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“Online reviews are really the proof in the pudding, and the pudding here is the customer service…your attitude towards your residents."
Mindy Price and Priyanka Agarwal begin this episode by discussing the latest trends that Priyanka and her team have observed among online reviews. When it comes to positive reviews, the praise often stems from great customer service, which indicates how significant it is to consider your residents’ day-to-day lives and work to take care of even the smallest of hurdles. In terms of negative feedback, there has been an increasing trend towards intense, sensitive reviews that can be extremely vicious in nature.
Priyanka offers tips for responding to such reviews. She reiterates the Four P’s for responses—professional, personalized, polite, and prudent—and stresses the need to take a breath, gather information from the property teams regarding what happened, and craft a response that encourages the reviewer to take the conversation offline. In every response, it is important to remember that it is not only the reviewer who is reading the reply, but also prospective residents.
Priyanka also emphasizes the great opportunities that online reviews provide for management companies, as these reviews are truly a snapshot of your customer service. With current staffing shortages and the idea of virtual offices as a potential wave of the future, companies need to remember that there is no substitute for customer service and need to balance automation and human touch. By being proactive in order to identify areas in need of improvement and communicate transparently with residents, the Three R’s—ratings, renewals, and referrals—are sure to follow.