Remember that nervous feeling just before your first date, and wondering about if you really even wanted to go? That is kind of what it feels like when you start courting Rating Sites, which should be “Your New Best Friend” Yelp, Get satisfaction, and the feared ApartmentRatings.com to name a few are a good place start hanging out, and are likely places your residents are hanging out too. Apartment Executives would serve themselves and the companies they are leading to start paying attention to what folks are saying about them on line. Out of Sight, Out of Mind is not a good strategy. And, still thinking they aren’t talking about you, and that this doesn’t apply to you, try again. Your residents are talking about you and it does apply to you.
The expert Marketing and Social Media bloggers such as Mack Collier, Jennifer Laycock, Beth Harte, and Amber Naslund, just to name a few, have been leading the charge for some time talking, writing about and preaching how Big Business, Small Business and Corporate America must start participating in the conversation. We have all heard about Dell Hell and most of us have seen the video of the Comcast service rep sleeping on the couch while a video was recorded then plastered all over the Internet.
Apartment executives should take heed to what is being said, and embrace this new form of Social Media. Yes, rating sites should be part of your Social Media strategy. At Urbane Apartments, in an effort to embrace and engage residents and rating sites we have started following up with every resident Service Request with an email, with a note at the bottom that states;
If your experience with Urbane was remarkable or worth talking about, we sure would appreciate a comment on Yelp!
When “Things Don’t Work” companies MUST embrace such circumstances as an opportunity to communicate with their residents and enhance the resident experience. When we trip up, a sincere; “I Am Sorry, and understand how aggravated you must be” really works wonders. It certainly isn’t a short answer to all problems, however if we are simply available via a cell phone number on our website, an e mail address, a customer forum, an open company blog, and any other open dialog and transparency, when “Things Don’t Work” are excellent opportunities to create “Customer Evangelists” Oddly, it seems as though the truest of Customer Evangelists are created from a favorable experience of when “Things Went Wrong”
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience.
He also established The Urbane Way, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine.
You can connect with Eric_Urbane on Twitter.
Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications;
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