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You are probably familiar with reviews that go into numerous topics about the resident living experience. You may have even come across the residents who write reviews as if they are submitting a thesis for their PhD. For the record, at J Turner Research, we have seen a review so lengthy that our system was not even able to process it. It was over 25 pages when pasted into a word document with ten-point font and single spaced! For our own sanity we don’t need to try to get into the psyche of residents like that, but there is value in understanding relationships between operational areas. In fact, almost 90% of reviews touch on multiple operational aspects, meaning that most reviews are not the result of a singular faceted experience. Our theory is that it takes multiple impressionable moments to get most people to leave a review.
In this blog, we are going to focus on low-scoring reviews and dive into the relationships between the twenty-two categories our Einstein tool tracks to see which categories most often appear with each other. Doing so will help us understand the psyche of the renter and why they leave negative reviews.
Note: If you are interested in diving into the inverse (the categories that get mentioned most often by themselves), you can read this blog from last year.
Introduction
The Big Picture: The correlations between certain categories point to renters’ newfound expertise in detecting the vibe of the property and ascertaining whether the onsite team cares. There are two correlative relationships to be aware of: 1) Security and the maintenance of the property and 2) issues with both the office staff and maintenance team. Both of these suggest that certain properties have systemic issues that require overhauls to improve online reputation.
Why it Matters: As opposed to facilities issues where onsite teams can take a point-and-shoot approach to remedy, a sense of caring is likely to linger and make improving both online reputation and resident satisfaction much more challenging. Owners must consider this when thinking about which management companies they hire and decide to retain given the relationship of reputation to the bottom line.
Security Complaints Point to a Bigger Picture
Security complaints are something we have documented as being on the rise – more people are expressing a lack of feeling safe and secure than in recent years. If you follow the research we put out at Jturnerresearch.com, you probably know that this is not tied to the location of the property or increased crime rates but rather can be attributed to the perception that the property gives off. This correlative study further evidenced that sentiment.
Most 1- and 2- star reviews that have a Security complaint also reference something else. This is probably surprising: most people think of isolated events like a shooting or car break-in spree being the fuel of negative reviews related to Security. But the data suggests otherwise. Here are the categories with the highest correlative values to Security complaints in 1- and 2-star reviews:
Customer Service and Communication stand out at the top. This points to incidents where not only was there a security breach, but there was also a lack of empathy, helpfulness, or communication around the situation. Many reviews are similar to this one:
“Crime is a big issue and a lot of tenants think it's not taken seriously but I try my best to be vigilant. I called the office and voiced my concern and was told they would call me back, never received that call but now I get several calls and emails about renewing my lease.”
It’s very easy to see how an experience like this could lead to a 1-star review. But, to me, the far more interesting correlation is how often there are Maintenance Service, Condition of the Unit, and Cleanliness complaints tied with Security complaints. This corroborated a previous study we had done at JTR where we found a direct correlation between prospects detecting a poorly maintained property during their tour and there being tangible safety issues onsite. Our theory is that if residents and/or prospects can detect issues in the maintenance of the property, they are likely to also feel less safe.
To put it succinctly, the data overwhelmingly suggests that residents feel unsafe when they don’t feel like the property is cared for.
The Service Side of Things: Does the Onsite Team Care?
This perception of “caring” is critical for driving resident satisfaction. Let’s look at Customer Service and Communication. We know these are the two most frequently mentioned categories in general. But the relationship between these two is the strongest of any categorical relationship: 32.34% of all 1- and 2-star reviews that have a complaint about Customer Service also have a complaint about Communication. Moreover, there is a similar correlation to the other service-oriented category Einstein tracks, Financial Clarity. 23.52% of low scoring reviews complaining about a lack of Financial Clarity also have a complaint about Customer Service, while 17.36% of them also have a complaint about Communication.
These high values suggest that if the office staff is weak, it is likely a systemic problem. If they struggle with being empathetic and kind, it is also likely they are going to do a poor job at answering the phone or explaining the charges residents receive. This is not terribly surprising, but the bigger picture is important – a fix is not easy. If you are a property or company struggling with Customer Service, you cannot just ask your onsite team to flip a switch and start caring and being kind. At that point, you either need to turnover the staff or really involve yourself in turning around the onsite service. Again, this is not easy! For starters, you would have to design a new service program, conduct thorough trainings, and even provide deliverables such as updated SOPs on actions like answering the phones, walking prospective renters through the various chargers on their ledger, how to empathize in crisis situations, etcetera.
Not being service-oriented is a disease that unfortunately extends beyond the office staff. I was shocked by the strong relationship between Customer Service and Maintenance Service. 23.57% of reviews with a complaint about Customer Service also have a complaint about Maintenance Service, making it the second highest correlation of any categorical relationship Einstein tracks. As a reminder, Einstein’s analysis of Customer Service concentrates on the office team while the categorization of Maintenance Service references the quality of work orders and the attitude of the maintenance team. These entities are relatively fragmented, so a high correlation points to the bigger point of whether residents perceive the onsite team to care.
Our research suggests that the modern residents are perceptive; they are constantly evaluating whether the staff cares about them. They are feeling out whether the staff is doing all they can to make their home feel like a home or if they are just there for a paycheck. Renters, especially Gen Z and Millennials, have become vibe experts: they can detect and answer this question with ease.
Again, I understand and empathize that this is not an easy solve, especially with tightened budgets given the economic client, but it is certainly something important to note, especially for owners. For any owner wishing to add value to their asset, they must place a premium on hiring management companies that care and have strong people and training programs in place. While improvement by underperforming companies is certainly possible (we see it every day), it does take time.
Not Everything is Tied Together: Facilities are on Their Own
While portraying a sense of caring is systemic, the onsite team’s handling of facilities around the property does not have a correlative relationship. In other words, just because an onsite team struggles with Pests does not mean they are more likely to also struggle with something like Pet Waste or Trash. Overall, these are independent functions, which is a positive for PMCs trying to tackle these issues at certain properties. As opposed to a complete overhaul, you can take these operational issues head on, a lot of times hiring new vendors or working with facilities teams to adjust processes. Doing so is likely to reduce 1-star reviews and improve satisfaction quickly.
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.