Today we’re talking about your online reputation and more importantly – how to get more property management leads from that reputation. Imagine yourself buying a product online. The first thing you’re going to do is find a product that matches your price point. Then, you’re going to choose a product based on its reputation. Since most property owners have no idea what you charge, in many cases they’re calling management companies based on reputation alone.
Dealing with Negative Reviews
Go to a search engine like Google and type in your company’s name. Once you get the results of your search, ask yourself this: If I was an owner, would I let this company manage my most valuable asset? If the answer is no, you clearly need to make a change.
Property management companies tend to have a lot of negative reviews online. That’s because you don’t hear from the 90 percent of people who are happy with your work. Instead, the reviews you’re getting come from the tenants you evicted, or the people who didn’t get their full security deposit back, or the potential renters who had their applications declined.
Asking for Positive Reviews
To improve your online reputation, you need to get better reviews. Ask owners and tenants – specifically, happy owners and tenants. Don’t be afraid to ask them for reviews two or three times. When you ask for positive reviews regularly, you can better offset the negative reviews you will inevitably get just for doing your job.
Another good category of potential reviewers is vendors. Vendors will have a great online presence and they will be happy to review you because you’re giving them consistent business.
3 Tips for Reputation Management
There are three things you need to remember when it comes to earning more property management business with your online reputation.
- It takes five Google reviews for your stars to start showing up. That means it only takes five to increase your business.
- Make sure if you’re asking for good reviews, it’s done outside the office. It won’t help you to have an iPad set up just for people to leave you good reviews. Google and Yelp track IP addresses. It might not be today or tomorrow, but they will eventually pull down those reviews. Go after good reviews that will stick.
- You only have one chance at making a good first impression. The company that’s most effective in making good first impressions will get the most business.
Andy’s Reputation Challenge
So here’s your challenge: Get 100 Google reviews over the next year. If you can do this, your competition will have to play catch-up to match your reputation online. You’ll generate tons of new business because if your reputation is about the same as someone else’s reputation and you have more reviews, you’ll be the company that people choose.
If you have any questions about your online reputation and how to use it to attract more business, please contact us at Fourandhalf – Internet Marketing for Property Managers.
