Shooting For Stars The Ever-Increasing Importance Of Reputation Management BY ERICA SHATZER
Joan Jett didn’t give a darn about her bad reputation, but you may find yourself out of business if you share her attitude. This gener- ation values unsolicited reviews from real customers and uses them to make informed purchasing decisions for just about everything, including where to store their belongings. And since customers are more likely to tell others about a negative experience than a positive one, and the internet makes it easier for them to disclose their unsatisfactory incidents with the masses, effectively managing your business’ reputation is more important than ever before.
Online Reviews “Reviews are the new word of mouth,” says Melissa Stiles, MBA, chief marketing officer of Storage Asset Management, adding that reviews could entice or negatively affect someone to rent from your facility. “When searching for a storage unit, it builds a percep- tion with the potential tenant before even visiting your website or calling. Ninety percent of consumers read reviews before making a purchasing decision, and storage is no different.”
Indeed, we’ve grown accustomed to rating
products, services, people, and places through the internet. We also look for a certain number of reviews and stars when making selections. Here are a few other relevant statistics:
• A Salsify report states that consumers expect an average of 112 reviews before making a decision.
• According to Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center, the “sweet spot” is between 4.2 and 4.5 stars; reviews within that range are more likely to influence purchases than five-star reviews due to consumer skepticism about perfection.
• Reviewtrackers’ data shows that 70 percent of customers use rating filters when searching for businesses. Four stars is the most common filter applied for searches, meaning companies with 3.9 stars or less won’t be included in the results.
Potential self-storage customers,
however, base their purchasing decisions on “geography first, then quality,” says Ed Hainrihar, vice president of operations for The Amsdell Companies, which oper- ates facilities under the name Compass Self Storage. Search engines give results based on a “self-storage near me” query, then the person needing storage sifts through the various options in their area to find a location that meets their indi- vidual standards.
Unfortunately for operators, those
search results could actually be detri- mental to your business. As Hainrihar notes, customers aren’t seeing your facil- ity’s score alone. The fact that they can compare your star rating and reviews to other facilities in the area can cast a negative shadow on your own reputa- tion if those properties have more stars and/or better reviews. Therefore, it’s in every operator’s best interest to monitor their reviews, respond to feedback, make improvements, and request reviews from customers who’ve had positive experi- ences at your self-storage facility.
Respond To Feedback “Consumers want to engage with compa- nies that have positive reviews and are responsive to both positive and negative reviews,” says Guy Middlebrooks, senior vice president of third-party manage- ment for CubeSmart Self Storage. The REIT uses several online tools to monitor
reviews, social media interactions, and NPS (Net Promoter Score) survey responses to “understand our existing customers’ sentiment about CubeSmart.” Like many businesses these days, CubeSmart has alerts set up to notify them of negative posts. “We also use AI to discover common trends in customer feedback.”
Other companies utilize online reputa-
tion management tools that integrate with property management software systems, such as Reputation. Although an opera- tor with one or two facilities can likely manage customer feedback on their own, Hainrihar says that the need to use a repu- tation management tool increases with the number of properties in one’s portfolio.
Regardless of how many facilities you
operate, the need to respond to customer feedback in a timely fashion is of utmost importance, especially when it comes to negative reviews. Hainrihar suggests responding to them as quickly as possible. “Immediately,” he says about the response time frame; if not as soon as they are posted, they should at least be addressed “within hours.”
When responding to negative feed-
back, there is some etiquette to keep in mind. “You don’t ever want to be defensive, combative, or negative in any response,” says Candice Puzak, director of marketing for Guardian Storage. “Guide the conversation offline to determine the
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