These days, people turn to the internet for almost everything. And when they’re considering buying a product or paying for a service (like property management), one of the first things they’ll typically check is the online reviews. It’s a convenient and, for the most part, trustworthy way to determine whether a particular company is worth doing business with. For this reason, it’s essential that you proactively manage your online reputation. Here’s what we recommend.

Claim Your Place

There are a number of popular places where consumers can leave reviews online. The primary ones are Google, Facebook and Yelp. Make sure you’ve claimed your page for these platforms so that it’ll be quick and easy for people to review your services. This will also help you maintain better visibility and control over your online presence.

Ask

If you haven’t yet asked your happy clients to share their positive experience with others online, you are missing out on a tremendous opportunity. Provided you’ve gone above and beyond to deliver exceptional service and strengthen those long-term relationships, they should be more than happy to do you the favor of publishing a good review for you.

Incentivize

You should never, ever compensate someone directly for leaving you a good review. Not only is this is poor practice but it could also get you flagged and actually damage your reputation on most of the online review sites. That said, you are allowed to sweeten the pot a little by offering incentives for sharing honest reviews. For instance, you could offer a chance to win a random drawing to all those who leave a review (positive or negative, but hopefully positive) within a certain time frame.

Make it Easy

People are probably not going to go out of their way to leave you a review, but if you make it as simple as possible, there’s a good chance they’ll bite. Place links on your website to your review site profiles and include them in various interactions with customers. It’s also ok to provide gentle reminders in your emails and other communications. It takes little effort and can deliver a big return.

Respond

Many business owners make the mistake of responding only to negative reviews. Best practice is to respond to ALL reviews – even if it’s just a quick note to say ‘thank you.’ Remember to personalize each response as much as possible. And for negative reviews, remain professional and positive, and offer a resolution. Even if you lose that customer, your stellar response could win you more business in the future.

In the highly competitive property management realm, finding a way to stand out from the crowd is essential. One way to do this right out of the gate is to build a solid reputation online. This will often be the first impression a prospect will get of your business, so it’s imperative that you do everything within your power to make it a good one.