When it Comes to ROI, Online Reputation Management Might Beat a New Gym

“Reputation management” is rarely a hot item on the agenda when multifamily property managers meet to explore ways of tweaking their portfolios to extract more revenue. Typically it’s only the largest operators who have formalized the management of online reputation to boost rents and occupancy. In most cases, if there’s a reputation management effort at all, it’s disjointed and sporadic. The underlying assumption is that if you improve the property itself and the way it’s run, reputation will improve accordingly. And of course, this is true. If you build a new gym, renovate units, offer free yoga lessons or hire more seasoned onsite managers, resident satisfaction will improve incrementally, and this could translate to better online reviews. Which means more prospects and leases at higher rent prices. But these things cost money. Sometimes a lot of it. And when you approach owners with proposals to increase capital and operating expenses, you either go armed with concrete projections for ROI or you can expect to be turned down. Particularly in tight times like these. An untapped enhancer of financial performance There’s a more direct and affordable way to improve online reputation than making big changes. And that’s to tap into a resource that’s already there and waiting at your properties: happy residents who simply have never taken the time to post about where they live and give it a rating. Consumers are inclined to post reviews about, say, restaurants. They’ve had a wonderful meal – or a terrible one – and with a bit of phone texting they can let the world know. But when it comes to apartments, it’s just not typical for people to review and post. They may live in an apartment for years. At what point – on what particular day – will it occur to them to stop what they’re doing and go to a review site to post? Unfortunately, when they do, it’s likely to be f...