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Few apartment marketers would question the benefits of having a positive online reputation in 2016. Study after study confirms that review websites play a critical role in the online decision making process, and negative online reputations can inflict some serious damage on those who do not act fast.

But this isn’t another article about why you need online reputation management for apartment communities.

Rather, it’s about how you can improve your properties’ online reputations through a DIY approach that requires little to no work.

Here’s the story…

Roughly two months ago, one of our Project Managers (hi, Megan) noticed a dramatic uptick in the amount of reviews one of her clients was receiving. Astonished with the results, she quickly called the client to see if she could find a cause.

As it turns out, the client had recently started an initiative where property managers began leaving resident review cards out during community social events. They also slipped the review cards under residents’ doors after maintenance requests were completed. That’s it. And these simple measures yielded incredible results.

Take a look for yourself.

The chart above compares the average amount of reviews individual properties received in the first quarter of 2016 (January – March) with the total amount of reviews those properties received during the month of April. The average increase across all properties was nearly 1140 percent, while the highest increase was nearly 4450 percent! And not a single property saw an increase less than 274 percent.

Here’s a look at the star ratings.

This chart looks at the changes in star ratings for the same properties over the same period of time. Star ratings increased by 37.29 percent on average, which is roughly equivalent to two stars.

While it should be noted that three of these properties received a lower rating during the study period, all of them had five-star reviews prior to April and any star rating less than five would pull down the average. Not one of these properties saw a rating less than 4.5 stars.

Throughout this time period, Grubb maintained control of each properties’ reputation via Respage’s online reputation management service. This service made sure that each review was carefully monitored, and that each review received a response. Each response was carefully curated by our team of public relations specialists and approved by the property prior to posting.