People Are Talking About You – Now What? Sara Scarborough Graham: Director of Marketing, The Dolben Company, Inc.

• Why Is Online Reputation Management (ORM) Important?

• Create a Plan

• Open The Floodgates

• Best Practices

• How to Measure

What’s In Store

Sara Scarborough Graham

Director of Marketing

Presented by

• Family-owned company, founded in 1929

• 55 properties throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic

– 60% are Dolben-owned, and 40% are fee-managed

– Approximately 375 employees

– Headquartered in Massachusetts

• Small corporate marketing team

Who is Dolben?

Why is Online Reputation

Management (ORM) Important?

>80% of consumers check online reviews

before making purchase decisions

Reason #1

Source: Bill Tancer, Everyone’s a Critic

Reason #2

Searching for an

apartment?

Google Reviews are

now showing up smack

in the middle of the

organic search results,

beating out many of the

major ILSs, as well as

property-specific

websites.

Create A Plan

• Guidelines, toolkits, and flowcharts…oh my!

• Focus on “The Big Three”

– ApartmentRatings

– Yelp

– Google

• Slow and steady wins the race

Our Journey…

is awesome

• We are not a herd of ostriches

• People might say bad things about us…and that’s okay

– The silver lining: opportunity to improve operations

• Think offline, before responding online

Have The Right Mindset

Find The Voice of Authenticity

• On-site teams know the property best

• Corporate support

• Have guidelines in place, but lose the canned response

61% of all renters are willing to post a positive rating/review…

but only 15.8% were asked (up from 8% in 2011).

Don’t Be Afraid To Make The Ask

Source: SatisFacts 2015 Online Renter Study

Open The Floodgates

Open The Floodgates

Before you launch any

sort of campaign: 1. Think about where you

want people writing

reviews. How many

review sites can you

realistically manage?

2. Make it easy for people

to connect and

read/write reviews: we

link to The Big Three,

plus Facebook, on every

property website.

Open The Floodgates

Open The Floodgates

Best Practices

• Bad reviews are everywhere!

• Take a deep breath, and remain calm

– Don’t take it personally

– What’s the real issue? It may not be immediately obvious.

The Good, The Bad…and The Ugly

50.3% of renters would not trust a review site,

if all or most of the reviews were positive.

Bad Reviews Aren’t All Bad

Source: SatisFacts 2015 Online Renter Study

80% of reviews on Yelp are 3 stars or higher.

The Good News

Source: Appfolio webinar, 6/30/15

• Remember, you are not an ostrich: own the feedback.

• Appropriate, inappropriate, or silent? You might be surprised!

To Respond, Or Not?

They Really Want To Hear From You

88.9% of residents and prospects have perceptions that are positively

impacted when they see a response from management.

Source: SatisFacts 2015 Online Renter Study

• Good, bad, or otherwise, remember PRESTO:

– Prompt reply

– Read between the lines

– Empathy is key

– Short and sweet

– Take the conversation offline, if necessary

– Online, for all to read, forever

So….How Do You Respond?

I live in building 140 and I'm totally disgusted at this point. If you look back in the review

history, you'll see two reviews. One on 2/6/15 and one on 3/31/15. Both were complaints

about the maintenance and cleanliness of the building. The building was cleaned after

the last review on 3/31/15. Needless to say it's July and the building hasn't been cleaned

since. The mailboxes, the stairs, the landings and rails are filthy. You can't even touch the rail to

go up the stairs. There's dead moths and spiders on all the stairs, walls and landings. I've had to

cleaned the dead moths from in front of my door. The light is out in the hallway on the 2nd floor.

The mailbox needs to be wiped down. I purposely didn't call management for these issues

just to see how long it would take for maintenance to do a routine cleaning. Clearly there

is no routine cleaning. People are still leaving their stink garbage cans in the hallway after the

garbage times. When I leave for work in the mornings I have to hold my breath. The smell mixed

with the heat make it horrible. The vents in the ceiling clearly needs to be cleaned because it's

just hot dusty air coming out of it. I have a garage unit and the outside of them are disgustingly

dirty. They don't hose or wipe down the garages. The great thing is the area is safe, people

are nice, and I never hear my neighbors. But the buildings and complex are not

maintenanced. I can't speak for any other building building 140 is needs a thorough cleaning.

PRESTO In Action

• Prompt reply: The team responded within 24 hours.

• Read between the lines: The reviewer has posted before, and is calling out the team on

what she believes to be a lack of concern for the property. But, she also says that she likes

the area, and the people are nice…so she’s not entirely unhappy, just frustrated.

• Empathy is key: Our residents should be proud to live here.

• Short and sweet: Respond specifically to the reviewer’s comments, without addressing

every point individually. Our response is just five sentences.

• Take the conversation offline, if necessary: Use the opportunity to address any additional

concerns or questions.

• Online, for all to read, forever: The team demonstrates that they are in fact on top of the

issues, as other current residents may have the same concerns; in addition, future residents

can see that the leasing team is professional and willing to engage.

Thank you for sharing your feedback. We take great pride in the condition and cleanliness of our

community, and regularly schedule routine cleanings for all buildings; the areas you've noted

have been cleaned four times in the last two months. That being said, it's very important to us

that our residents are proud to call our community home, and we are disappointed to hear that

we are not meeting your expectations. Could you please contact the leasing office so that we

could discuss your concerns in more detail? We can be reached at 410.287.2371.

PRESTO In Action

• Do NOT write your own reviews –

doing so is disingenuous, and

anything but authentic

• Incentivizing your residents to write

reviews is unethical, and a violation

of FTC guidelines

• Employ listening tools to help you

stay informed

Important!

• The importance of NAP

• Take control

– Moz Local

– Yext

Don’t Forget About Local Listings

Your

Property!

How To Measure

• Dashboard and/or audit:

– Benchmark and identify trends

– Monitor general sentiment

– Where do you need more reviews?

– Refine your strategy, and redeploy

How Do You Know If It’s Working?

• Participate in the conversation, and make sure you have a plan in

place

• If you don’t ask, you may not get

• Think offline, when responding online

• Measure and refine as needed

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help:

– Manager/RPM

– Colleagues & sister properties

– Corporate support

In Closing…

Thank you! Please keep in touch: @sarasgraham