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The last few months of this blog have been focused on the impending enhancements with the ORA model, where what is being said within your reviews will play a primary role in determining your ORA Score. We have spent a lot of time focusing on the complaints, outlining the items that will deter prospects and renters alike. This is obviously the most critical piece of the puzzle, as the modern-day renter is scouring the internet to find reasons not to lease with you. While avoiding complaints will be the biggest key to a high ORA Score, we don’t need to be all doom and gloom; it is Thanksgiving time, so let’s talk about some of the positive spins to this data!
To me, there are three things that we can be thankful for when we think about navigating this new era of online reputation in multifamily:
- Compliments do matter
- Historical reviews matter substantially less
- Certain categories don’t deter prospects as frequently
Compliments Do Matter
Hopefully you have read the incredible research that our team put out detailing how prospects and renters analyze the content of reviews. But if you haven’t just yet, I want to call out that your positive reviews, especially in key operative areas, still matter!
The report details that 45.1% of renters fall into the “skeptic” category, defining people who go into the apartment search process as not particularly hopeful and on the hunt to expose negatives. However, this also means that a lot of renters do still weigh the positives to some extent! Across all generations, the average renter has about 2.85 to 2.95 operational areas that they are hopeful of seeing positive comments about.
The priorities will vary by age/stage of life. Specifically, Gen Z and new renters want to see compliments about the Condition of the Unit, Customer Service, and Financial Clarity. As new members of the rental community, it makes sense that they want to feel confident in their choice of apartment and the staff who make it home, while understanding the new bills they will begin to receive. As the average renter gets older, areas like Internet & Cable and the standard for strong Communication grow in importance. Finally, our eldest residents shift to prioritizing Noise, hoping to see compliments for a quiet environment. As you would expect, seeing compliments about Pest control and Security reigned supreme across all generations.
If you perform well in any of these areas, especially the ones that attract your target demographic, it behooves you to try to get some of that positive feedback listed online.
Historical Reviews Matter Substantially Less
One of the most frustrating parts of trying to improve your star rating on review sites like Google or ILSs like Apartment Ratings is how heavily historical reviews are weighted. At J Turner Research, we have typically disagreed with the simplicity of these algorithms because we believe that the right management and onsite team can make drastic improvements to the satisfaction at the property pretty quickly.
Our research indicates that prospects share our sentiment. For starters, our Internet Adventure study detailed that 61% of prospective renters consider any review older than two years to be totally irrelevant in their search. This finding was backed when we began analyzing the predictability of the compliments/complaints in the twenty-two categories we track. Overwhelmingly, the qualitative data became less predictive of current satisfaction as it got further away from present day. To be specific, we viewed the predictability of this data to function like a compound interest formula.
A compound-interest formula works by repeatedly applying growth on top of existing growth, so the value increases faster over time. So, to put it in terms of a review’s correlation to satisfaction, the newer a review is, the exponentially higher its impact is. Older reviews still matter up to a certain point, but their influence fades drastically over time while recent feedback will correlate much more. All recent feedback will carry a lot of water, but once reviews get past six months old, and especially when they get closer to eighteen months old, the data is less predictive of satisfaction.
Our new ORA Model will account for this, making the score even more reflective of the current onsite team/management, thereby allowing properties to make improvements to their score faster (assuming satisfaction is improving).
Certain Categories Don’t Deter Prospects as Frequently
The past couple of blogs focused on the “Apex Threats,” which are the categories that are absolute deal breakers to most prospects. And, while many of the twenty-two categories still hold a fair share of importance to renters, there are a handful where complaints are less deterring.
This is not a suggestion to totally mail in performance in these areas, but rather a point of encouragement that just because you have complaints in these areas, it does not mean prospects are crossing you off their list – they are going to give you another chance and look into the other factors of your property to ultimately make their decision to tour or lease.
These three areas had the least sway on prospective renter behavior and were the least predictive of satisfaction (sorted from least to most important):
- Interior Lighting (Lighting within the units)
- Landscaping & Grounds (Grass and grounds quality, snow removal, sidewalk/parking quality)
- Exterior Lighting (Lighting in the hallways/common areas/exterior of the property)
In addition, the next two areas the data would suggest you could get away with would be:
- Pet Waste
- Maintenance Cleanliness (how clean the unit is left after a work order)
I will offer just one disclaimer on this finding: Exterior Lighting can have a direct effect on how Security is perceived at your property. Thus, if you are also seeing Security complaints, performance in Exterior Lighting maintains extreme importance. However, on its own, and with the right safety practices in place, you can get away with a lightbulb being out in the hallway.
Conclusion
The switch to this new ORA model and a focus on the content of reviews is reflective of a new era in online reputation where star ratings are less important. While it is statistically backed up, it is not an easy switch, especially for our onsite teams. However, it will reward them more for the hard work they do every day. While frustrations over negative reviews are understandable, I do think it is important to remember that our residents and prospects are forgiving, and anything we do to understand their satisfaction and devote resources appropriately in the present day will have a positive forecast for our future NOI.
ABOUT THIS BLOG:
The insights in this blog came from utilizing J Turner Research’s text categorization tool, Einstein. Einstein uses Thought Analysis, a proprietary Ai software, to objectively show you your operational strengths and weaknesses based on anything anyone has ever said about you online in reviews. What is being said is incredibly valuable because it is essentially the "why" behind your scores. Reviews are unprompted descriptions of why a resident is satisfied (left a high star rating) or dissatisfied (left a low star rating). This means that what is being complimented and complained about can be seen by owners and operators as drivers of satisfaction/dissatisfaction.