How to Prevent and Respond to Negative Tenant Reviews

With the availability of online technologies, consumers are trusting online reviews and recommendations more and more. Having an exceptional online reputation is essential for your property management business. Online reviews whether positive or negative affect the reputation of your company.

Negative reviews can be harmful to your property management business, and can lead to loss of prospective clients and revenue. That is why you need to work to prevent any negative reviews and respond to them in the right way. We've put together some of the most actionable tips for handling negative tenant reviews.

Focus on the tenants

The more you and your team focus on your tenants, the stronger your relationship will be with your tenants. It is crucial to communicate and listen to your tenants to understand any issues they are facing whilst living in properties you manage.

The more you communicate with your tenants, the more openly they report issues to you and your team. When you show enough care and attention, they are more likely to keep a property in good condition and leave positive feedback about your service.

Ask for feedback

Asking for feedback via email is another way to prevent the negative feedback. By asking for feedback, you have the chance to address any negative opinions they might have. Addressing the negative feedback and the tenant’s issues early on might just save your online reputation.

Asking for regular feedback is an opportunity to prevent and respond to negative reviews. On the other hand, if the feedback is positive, you can ask them to paste the review on a reputable website like Google or Facebook.

Encourage positive reviews

It is your responsibility to address the tenant’s issues such as maintenance, repairs or offer any other help they need while living in your property. When you provide any help or resolve a maintenance issue, ask the tenant to post a positive review on a legitimate review site.

Resolving the maintenance issues in a timely manner are great opportunities that you can utilise for gaining positive tenant reviews.

Respond to negative reviews quickly

You must keep an eye on company reviews and respond to any negative ones as soon as possible. The best way to check for negative reviews is to set up Google alerts which send you a mail whenever someone mentions your name or your business online.

Once you are notified of a negative review, respond to it and try to fix the tenant’s issue as soon as possible. Make sure you offer to contact the tenant privately to talk in greater detail.

Be empathetic while responding to reviews

While negative reviews are frustrating, you should not take them personally. You should think of it as an opportunity to improve your services and fix the tenant’s issues. It is important to respond to the issues in an empathetic way to calm down frustrated tenants.

This will help you to move tenants in your favour, resolve their issues and make them turn the negative reviews into positive. By responding professionally, you can ask them to remove the negative reviews and post the positive ones.

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