More and more apartment communities are taking their online reputation seriously. And with good reason: today's prospects rely heavily on review sites like Google, Facebook and Yelp when shopping for the next apartment home. A series of negative comments – or even one scathing review – could be enough to scare them away.

Unfortunately, there's no quick and easy route to a good online reputation. Building and maintaining one requires a multi-pronged approach and a day-in, day-out commitment on the part of your team.

Below are some suggested tactics that can help create a positive online reputation.

• Make them feel welcome.  When new residents move in, consider greeting them with a welcome card and gift basket. This may seem like a simple step, but it's one that can pay big dividends by making renters immediately feel at home and appreciated.

• Respond promptly to service requests. Residents are bound to be stressed when something in their home isn't working. And they're primed to get extremely angry when a community doesn't respond to their service requests in a timely manner.

When service requests come in, maintenance personnel have to respond as soon as possible and – just as important – they have to keep the resident constantly updated on the status of the request.

• Communicate constantly. Communication is important in all aspects of apartment life, not just service requests.

If the pool is going to be closed for a certain reason or a parking lot is going to be off-limits because of repaving, residents need to know well in advance. Don't leave them with any unpleasant surprises. Residents must always be in the loop about what's going on.

• Regularly survey residents. Conduct surveys to measure and benchmark resident satisfaction and to learn about what aspects of community life they may be upset about. Most importantly, take their feedback seriously and, when appropriate, take action to address their concerns. For example, if residents are consistently complaining about the condition of equipment in the fitness center, perhaps it's time to consider some upgrades.

• Eliminate security deposits. Anger about the small amount of their security deposit refund (or anger about getting no refund at all) is the motivating factor behind many negative online reviews.

In addition to fueling these reviews, security deposits are a consistent source of administrative hassle for onsite teams. Given all this, some apartment communities are taking the bold step of eliminating security deposits. 

At the very least, communities should work diligently to manage residents' expectations about their security deposit refund. Give them an idea – both when they're paying the deposit and again when they're nearing move-out – of what the average refund looks like at your community. Explain the reasons why charges are typically deducted from a refund. Provide a checklist of the steps residents need to take to maximize their chances of getting the refund they want.

• Respond thoughtfully and quickly to online reviews. Central to any reputation management effort should be the aim to respond to all online reviews – negative and positive – within a short period of time, ideally 24 hours.

As for the content of responses to negative reviews, operators have to avoid defensiveness and anger. Show compassion for the resident's situation and outline what you have done and what you will do to address their concerns. Also critical: always tell the truth.

Many operators have outsourced their review responses to third parties to ensure prompt and professional responses and to avoid overburdening already busy onsite associates.

• Don’t neglect comments on resident apps. Just like online review response, it is equally important to respond quickly and with empathy and action to comments residents post to your community app bulletin board or resident portal. A disgruntled resident who feels as though their complaint wasn’t taken seriously on an internal communication platform can escalate their frustrations to a more public platform.

In the end, a great online reputation is the result of many steps – large and small – apartment communities take each and every day. Dedicate yourself to providing a great experience for prospects and residents alike, and the online feedback is bound to be positive.