posts to diffuse the situation, show prospects you care about your residents, and to use that feedback to improve your business.

1. They Slammed
Me On
ApartmentRatings.com
What Should I Do?
Presented by Brent Williams
Proudly sponsored by:

2. Twitter Hashtag
#MFIwebinar
If you use Twitter, add this to the end of your tweets
to be included in the discussion of the webinar!

3. Does your hatred of ApartmentRatings.com
make it difficult to use it effectively?
• We hate ApartmentRatings, so we won’t be using it
• Knee-jerk reaction: ApartmentRatings is unfair so we
ignore all reviews on it
If you're having problems with your ApartmentRatings.com ratings, then there's
something wrong with your product. Behind the vicious rants are some
underlying themes that represent problems you can fix:
"People often speed through the property."
"People are always hanging around outside drinking."
"The office staff is mean.“
These are the things companies find it hard to face. The truth.
- A quote from Bill Szczytko’s blog:

4. SatisFacts National Study Takeaways:
“Getting Inside the Head of Today’s Online Renter”
• “Getting Inside the Head of Today’s Online Renter”: National study completed by SatisFacts July 2011;
the study included residents from twenty diverse management companies from across the nation.
• When shopping for an apartment, a whopping 51.6% reported they would use a ratings/review site.
• When asked how important ratings/reviews would be, this source earned a strong 4.27/5.00 rating.
• The impact on rental decisions of a community’s ratings/reviews earned a strong 4.13/5.00 rating,
ranking sixth among 45 topics rated.
• Management company brand “impact” 2.79/5.00 score shows it has less-than-more impact. However,
building awareness is valuable if the reputation is positive (driven by performance not taglines).
• One-third cited they had recommended a management company, showing the importance of positive
brand perceptions, which is driven by ratings/reviews.
• Two-thirds stated that if asked they would post a positive comment on a ratings site, but only 8% have
been asked.
• As it relates to a property’s “online reputation,” note that the most powerful way to positively impact it is
to reduce dissatisfaction, which is accomplished by focusing on what residents said matter most to
them. Managing a property’s online reputation begins with managing the resident experience.
Take the Guesswork Out of Retention™
©SatisFacts Research: Atlanta/Baltimore/Chicago/Los Angeles Toll Free: 866.655.1490 Web: www.satisfacts.com Email: info@satisfacts.com 4

5. SatisFacts National Study Takeaways:
“Getting Inside the Head of Today’s Online Renter”
• You do not manage your online reputation…you manage the resident experience which impacts your
reputation.
• One large Midwest client saw the ratio of negative-to-positive ratings on ApartmentRatings.com
go from 2:1 to 1:2 in just a year by managing the resident experience.
• Due to the Internet and rating sites you no longer control your brand…your customer does.
• Per the SatisFacts Index, ApartmentRatings.com rated as a top ten media source.
• One may say ApartmentRatings.com is a complaint site or it’s not like TripAdvisor, but the bottom line
is your property’s ApartmentRatings.com page will show up at the top of a prospect’s Google search.
• ApartmentRatings.com has the highest closing ratio…so turn it into a powerful marketing tool.
• Contract for ApartmentRatings.com Manager Center so you can engage with upset residents, take the
conversation offline, and resolve the issue.
• E-Book: Get on the waiting list at theonlinerenter.com (findings by age, rent; Who’s Who list of
contributors including Lisa Trosien, Dennis Smillie, Sue Weston, and others).
Take the Guesswork Out of Retention™
©SatisFacts Research: Atlanta/Baltimore/Chicago/Los Angeles Toll Free: 866.655.1490 Web: www.satisfacts.com Email: info@satisfacts.com 5

6. Reputation Management Cycle
Provide Great
Service
Proactively
Learn From
Seek Out
Reviews
Issues
Respond To
Find Negative
Negative
Reviews
Reviews

7. Proactively Seek Out Issues
• Call every resident per month?
• On every piece of correspondence, ask if they have a
maintenance request
• Every time they stop in the office, ask them if they
have issues
• Provide your own feedback system, like UserVoice

8. Find Negative Reviews
Tools to be shared after the webinar!

9. POLL TIME!
Who at your company
handles negative reviews?

10. Responding to Negative Reviews
• Who responds?
– Regional/Corporate
• Pros: Not emotionally tied to the situation, more experience
• Cons/Challenges:
– Must obtain all information from on-site team before responding
– Must stand behind the on-site team, if possible
– Property Manager
• Pros: Knows all the details and backstory
• Cons: Too emotionally invested, especially if he/she is the target
of the review
Are you strong enough to write a positive response
when a resident has lied in a review about you?

11. Improving Relationships, Your Online Reputation and NOI
Insite™ 365 Day/Year Feedback and Annual Survey Performance
Monitoring plus Support Programs Positively Impacts the Resident
Experience and Your Online Reputation, Reduces Turnover, and
Takes the Guesswork Out of Retention™…From $1.00 Unit/Year
 Experience – Multifamily Background
 Leverage Data into Performance: Clients Report 17 Point Lower Turnover vs. NAA Average
 Promote Scores with Exclusive Agreements: TurnSocial, PropertySolutions, ApartmentGrade
 SatisFacts Philosophy & Unique Position in Marketplace
 Comprehensive Suite of Services & Support
Resident Programs
Annual Resident Satisfaction Surveys: The Planning Tool
Insite™ Touchpoint Feedback: 365 Day/Yr Customer Service Safety Net and Monitoring
Takeover Surveys: The missing piece to Due Diligence
Associate Programs (Employee Satisfaction, Education Programs)
Fee Management - Client Satisfaction
Custom Studies (Resident Preference, Client Preference, Strategic-Planning Support)
Consulting & Process Evaluation (Work-Time Analysis, Process and Retention Planning)
 E-Book: Getting Inside the Head of Today’s Online Renter (Conducted June-July 2011)
$599 (written by Mike Whaling/30Lines: results by age, rent, Who’s Who list of contributors).
Sign up for the waiting list: theonlinerenter.com.
©SatisFacts Research: Atlanta/Baltimore/Chicago/Los Angeles Toll Free: 866.655.1490 Web: www.satisfacts.com

12. How to respond?
1. Have the right mindset
2. Understand your goals and your target audience
– You are talking to both the past resident AND all future
residents!
– Prospects want to feel as though they will be taken care
of.

13. How to respond?
3. Responding differently if they have brought the
issue to your attention:
a) They haven’t said anything – this is new information to
the community
b) They have made a complaint already, but you are
unable/unwilling to give them what they want.
c) They have made a complaint already, but your office has
dropped the ball

14. How to respond?
4. Put effort into your response
– These responses will be seen for literally years. How many
other acts that you make have repercussions for years to
come?
– Review, review, review. Online postings can be taken in
ways that are very different than what you intend,
especially by those who are already angry!
– Simply take the time to read their concerns and respond
accordingly.

15. How to respond?
5. Types of responses
a) The “no response” response
• Those that received a reply to a negative review*:
33% turned around and posted a positive review.
34% deleted their original negative review.
Additionally, for those that did not receive a response:
61% of consumers would be shocked if a retailer responded
to their negative comment.
b) Fake posts
* The Retail Consumer Report, commissioned by RightNow (source) – courtesy of Bill Szczytko

16. How to respond?
5. Types of responses (continued)
c) The form letter response
• Does not give any value to the prospect “audience”, as it does not
allay their concerns by addressing the details of the review
• Seems evasive to only want to talk privately
• The community is asking for the angry person to take action. This
is difficult because they are anonymous, but at least say something
like, “Or send me your phone number and I’ll call you.”
What message does this send if they have already called you and
the situation was not resolved?

17. Form Letter Response

18. How to respond?
5. Types of responses (continued)
d) Specifically address the issue

19. Example – Wording is Vital
He doesn’t feel like he’s had a bad experience,
he has had a bad experience.

20. Example - What if they lie?
• What if you had already explained to this person why
they got charged?
1) Stay Calm!
2) Stay Positive!
3) “Hello, as we discussed last week
in my office, you were charged XYZ
amount because of ABC reason. I
realize now that I may not have
been clear enough, so if you would
like to discuss it again, please let
me know!”

21. What Are Other Managers Doing?
• View how other managers respond to negative reviews
• Type this into Google:
site:apartmentratings.com "manager response"

22. Final Notes About Responding
• Be a real person
– Be professional, but not overly formal, which may be seen
as “corporation versus the little guy”
• If the reviewer is crazy, it will come across that way
• Peer review your responses!
• Follow-up
– Both residents and prospects want to know how it was
resolved. Was the resident taken care of? So provide a
follow-up explaining the resolution!

23. When to respond?
• Immediately, after these steps:
– Calm down
– Gather information
– Rough draft
– 2nd, 3rd drafts
– Peer Review

24. POLL TIME!
Do you pay to use the
ApartmentRatings.com service?

25. Should you pay for access to
ApartmentRatings.com?
• Here is what you get:
– Respond to reviews as a verified manager (see image)
– Update your community information
– Link to your website
– Manager images trump user images
– Better tools for portfolios, and giving managers right or no
right to respond.
– Trending scores compared to city averages (coming soon)
• $180/year + $100 setup fee

26. Clearing Up Some Questions About
ApartmentRatings.com
• “Why do I have to pay to respond to a review?”
– You don’t! You won’t be shown as the official “manager”,
but anyone can respond.
• “Why do I have to pay to report a review?”
– You don’t! Simply scroll to the bottom and click “Report
Abuse”
• “Reviews from past management companies are
haunting me”
– Reviews “age” over a period of 4 years, so that the most
recent review is given the most weight.

27. Driving Positive Reviews
• Recommended only for communities with strong
maintenance and customer service
• Driving all residents
– Email signature
– All internal marketing materials
– Business center computer homepage
• Develop a custom page that drives them to review your
community when they open up the browser
– Mass email touting changes can also ask for reviews

28. Driving Positive Reviews
• Driving just the happy residents
– How do you know they are happy?
• They just renewed
• They just gave positive feedback on a maintenance survey
• After they just moved in
• They told you in person at the office
• Through positive interactions in social media or email
• They already posted a positive review of your community
elsewhere
– Liked you on Yelp? Ask them to share their opinion on
ApartmentRatings.com!
• They just decided to lease at your community. (Only do this if you
already have good reviews)

29. Driving Positive Reviews
• Driving just the happy residents (continued)
– Your Resident Portal
• When they log into the resident portal, present them a simple poll
question, “Rate Your Opinion of XYZ Apartments”.
– If they answer 4 or 5 stars, ask them to share their thoughts on
ApartmentRatings.com.
– If they answer 1 through 3, attempt to find out their issue!
• This can also be done for community controlled Internet access
where you can dictate the first webpage they see each time they
log in.
• Making it simple
– Have a short URL – xyzapartments.com/rate

30. Learn From Your Reviews
• Don’t assume that negative reviews are always
posted by raving lunatics
– Maybe your staff really isn’t getting it done! (or just burned
out!

31. Learn From Your Reviews
• Maybe you are not communicating well enough with
your residents?
– Repaving the parking lot – this is good for the community,
but they complain. That could tell you:
• You didn’t provide a good enough parking alternative during the
process
• You didn’t communicate the process well enough

32. Q&A and FEEDBACK!
Have questions? Use the “Chat” portion of
the webinar dashboard to send them to us!
Also, while we do Q&A, take a moment to
tell us what you thought of the webinar:
https://www.facebook.com/MultifamilyInsiders

33. Thank You!
Brent Williams
brent@multifamilyinsiders.com
832.978.3935
Doug Miller
dmiller@satisfacts.com
866.655.1490 x100
(http://www.MultifamilyInsiders.com)