One way to ruin your morning: Reading a one-star review before you've had the chance to finish your coffee.

Sometimes they're inevitable, but many of them are preventable.

Providing an outlet for residents to speak up about their experiences before they head to the world wide web is essential for maintaining your online reputation. So how can on-site teams keep tabs on their residents while also focusing on their never-ending list of daily tasks?

That's where community surveys come in.

For busy leasing teams, distributing online resident satisfaction surveys can be the key to:

• Finding happy residents who will advocate for your community
• Helping to predict if a resident is going to renew their lease
• Discovering unknown issues
• Offering an outlet to unhappy residents before they write a negative review
  
  

Here are a few tips to maximize your survey responses without burdening your on-site leasing team.

Automate surveys with custom triggers

First impressions are everything. And when you have a new resident, it's important to let them know you value their feedback.

Automated survey tools can send short questionnaires to residents based on custom triggers you set. For example, you can send a survey to new residents one month into their lease term to see how they're liking the community. Or a follow-up on a maintenance request after a call has been completed to make sure everything went smoothly.

Automated triggers help ease the burden for your on-site team, or provide insight on the resident experience. Sending a survey ahead of a lease expiring can help your team gauge the likelihood of a lease renewal. They also provide a sheltered space for residents to react honestly without the pressure of submitting a complaint face-to-face.

Other automated triggers for surveys could include move-in, move-out, lease renewal, lease signed, before a lease expires, or after move out.

Find out why prospects choose not to lease

We've all been there. A prospect comes to tour a unit; everything seems to be going well, and then… crickets.

Everyone hates being ghosted. But with surveys, you can get a little more insight on why prospects drop off.

Through your property management software, you can send a survey to unclosed prospects to find out why they didn't submit an application.

Find community advocates (and ask them to write a review)

Surveying residents isn't just for finding problem areas in your community. By proactively asking for feedback you can find your community's biggest advocates.

You can send customized net promoter score (NPS) surveys, and have residents grade their satisfaction for major events like move in or move out experience, or overall satisfaction to help you predict which residents are likely to renew their lease, or submit a referral.

A resident's NPS score can help you determine who is a promoter, and who is a detractor. Your community promoters can turn into positive reviews with a review solicitation tool, which when activated, can automatically ask happy residents to leave a positive apartment review on Google.

On the flip side, surveys help unhappy residents vent about problem areas without announcing it to the metaverse, and helps them feel heard (especially if you take actionable steps to resolve the issue). This can prevent negative reviews from ever going public.

Make surveys accessible with QR codes

Sometimes residents like to provide feedback at their own pace. Perhaps Sally didn't check her email the day you sent a survey request, but she wants to provide feedback a few weeks later.

Generate a QR code for your community survey and post flyers in common areas to collect even more feedback and data. This feature also works well if you're holding events at your community. By utilizing QR codes paired with event organization software, you can gather feedback from residents about the kinds of community events and amenities they are interested in.

Customize surveys to get feedback for anything

Create a custom survey for anything—big or small.

Thinking of adding a new amenity but unsure what the community would want? Ask them! Changing exterior paint color? Poll the community to see which shade they prefer. Debating a change in your community pet policy? See what residents think before releasing the hounds.

Getting residents involved will forge a sense of community and help them feel more connected.

What are some other ways you've used surveys in your community? Let me know in the comments!