Every property manager knows that good tenants improve profitability. A new report prepared by the experts at Reputation.com proves that customer service matters when it comes to attracting and retaining the best tenants.
Reputation.com, the first and only complete reputation and customer experience management platform, compiled data from more than 400,000 tenant reviews on the most popular rental review sites, 
including Google, ApartmentGuide.com, ApartmentRatings.com, Apartments.com, Facebook, and Rent.com. Its 2018 Property Management Reputation Report reveals how important customer service is when it comes to tenant reviews.
The research shows that more than a third of all comments were on service-related topics. Three of the top five review categories were related to service levels: customer service, rental office and maintenance. Of the reviews analyzed, people commented most on categories including staff, maintenance, responsiveness, and pest control.
“The results show just how seriously property managers should take their level of service when trying to attract and retain tenants,” said Michael Fertik, CEO and founder of Reputation.com. “The fact that more than a third of comments on review sites touched on the issue of service indicates that tenants are not only thinking about it but also talking about it.”
Online reviews indicate that courteous, friendly property management is more important to tenants than the location of the property. Community events are more important than on-site amenities like a gym or pool. Pest control showed up frequently as a major concern of tenants. Reputation.com experts point out that the cost of pest control is insignificant compared to the costs of a bad online reputation.
Positive reviews often include words such as event, activity, community, helpful, maintain, neighborhood, team, staff, environment, and feel/feeling, whereas negative reviews commonly included words like hole, roach, mold, lie, refuse, bed bug, deposit, charge, damage, smell, fee, leak, break, money, pay, fix, and day notice.
The report also provides valuable information about the review sites themselves. For instance, Google reviewers tend to be the most critical, although, overall landlords do reasonably well, with an average 3.7-star rating. However, Google is growing in popularity exponentially. By the end of this year, Reputation.com expects Google to have more reviews than any other site, making it vital for property managers to monitor and manage these reviews.
The damage from a negative online reputation is difficult to measure because a landlord will never know which tenants they lost. But it’s a simple fact: bad reviews lead to bad tenants.
This post is provided by Tenant Verification Service, Inc., helping landlords reduce the risks of renting with fraud prevention tools that include Tenant Screening, Tenant Background Checks, (U.S. and Canada), as well as Criminal Background Checks, and Eviction Reports (U.S. only).
Click Here to Receive Landlord Credit Reports.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is not intended to be construed as legal advice, nor should it be considered a substitute for obtaining individual legal counsel or consulting your local, state, federal or provincial tenancy laws.
