Keeping all of your residents happy is the goal of every property manager, but this realistically is impossible. Often residents end up going through negative experiences whether it is by mistakes made by employees, something wrong with their apartment, or sometimes just bad management decisions—yours or someone else’s.

Upset residents are quite capable of rapidly spreading the word and tarnishing the reputation of a community. Regardless of the reason, the reputation of your community can go sour when something negative is posted on an apartment review site and it becomes instantly visible in search engine results.

According to the 2012 Managing Customer Experience Survey, there is a correlation between actual delivery of customer experiences and impact on brand reputation and strength.

I was inspired to write this blog while returning home from a recent trip to Branson, Missouri. This is a true story of a management team that is focused on turning around their bad  reputation and making lemonade out of sour lemons! 

1. Sifting Through the Mess

Our family decided to start a new Thanksgiving tradition this year. Our plan was to load up into our motorhome and head for Silver Dollar City, in Branson, Missouri. The kids were really excited about the idea of enjoying the rides and the attractions at the “Old Time Christmas” festival. I was charged with locating the “perfect” campground. We had a long list of “must haves,” such as an indoor pool, free shuttle to Silver Dollar City, playground, etc. After an hour of research, I realized we had one option that fit all of our needs.

I immediately began reading customer reviews. Everywhere I turned I found a split bag of reviews—very positive and terrible. The detective in me had to get to the bottom of this so I began to dig and read, dig and read. In a short period of time the light bulb went off and I realized what the problem was. They had a management/owner change! Sound familiar? Yes, it was pretty clear—the customers loved the original owners, hated the ones in-between, and the new ones are sifting through the mess and mending the wounds.

Here are the three individual reviews that summed it all up for me. If I took the time I could probably pinpoint the exact dates that the management changed—it was that obvious.

• Original Owners- This campground is clean and a safe place to take your family. The people that work here are friendly and caring. The Sims family and Tracy are great people.
• In-Between Owners- Don't plan on coming back and will not be recommending this place to anyone. First off, unfriendly staff from the main office to the cleaning people, Pool closed early and the park is dirty. It was nice many years ago but went over the cliff in poor service. We will be finding a new place to stay during our weeks of vacations. Their loss!!! Won’t be coming back!!
• Current Owners- We were very much surprised with how cute this little cabin was! The layout was great, and the screened in porch with table and chairs out front was really nice in the evenings. AND we even got a free shuttle ride to and from Silver Dollar City, any time of day we wanted. The cabin and campground are clean, and welcoming. I even got a kick out of watching the guy in the little golf cart that chases cars down to make sure they are supposed to be there, lol. I tried a little humor with the desk staff, since some of the reviews I read offered very negative remarks about the staff, it was well received. Overall we enjoyed our stay, and would recommend this spot to our friends, and family.

Situations like this are unfortunate but not uncommon, especially in property management. I spent many years working for a fee management company and I found that being open and honest was the best policy during the apartment community transition process. I openly addressed issues one-by-one rather than burying them and just claiming “we are the new guys in town.” While we wish bad customer reviews would be erased when the new team takes over—this is just not the case. 

The online reviews reflected the story perfectly!

2. Cleaning Up the Mess

It takes time to clean up sour reviews and turn around a bad reputation.

1. Before you repair the damage, you need to know the cause of the problem. Determine the cause of the negative reviews and bad reputation.

• Clearly the problem at this campground was the in-between management and the decisions they made. This was confirmed through online reviews and in-person feedback.

2. Announce positive changes. Announce any positive changes that you’ve made. The   best way to convince people that your community does not reflect your bad reputation is to clearly contradict the negative with any positive changes that you’ve made.

• The staff at this campground responded online to several of the good and bad reviews on TripAdvisor in a very respectful manner. Their responses were very professional, honest, and additionally offered off line discussions to the customers. Their involvement, “we care” attitude, and transparent written responses to the good and bad online reviews gave me the confidence I needed to look past all of the bad stuff and book our stay. Things that make you go hmmm...

3. Focus on satisfaction. The way your customers perceive the changes you make depends on the level of customer service you provide. Overcoming a bad reputation requires you to give your full attention to the customer—and sometimes more. This means helping the customer and ensuring he is satisfied even after he leaves.

• The temperature dropped 30 degrees our last night at Silver Dollar City. When “Charlie” our shuttle driver arrived, he made sure that it was nice and warm in the vehicle for our children. Upon returning to the campground, instead of dropping us off at their scheduled location (the management office) he drove us right to our motorhome.
• The next day we were running behind and ended up checking out at 1pm instead of 11am. The manager waived the additional charges for a late check-out.

4. Reveal the bad and replace it with the good. Ask customers for their opinion about your community and their experience following each transaction. This can be accomplished through online surveying tools and other methods. Most important is that you reveal your community’s strengths and weaknesses so that you can more efficiently drive business process improvement. Sometimes this information can be raw and painful to read. Avoid taking it personally—it’s not! If a large majority of customers have the same concerns and complaints, look to make more changes to meet the customer’s expectations. Communicate changes and encourage positive press!

• After telling the campground staff about our great experience they encouraged us to share it online. They once again acknowledged the past mistakes and the great efforts they were making to turn it around.  I felt compelled to write a good review to offset the bad ones. I was not alone.

5. Show the customer your appreciation. It doesn't have to be much. We received a thank you email note upon our return home.

At the end of the day, there’s a lot of lemonade to be made from sour reviews. They can add credibility to your positive reviews, and perhaps most important, negative reviews give your team a chance to respond and show how totally awesome you really are!

So, the next time your community gets slammed on a review site, be it legitimate complaints or crazy residents, don't ignore the negativity and the potential bad reputation it might lead to. Instead, look for ways to offset the negative with the positive—just like this team is doing.

Make lemonade out of lemons.